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On March 2nd I was invited to speak at the Tillman chapel housed at the U.N. in New York City. The chapel is an ecumenical chapel that serves the extremely diverse U.N. community.
How it happened
The occasion was International Women's Day; the context was the annual CSW — (Commission on the Status of Women) conference that attracts delegates from 80 countries. The themes for this year's conference were two-fold:
- Equal participation of men and women in decision making.
- Enabling environments in development, health and education.
When I heard the themes, I decided to respond to Kathleen Stone's e-mails and phone-calls. She, the chaplain at the U.N, had contacted me to be a speaker on a panel of inter-faith women where the topic was women who were wrestling with the tensions between their political aspirations and their religious traditions.
Having just had a root canal (I was dribbling and drooling for a day or two) I was not interested in taking on yet another project. My full-time job was sending me to Chicago, I was in the final four weeks of putting together a documentary that I had been working on for three, long years, and had read enough Oprah articles to learn how to say "no" graciously and politely.
However, Kathleen was not taking "No" for an answer — she convinced me to speak on her panel and I had to agree after she mentioned the two themes —After all, wasn't Zarathushtra one of the first environmentalists and the Gathas are full of beautiful passages that point to the equality of the sexes.
After agreeing, true panic set in! Me — speaking at the U.N? Gasp! Groucho Marx's phrase of not wanting to belong to any club that accepted him as a member ran through my mind several times.
After a few frantic calls to Dina McIntyre, the angel, and some internet research, I felt adequately prepared to answer the questions. I was also excited to be able to show some clips, from my first film, "In the Footsteps of our Forefathers" where a bunch of us women, questioned why we could not become priests, at a temple in Iran.
The Day Dawns
March second, rolled around and it was a rainy, icy, miserable day. "Aha — they are going to cancel" — was my first reaction — but that did not happen.
I was joined on the podium by three other women representing Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It was a terrific learning experience. There were about 80 people in the audience. Homi Gandhi, the President of ZAGNY attended. He had been instrumental in having me speak at the event. Other friendly faces included Ayesha Ghadialy who had accompanied me to Iran, Zia Bhaisa, my third (or is it fourth?) cousin and my wonderful aunt - Dinaz Boga. A lot of my non Zoroastrian friends and co-workers also attended. It was really gratifying to hear people, that I have known for over five years, say that they learnt more about my faith in the one hour that we spent together at the U.N. than in the history of our friendship.
My presentation began with a brief overview of Zoroastrianism that touched on our history and theology. I stressed the fact that it is not a prescriptive religion where there is a set of rules to follow — but a religion based on free will and choice. I followed this with passages from the Gathas and Venidad and pointed out the changes in the status of women over the years. I also spoke about the difference between a Parsi and a Zoroastrian and mentioned that some groups in the West are training women to become para-mobeds.
The exchange of ideas and philosophies continued at a wonderful reception on the 8th floor of the building. The shrimp and brie cheese were fantastic; and the view of the Manhattan sky-line above the East river definitely lent itself to lofty conversation.
Submitted by
Tenaz H. Dubash
www.tenazdubash.com
Tenaz is a documentary film-maker and social worker based in NYC.
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