Written by There are few places on earth where a moral revolution began.
Ancient Persia was one of them.
Long before modern ideologies, before empires redrew borders, before contemporary politics hardened into doctrine, Zarathustra proclaimed a vision that reshaped human ethics:
Good Thoughts.
Good Words.
Good Deeds.
That land — the land of Zarathustra — deserves religious freedom.
Persia’s First Spiritual Architecture
For over a millennium, Persia’s civilizational identity was shaped by Zoroastrian principles.
The Achaemenid kings invoked Ahura Mazda.
The sacred fires burned openly.
Asha — truth and cosmic order — was embedded in governance, law, and moral imagination.
This is not myth.
It is history.
Persepolis still stands.
The Faravahar remains carved in stone.
Nowruz continues to be celebrated.
The roots are visible.
Religious Freedom Must Be Universal
Modern Iran officially recognizes Zoroastrianism as a minority religion. Yet religious freedom cannot be partial.
Religious freedom must include:
- The right to openly practice Zoroastrianism without fear.
- The right to study ancestral texts freely.
- The right to celebrate sacred traditions visibly.
- The right to explore or change one’s belief without threat.
Freedom cannot flow in only one direction.
If a nation is confident in its identity, it does not fear spiritual choice.
Heritage Is Not a Threat
To acknowledge Persia’s Zoroastrian foundation is not an act of rebellion.
It is an act of historical honesty.
Iran’s pre-Islamic heritage is part of its national story. It shaped its poetry, architecture, calendar, ethics, and worldview. To protect that heritage is not to diminish later chapters of history — it is to preserve the full narrative.
A civilization that erases its beginnings weakens itself.
A civilization that honors all layers of its past strengthens itself.
The Silent Barrier
Across Iran and throughout the diaspora, there are individuals who feel connected to Zoroastrian roots — culturally, philosophically, spiritually.
Some practice quietly.
Some study privately.
Some hesitate because social or legal consequences are unclear.
Religious freedom means no one should have to whisper their heritage.
No one should fear punishment for honoring ancestral identity.
No one should face intimidation for choosing spiritual alignment with Asha.
A Call for Dignity, Not Division
This is not a call for coercion.
It is not a call for erasure.
It is not a call for dominance.
It is a call for dignity.
The land of Zarathustra deserves space for Zarathustra’s followers to live openly.
The homeland of the sacred fire deserves air for that fire to breathe.
Human rights are not selective.
If freedom of belief is universal, it must apply equally in the land where one of the world’s oldest ethical systems was born.
The Flame Still Burns
Empires rise and fall.
Governments change.
Borders shift.
But truth does not disappear.
Asha endures.
The land of Zarathustra does not ask for privilege.
It asks for parity.
Let religious freedom be complete.
Let heritage be honored.
Let those who seek Asha do so without fear.
The flame still burns.
And it deserves to burn openly.