Zoroastrian women wearing typically colourful traditional dress. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Young people dance round a fire singing religious songs at the mid-winter festival of Sadeh in Tehran. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A fire temple in the Iranian city of Yazd, built in 1934 with sponsorship from the Parsi community of India. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A priest or mobad at a fire temple in Yazd. Zoroastrians believe the fires must never be allowed to go out. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Fire is important as a symbol of love, compassion and warmth, but Zoroastrians insist they are not fire-worshippers. The prophet Zoroaster introduced fire in temples for its symbolic value. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
The essence of Zoroastrian teaching is embodied in the inscription here – “Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.” (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Priests reading from the sacred text, the Avesta, below a picture of the prophet Zoroaster. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
The winged “farvahar”, one of the best-known symbols of Zoroastrianism. It is said to be a reminder of the purpose of life – to live in such a way that the soul progresses towards union with Ahura Mazda, the supreme divinity. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Reading from the Avesta during a religious ceremony. The myrtle plant is regarded as a sacred plant. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Preparing food for the commemoration of the death of Zoroaster, the prophet who founded the faith. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Fresh fruit and an assortment of seven dried fruit are served during religious ceremonies. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A traditional type of bread distributed at the Farwardinegan festival in April. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Iran’s Zoroastrian community is dwindling rapidly due to emigration and a ban on marrying out of the faith. These men are attending the commemorative festival for Zoroaster. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
An elderly woman in the Zoroastrian quarter of Yazd, the city regarded as the centre of Iranian Zoroastrianism. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Women at the Ghasr-e Firouzeh cemetery in Tehran, where believers seek absolution for the spirits of the dead during the Farward
Women at the Ghasr-e Firouzeh cemetery in Tehran, where believers seek absolution for the spirits of the dead during the Farwardinegan each April. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Mobads or priests offer up their prayers at a funeral. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A woman’s funeral held at Tehran’s Zoroastrian Association. During prayers for the deceased, fires are lit and the air is scented with sandalwood, frankincense and the fragrance of freshly-cut fruit. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Living life to the full is considered a religious virtue. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A “dakhmeh” or “tower of silence” near Yazd, where bodies used to be taken for the bones to be picked clean by vultures. Zoroastrians believed that bodies must be kept away from the sacred elements, water, wind, earth and fire. Today, the towers of silence have fallen into disuse. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
A Muslim cleric (left) with Zoroastrian priests. The Iranian constitution grants Zoroastrians the right to exercise their religion, but the community has faced discrimination and harassment down the centuries. (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Zoroastrian kids perform a traditional dance in front of a painting of the their prophet during the Sadeh festival in Tehran. (Satan). (Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
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