“I will not budge”

For daring to call a Muslim cleric in Kurdistan "a terrorist,” the spunky Awat Darya was sued, imprisoned for half a day, tried in court on May 3, 2018 and ultimately released when her husband Jamal Mohammed furnished a bail amount of IQD 500,000 (USD 418 or Rs 28,000).
Nearly 15 months prior, Mulla Hassib had allegedly declared in a press interview that Zoroastrian and other converts in Kurdistan should return to Islam within three days or be killed. Incited by his remark, Darya had publicly accused him of being "like an ISIS.” Being the Zoroastrian representative in the ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, she had complained to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) expecting action to be taken against him. However, over a year later Darya was prosecuted and during the court trial when the judge asked her whether she regretted the accusation, an unrepentant Darya reportedly told the judge, "I will call anyone who threatens to kill Zoroastrians a terrorist.”
Reporting on the court trial, her mentor Faraydon Karim, shared the details via email: The judge wanted her to swear on the Quran but she had carried her copy of the Gathas. When the judge read a few of Prophet Mohammad’s verses, she reportedly told him, "I have respect for your religion and all other religions… My religion teaches me to have the best character.”
Whilst her lawyer feared that both of them would be imprisoned, she further told the judge, "It is a shame on you and the court for bringing me here to put me on trial while I am defending the Kurds, your culture, your heritage, your forefathers’ good religion… I wish one day all of you wake up and… return to your old glory… Ahura will take back (those) who promise to be good thinkers, good speakers and good doers.”
In a subsequent email, Darya who is more conversant in Kurdish, Arabic and Dutch than in English wrote, "My lawyer and friends said ‘you are brave, you are the lioness of the Zoroastrians.’ I have to confess I am neither brave nor a lioness, I only defended my Zoroastrians… I will continue that forever as long as I have my faculties. I am dedicated to this path and I have promised Zartusht that I will hold the torch as long as I am alive… When I started, I realized I am in a dangerous area called the Middle East. Kurdistan is filled with Zoroastrian remains everywhere…
"I promise all Zoroastrians I will not budge…even if my life becomes threatened. I am not a confrontational person… In reality, many times my car was vandalized, tyres flattened, windshield broken… They threaten me on the media, they send porn videos to insult me. I brushed them off and did not complain so my fellow Zoroastrians don’t get frightened. But if any Zoroastrian gets hurt or threatened, I will put my life on the line to protect them. The (oppressive) people need to be stopped now and here otherwise they will continue… the atrocities…”

From left: Faraydon Karim, Awat Darya, Mariwan Kakashikh

A resident of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, from where she had come to attend the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress (11WZC) in Perth in June 2018, along with her husband and three other Kurd delegates, in a brief chat with Parsiana Darya mentioned that she was exposed to Zoroastrianism from the time she was a seven-year-old child. Being the eldest of four siblings, her father Husamaden Tayb would give her daily lessons in chess and the Gathas but had cautioned her not to disclose her Zoroastrian lineage.
After her education in Baghdad and the Netherlands, she started work on her library. At the time of its launch, a television journalist spotted a silver asho farohar around her neck and asked her questions, she recalls. At official functions now addressed by Darya, she is always seen in a long white gown with a thick red sash around her waist to signify the kusti. Her husband and children are also Zoroastrians, she mentions.
Karim who is based in Texas but returns to Kurdistan twice a year to connect with his family told Parsiana that on one of his regular lecture tours Darya approached him, seeking more knowledge on Zoroastrianism. Convinced of her sincerity, he tutored her and both of them now spread the message of Zoroastrianism and endeavor to save Zoroastrian artefacts. A talk by the late Prof Kaikhosrov Irani of the City College, New York inspired Karim to accept Zoroastrianism. Instead of the kusti, Zoroastrians in Kurdistan wear the sacred belt, he states. When he accepted the Zoroastrian religion, he tied it on himself, he mentions.
Strategizing the activities of Zoroastrians in Kurdistan, when addressing the delegates at the 11WZC, Karim invited co-religionists to their area to show that "we are not alone.” Besides hoping to raise money for a meeting place in Syria, he was hoping to find translators from English and Farsi to Kurdish.
Through the Yasna Zoroastrian Organization both Karim and Darya have been publicly creating awareness of Kurdistan’s Zoroastrian lineage. Social welfare projects too are undertaken with zeal and commitment. On behalf of Yasna, at the Congress, felicitations were offered to Ali Jafarey, "the spiritual father of Kurdish Zoroastrians,” and some other supporters from North America like Homi Gandhi, Dr Dolly Dastoor and Fariborz Rahnamoon.
A staunch vegetarian, Darya also leads a program to save puppies from being mercilessly butchered saying cruelty to animals is haram (forbidden) in Zoroastrianism, not halal (permissible). "We must be strong. Not afraid to do good,” reinforces Darya.
In his brief address at the 11WZC, the minister of religion in the People’s Congress of Kurdistan, Mariwan Kakashikh said, "Awat is putting her life in danger. She needs everyone’s support.” According to him, Kurdistan has 18 provinces of which only three permit Zoroastrians to profess their faith freely. "We believe Prophet Zarathushtra is one of our prophets. Thousands of children in Kurdistan are named Zartusht.”