“So they say”

I am really disheartened to read Goolrookh Gupta’s comments in "So they say” (Parsiana, April 21, 2012). Women are highly respected in our community and are never "treated like cattle.” Imagine telling her children, "Those who abuse it (the religion) are the problem.” When girls willingly marry outside the fold knowing well what they are going in for, why blame the community later?
Knowing well their duty toward religion, of increasing the Parsi population, it is persons who marry out who are abusing it. The religion is thousands of years old and would have long since perished had our ancestors continued to live in Iran and been converted.
Today, as far as I know, girls change their surnames, their culture and their faith to adjust to the man they are marrying. If one marries an orthodox Muslim, one would even have to wear a burkha. And talking about rights, how many non-Parsi husbands and families would let their children be converted?
Gupta knowingly abuses the principles and then tries to prove that she is right. What is the logic, if any? It would be like: I disrespect the fire by smoking, yet I am a true Parsi. I talk ill about the rites being performed, yet I am a true Parsi. I willingly, knowingly, marry out of the fold, yet I am a true Parsi. I do not want to learn and practice its tenets, yet I am a true Parsi. I do not want to inculcate this into my children, yet I am a true Parsi. I know not what my culture, Parsipanu is, yet I am a true Parsi.
ARMIN DUTIA MOTASHAW
Ahmedabad
armindutiamotashaw@gmail.com