It is said that Muslims would trick a Zoroastrian boy to enter their house. Behind locked doors and shaded windows, they would force the boy to stand within a circle. Every Muslim present had a needle concealed behind his back, and one by one they would stick the needle into him. The boy would eventually collapse and die. The body would then be flung into the streets of the Zoroastrian community.
Zoroastrian women also faced every type of assault and humiliation, and their lives especially were in constant peril. However much abused or vilified, they had to bear it or face certain death. The Muslims violently restrained the Zoroastrians from practicing their religion — the worship of fire, symbolic of the universal struggle between the forces of light and of darkness. They fanatically believed that it was their duty in Islam to curtail the spread of this blasphemous faith.
However insulted or abused they were, the Zoroastrians did not dare utter a word in retort to the Muslims; they could not defend or justify themselves before their persecutors. Although they would often become angry, they would not express it to the Muslims. To vent their anger, they resorted to a clever outlet. Opposite their houses, all Zoroastrians had a pillar sunk in the ground, and kicking or hitting it and spitting on it, they would pretend that the post was their enemy. This daily outburst would relieve their frustration and they were then better able to tolerate the persecution they constantly faced.1
But at times, even the Zoroastrians resorted to acts of barbarity. For example, this incident is said to have occurred in the town of Khorramshah, the place of Sheriar's birth, just outside of Yezd. One day a Zoroastrian was riding his horse through the town. As a sign of respect, Zoroastrians were required to dismount on passing a Muslim, even a Muslim child. On the way, the rider saw a Muslim child, but he did not get off his horse and the child cursed him loudly. The Zoroastrian had tolerated enough. He looked about and not seeing anyone got down and caught the child. He covered the child's mouth and threw him in a nearby well. Then the man immediately left town and boarded a ship bound for India. The fate of the child is not known.
In such troubled times, Sheriar Moondegar Irani was born on 21 March 1853.2
Footnotes
- 1.During the middle of the 19th century, while the Zoroastrians were being persecuted in Persia, a similar situation existed in India among the Harijans (Untouchables), the lowest Hindu caste. The Harijans were miserably oppressed by the high-caste Brahmins and riots would result in villages if even the shadow of an Untouchable fell on a high-caste Hindu.
- 2.The original Persian spelling of Sheriar's name is Shahr-yar, which means monarch or emperor. After migrating to India many years later, he adopted Sheriar a more suitable Indian name.