“Conversion by marriage”

I refer to your Editorial Viewpoint ("Conversion by marriage,” Parsiana, April 7, 2012) as well as Berjis Desai’s legally worded "Orthodox victory” in the same issue.
Without claiming to know our religious scriptures or law, I wish to raise a very simple question: For initiating a girl into our religion (performing her navjote), only one criterion is required, that both her parents be Parsis (Only her father need be a Parsi — editors). Having been born to both Parsi parents, having a Parsi bloodline and after being navjoted, how can a woman’s ethnicity or religious status change when she marries a non-Parsi? Is not being a Parsi her birthright? How can she be stopped from following the religion into which she has been born and initiated? By whom can this be done, and on whose authority? How can the woman prove that she has maintained her religion? Why is no such proof required from those who do not marry outside?
I feel that the honorable judges have not addressed this simple issue from a commonsense point of view in the Gookrookh Gupta case.

KERSEE KABRAJI
Poona
kerseekabraji@gmail.com