Encouraging women

Endeavor by the Zoroastrian Women’s International Network (ZWIN) to empower female members of the community was summarized in the presentations in a breakaway room at the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress on December 29, 2013. ZWIN prefers to steer clear of politicized orthodox-liberal camp controversies and so "does not care which side you belong to.”
A virtual organization with no officebearers, ZWIN levies no membership fees. On the panel were Zareen Karani Araoz, Dolly Dastoor, Katayun Kapadia — all founding members — Roshan Rivetna and youth representative Binaifer Daji. Dinshaw Tamboly, a trustee of the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds which is one of the partners that sustains ZWIN with donations, was there as a well-wisher who has used his "out reaching connections” to help in the Poona project talked of later, Dastoor informed us. Daji, in her twenties, was the youth panelist. Daji extended an invitation to the youth to avail of their service offerings in a brief presentation as all the speakers were acutely aware of time constraints and restricted themselves to the total half hour allotted to them.

Set up in 2000 at Houston, USA, ZWIN is a global forum which links intergenerational Zarathushti women to enable them "to reach their full potential and work actively towards promoting the exchange of ideas in all relevant social, educational and community issues in 16 countries, their website states.
In India, ZWIN extends financial assistance to women and has also launched a pilot program in Poona for assisting the vulnerable elderly. Araoz informed the gathering about their undertaking to assist women financially. Two examples were cited: The loan extended to a lady for transportation of flowers from Neral, Maharashtra to her customers throughout the country, was returned in 22 months instead of the 24, permitted as per the loan conditions. Another woman received a loan to buy a freezer for her business.
Not just stopping at creating entrepreneurs, ZWIN mentors young rookies entering the commercial world and addresses issues where Zoroastrian students away from home feel lost and helps them integrate in the existing community. They currently have a Zoroastrian international students’ network in 30 cities worldwide. Rivetna shared that "doing good is not a duty but a joy, which helps us and others.”
Rivetna also stated that though they do not want to get in the thick of the "matrimonial stuff,” they encourage people to be in touch with each other "in a discreet, confidential way.” They do not maintain details and insights on anyone. She may be contacted at rrivetna@aol.com.
Dastoor narrated how they want to change mindsets so that the elderly are not sent to community homes. ZWIN also wants to maximize on existing facilities that baugs offer to create activity centers for the ageing community in Bombay. In addition, the voluntary organization wants "prevention (proactive) programs like encouraging gym usage and keeping minds active. With the threat of cancer in the community, they also want to circulate mobile vans for cancer detection in various places,” Dastoor informed the audience.
The group runs religious classes for adults and children in the US. There are 23 children who are taking advantage of this facility – the youngest aged three. The emphasis is on history of the religion, prayers and their translations. Non-Zoroastrians are also included.
"If you want to secure the future, how we bring up our children is important,” Dastoor said. So that children take the religious classes seriously, "we ensure that kids complete what is given to them as projects.” To continue the interest created, they want to be creative, interactive and participatory.