This beautiful Parsi family, originally hails from Multan. Where, their family name 'Bomanji' serves as a milestone. There is a prominent square in their name, 'Bomanji chowk', in cantonment area, next to their ancestral home. Now, an enormous plaza, 'Bomanji square' is also being constructed. An exquisite masterpiece of classic architecture, which speaks volumes about, how this name has transcended history and is to grace the future of the city of saints.
Zeneshe is the daughter of Havovie and Peshotan Bomanji. A couple, well loved and admired by Multani-ites. Their children, spent their early childhood in Multan. But as Havovie is a British national as well, the family decided to educate Zara, Zeneshe and Zahan, back in Britain.
The sensitive, little, patriotic Zeneshe kept defending Pakistan, whenever somebody pointed a finger at it. She loved her country and always wanted to present the positive side, of the land of her parents and grand parents to the world. She remained in search of such chance, when she could talk to a bigger audience, specially to her class mates and school fellows.Finally, one day she discovered there was a speech competition at her school, with a topic;
" It's Far More than That"
And that was it. She immediately decided to speak about Pakistan is 'far more' than how the world perceives it. She went through several rounds and came out as a winner. Also, secured first prize in the final declamation contest. She convinced everybody in the audience about the positive features of Pakistan that many of them, including the judges and the chief guest of the contest, walked up to her mother and admired her patriotism.
Following is the speech of this little girl. Which is sure going to provide many Pakistanis living abroad, points to speak in favor of their country. And even more, inspire a spirit of patriotism, if a twelve years old can defend her with words, there is a lot that others can do.
Zeneshe's speech
Good Evening Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen!
How many of you associate Pakistan with violence, terrorists and bomb blasts? Well, don’t get me wrong Pakistan has it's dark side like any other country, but there is much more to this country than the media hyped stereotypes.
So, I’m on a mission to prove that Pakistan is not just a country of hard-line Islamic fundamentalists, terror training camps, subjugated women and cricket cheats. It’s far more than that.
Just to let you know that even though I’m from Pakistan, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have a gun in my pocket, I am not planning on blowing up your home or school and no, I did not know Osama Bin Laden! And yes, these are all things I have been accused of, albeit in semi jest since Primary School. ( Audience broke into laughter, as Neshu delivered those lines with cool, calm, dry humour, that had people listening so intently you could feel the atmosphere in the auditorium change)
So, let me now tell you what I see in Pakistan. And what I have witnessed to be true. It is a land of stark contrasts where extreme wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Top brand designer stores, 5 star hotels, private beaches, luxury homes and affluence co exist with beggars, perpetual daily electricity cuts, overcrowded slum areas and squalor.
All women do not walk around wearing a long black bed sheet, a burka.... And nooooo, women do not have to walk 10 paces behind a man or obey his every command, very far from it !
Pakistan has several female politicians with the most famous of them all being Benezir Bhutto who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms .
Women head up major international companies, and excel in the highly competitive corporate, business, medical and fashion fields to name but a few. Many women wear western clothing, or their highly fashionable national dress, the shalvar kameez and Pakistan’s fashion industry is at a all time high with original designs from young and older designers making their fashion mark.
Educated women from liberal homes are not always forced into arranged marriages but many can date and choose their own partners in their own time. If anything some women have become so successful and strong that some of the more insecure men find them rather intimidating ! (Again, another round of laughter erupted)
Pakistan is a nation where family and friends are loved and the elderly are respected. Elderly people are not sent to live in nursing homes, but are kept at home and looked after with love in their own familiar surroundings.
Pakistani hospitality is legendary, no simple cup of tea and a biscuit, if you are invited round. A full blown dinner will almost always be laid on no matter who you are and Pakistan’s social scene is one that would be hard to beat anywhere ! Even if out in the countryside and walking through a village, the poorest of the poor would invite you in to share a meal with them and whats more, they consider it a blessing to do so.
Pakistan is a cricketing nation. Yes, we have been accused of cheating, but in all honesty, which country has not been guilty of that one, even if they were never caught!
Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup championship with the charismatic Imran Khan as their Captain. The Pakistan Cricket team also won the ICC World 20/20 tournament in 2009.
On Pakistan's 1992 tour of England, England had no answer to the reverse swing, a new phenomenon to them. Pakistan won the series 2–1. The series was controversial one as the Pakistani team were accused of ball tampering, particularly being discriminated against by the English media. However, it was later proved that the Pakistani bowlers were simply ahead of their time with their reverse swing creation. Sadly, the media show Pakistan in a permanently poor light. It’s like showing parts of run down Brixton and saying this is how the whole of England is, of course it isn’t and likewise neither is Pakistan.
Yes, a fundamentalist element is there but it is a small minority and not a true reflection of the honest, hardworking Pakistani on the street. Sadly, the violent actions of the few, impact on the nation as a whole.The average Pakistani abhors violence and they are victims of terrorism themselves, but the media declines to highlight this.
There is so much more I could say but time doesn’t permit me. I have tried to show you Pakistan in a very different light from the one the media exposes. If your opinion on Pakistan has changed even slightly, then my mission is accomplished. Thank you all for taking the time to listen to my speech this evening"
Despite being one of the smallest ethnic and religious communities in the country, Parsis organise many social gatherings and religious festivals, of which the most significant is Nowruz, the start of the Persian New Year.
Most of these events don’t get covered by the mainstream media. But for the past many years the KZBM has been publishing a monthly newsletter, titled ‘What’s On’, which covers these occasions as well as publishes profiles of notable Parsis from across the globe to highlight their achievements.
“Most of our events are community focused and small-scale and slip under the media radar which is running after bigger stories to cover,” said Dilaira. “Apart from that, the only time the media thinks about Zoroastrians is when it’s Navroze and you have to do a mandatory story to fill the pages.”
The first elected mayor of Karachi, namely Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, was a Parsi and is known as the founder of modern Karachi. “The community has established a number of hospitals, educational institutes, hotels and architectural relics that still add exclusiveness to Karachi’s historical landscape.”
They include the Mama Parsi schools, the NED (Nadirshaw Edulji Dinshaw) Engineering College, the DJ (Dayaram Jethmal) Science College, the BVS (Bai Virbaiji Soparivala) Parsi High School, the Dow Medical College, the Karachi Parsi Institute, the Goolbanoo & Dr Burjor Anklesaria Nursing Home, and the Metropole, Beach Luxury and Avari hotels.
Had the members of Pakistan’s Parsi community started leaving the country earlier, Karachi would have been deprived of its premier medical college, its most important engineering university, some of its remarkable schools and many of its major hotels and other landmarks.
One can’t help but wonder if we as a nation have failed our fellow Pakistanis, if we have played a role in their gradual departure, if we have been ungrateful for their myriad contributions to this country. Whatever the case may be, the Parsi community’s continued exit is a great loss for all of us.
In the heart of the city, surrounded by beautiful mountains, Quetta’s Parsi Colony is picture-perfect. The lush green trees sway in the breeze. There is a rare feeling of trust: instead of the common elevated walls demarcating boundaries of houses, there are flimsy grills with open, inviting doors.
To the unsuspecting eye, this scene may not look like one from a metropolis in Pakistan, let alone one from the troubled province of Balochistan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah meets Quetta's Parsi community in June 1948
Despite the oft-reported turmoil in the region, however, Parsis have peacefully lived here since before partition. It was during the British Raj that the community was allotted this colony.
Today, of the many Parsis who once resided here, only about two to four families remain. Others have either died because of natural causes or migrated out of Quetta
The presence of Parsis in the provincial capital has not been documented by the mainstream media like that of their counterparts in Karachi. This is understandable, Parsis, after all, migrated from Iran to Sindh as far back as the eighth century. Furthermore, the community is relatively bigger in Karachi as compared to the one Quetta.
Yet, there are Parsis who prefer their home city to the concrete jungle that is Karachi.
In his 2005 book, titled ‘The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration’, John R Hinnells notes that in the decades leading up to Partition, there had been a steady increase in Sindh’s Parsi population, giving Karachi the fourth largest Parsi population in western India after Bombay, Surat and Navsari.
“After Partition the numbers initially increased further — in 1951 there were 5,018; but they began to decline in 1961 (4,685) until 1995, when there were 2,824 Parsis in Pakistan, 2,647 in Karachi.”
The Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal (KZBM), a community welfare organisation, states in its 2015 report that they had conducted the first complete survey of Pakistan’s Zoroastrians in 1995.
Supervised by Toxy Cowasjee, sister-in-law of columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, they found that 2,831 Parsis lived across the country: 2,647 in Karachi, 94 in Lahore, 45 in Quetta, 30 in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, eight in Multan, and seven in Peshawar and other cities.
In its 2012 paper titled ‘The Zarathushti World — a Demographic Picture’, the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (Fezana) notes that Pakistan’s Zoroastrian population was 2,121 in 2004 and it declined by 21 per cent to 1,675 in 2012. Fezana also states that the percentage of non-Zoroastrian spouses increased from 2.4 per cent in 2004 to 2.6 per cent in 2012.
The 2015 edition of the A & T Directory, which carries details of all Pakistani Parsis, notes that the community’s population had reduced to 1,416 in the country: 1,359 in Karachi, 32 in Lahore, 16 in Rawalpindi, seven in Quetta and two in Multan.
Regarding the latest count of Pakistan’s Parsis, academic Dr Framji Minwalla told The News that the community has been reduced to 1,092, living in only Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.
Mama Parsi Girls High School Located on MA Jinnah Road.
The reasons
“Just like the youth in every other community, people have left for higher education and better job opportunities and an overall higher standard of living,” Dilaira Dubash, a Parsi community member and former journalist who has also settled abroad, wrote in an email exchange with The News.
“Most progressive communities reach a stage when population control becomes their worst enemy. For Zoroastrians, it may ultimately lead to extinction. India launched the Jiyo Parsi campaign to curb the population decline and whether that’s a good move or a bad one, the point is they have taken note and they are doing something about it. In Pakistan, we wake up once a year to highlight the issue and then sleep over it.”
She said Zoroastrians can’t be confined to any state. “We have been wandering ever since we were forced to flee Persia. For Pakistan, saving its Zoroastrian population is a lost cause now. If an awareness program would have been initiated two decades ago, maybe there would have been some hope.”
Dr Minwalla said that in the next two decades there will be no Parsi anywhere in Pakistan, as almost the entire younger generation of the community has gone abroad with no plans to return.
“One can hardly find a young Parsi, particularly between the ages of 18 and 27, in Karachi. Moreover, the Karachi Parsi Anjuman Trust Fund helps couples under the age of 40 to emigrate from the country.”
He pointed out that the purist marriage law of Parsis is also one of the reasons behind the community’s declining population. He said that if a Parsi woman marries a non-Zoroastrian, she’ll be forced to leave the community and face other restrictions.
“For example, she won’t be permitted to participate in worship or social ceremonies. But if a Parsi man marries out of the community, his children will be accepted as Parsis but his wife won’t be allowed to participate in any religious or social activity.”
Writer Akhtar Balouch said that no one can become a Parsi, because it’s an ethnic identity. “A person can accept Zoroastrianism, but they will never be a bona fide Parsi.”
