Readers' Forum
Room for introspection
Room for introspection
At the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress held in Bombay in December 2013 Ketayun Kapadia, president of FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) blamed Parsis for the declining values amongst their children. "We have an abysmal record of education. If there is anyone who is to be blamed, it is the parents. We should institutionalize youth to roots.”
I am sure there is some truth in this statement but there is also a lot of room for introspection in the leadership in the USA, and at FEZANA in particular.
A huge proportion of all young Zoroastrians in the USA are in live-in relationships or "shacking up” as they say. The number of such couples has increased since then because there is acceptance of this attitude, being termed environmental.
They have failed to teach sex education, or learn parenting skills, or teaching ethics to young people, calling it a parental responsibility.
We as parents have attended parenting classes and sent our children for sex education on graduating from high school as our Zoroastrian associations did not provide these services.
Adults and board members in the USA do not wear the sudreh and kusti or lead by example by doing the kusti when entering a darbe meher or even washing their hands with water. Is this the way to lead children to their roots? What examples are we setting?
It is quite common to see Zoroastrian youth in America involved in excessive drinking, smoking and Parsi youth from India lying.
It is common among Indian politicians to blame the USA for the Devyani Khobragade incident in which an Indian diplomat was accused of visa fraud in the USA vis-a-vis her maid and for the USA to call Edward Snowden, former member of the Central Intelligence Agency, a traitor, when he is a whistleblower and has created a need for the change in how the national security agency works.
The inter marriage rate in the USA is twice that in Bombay. Why? Are there no good, ethical educated Zoroastrian mates available in the USA?
At the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress held in Bombay in December 2013 Ketayun Kapadia, president of FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) blamed Parsis for the declining values amongst their children. "We have an abysmal record of education. If there is anyone who is to be blamed, it is the parents. We should institutionalize youth to roots.”
I am sure there is some truth in this statement but there is also a lot of room for introspection in the leadership in the USA, and at FEZANA in particular.
A huge proportion of all young Zoroastrians in the USA are in live-in relationships or "shacking up” as they say. The number of such couples has increased since then because there is acceptance of this attitude, being termed environmental.
They have failed to teach sex education, or learn parenting skills, or teaching ethics to young people, calling it a parental responsibility.
We as parents have attended parenting classes and sent our children for sex education on graduating from high school as our Zoroastrian associations did not provide these services.
Adults and board members in the USA do not wear the sudreh and kusti or lead by example by doing the kusti when entering a darbe meher or even washing their hands with water. Is this the way to lead children to their roots? What examples are we setting?
It is quite common to see Zoroastrian youth in America involved in excessive drinking, smoking and Parsi youth from India lying.
It is common among Indian politicians to blame the USA for the Devyani Khobragade incident in which an Indian diplomat was accused of visa fraud in the USA vis-a-vis her maid and for the USA to call Edward Snowden, former member of the Central Intelligence Agency, a traitor, when he is a whistleblower and has created a need for the change in how the national security agency works.
The inter marriage rate in the USA is twice that in Bombay. Why? Are there no good, ethical educated Zoroastrian mates available in the USA?
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