Here’s the original blog, now deleted. I don’t know who did it, but if it was JJ, it was in poor taste. This person was way out of line and many good comments were in that blog which have now gone. I worked on a long comment which I thought was appropriate, but it didn’t register when I tried to post. I had this page open, so I copied it below + my own comment after it.
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It is not fair that Zoroastrian`s Parse have been criticized by you by Maya Parsi
14-Aug-2009
http://iranian.com/main/2009/aug/voice-iranian
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I just found out that the host put our music video on Iranian.com, well Thank you so much.
That video was done by Zoroastrian people and our committee.
We are reading your comments and at the same time we are wondering why you guys were so mean to us!
We read every one of your comments; it is so amazing and shocking how you guys are criticizing the Parse Zoroastrian people, criticisms from many perspectives. We would expect it from Middle East nationality, but we couldnot imagine or even think of it coming from Iranians!
I should say this: you guys are missing the point. None of you guys mentioned anything about the design. It was something unique art, graphical on billboard signs!! From which you could see 3 videos at the same time,
(in the 1st one she is singing, in the 2nd one Iranian/Persian people in Iran are being warriors in the protest and in the 3rd video Iranian/Persian people around the world are showing their support with their real Iranian flags, with the golden lion).
You may see the same thing done by others in time copycat that at the future, but it was done for the first time by us, and dedicated for Iranians.
We put a lot of energy and effort into making the video. We were so excited that we could not wait to finish it, and put it on the internet; to show the whole world how awesome Iranians are. We were trying to call on everyone around the world, to make a point and give attention to Iran and their people.
We Zoroastrian Parsee`s thought we should somehow show our support to you guys. Maybe by this way, you guys will not be alone and you will have our support. The same thing happened to us 1300 yrs ago and history is repeating itself.
And the Celtic Woman`s music is from Lisa Kelly and Mairead Nesbitt, we thought the name of the song was suitable for Iranian voice the Neda`s. What we do not get, is what it has to do with those other links used as an example to us.
Are you guys seeing Parsi people with stereotypes? Stereotypes, like we wear sari`s or our men is like our priest is wearing a white shirt praying in the temple; that is not at all what we are about. I am Parse, and like everybody else I wear jeans too, or I go to work with a suit. And we do nothave dark brown skin either; I am white Caucasian with hazel honey and grey eyes with very straight long hair. It is not like you guys saying that the first image that comes to your head when I say Hindu is a turban, would you like it if we judge you guys in the same way. Zoroastrian`s are absolutely notsinging the whole day in a temple, we enjoy other culture songs too especially the ones in English language like everybody else on the planet.
It is hard to understand, what you are talking about? We were not even born in Iran, example; I was born in England. After 1300 yrs, what are you expecting from us?
Some comments we did not understand what it has to do with our son of the god Mithras, or what it has to do with Freddy Mecurry! And how it is relevant to our music, you guys are misleading the whole thing Or Mr. Darius Kadivar!
In our temple of 285 members, reading your confusing comments and we became puzzled. What does our music video have to do with that movie you named above? Everybody here is wondering what it has to do with us; however we are not interested to know anymore. And we are not coming back here, we are sure you guys will not be welcoming us.
And amazingly you guys are giving Parsi people advice on how to deal with our heritage! Wow, what we are seeing here through the comments is that you guys are trying to show us who is the boss by advising us, you should think twice about who is your daddy.
That Zartosht video(Zarathushtra corect) example you put there, do you really think it relates with Parsi or Zoroastrian`s language, the answer is NO. It is not in the Persian Avestan language, so we cannot understand what they are singing about. Who ever told you, he or she lied to you. It looks like an anthem in the Farsi language mix with Arabic language, that is made up for fun. There is a big difference between the Parsi Avesta original Persian language. You guys are speaking and writing in Farsi. Believe us, if we started to write to you guys here with Parsi language, you guys will not even understand 50% of our words.
The real question we should be asking from you guys is ?
After 1300 yrs. did you keep your heritage, Indo-European language, your customs, and festivals the original way. Well for us, yes we did it and we will continue to do it that way until we are the last people on earth. How about you guys do you remember your real celebration, without it being mixed with the Islam way? Do you know the name of the special occasion Persian`s celebrate in August? We are getting ready in our temple.
We thought we could support you guys and become a part of it, it seems like it is not possible. It is just big gap and it is our fantasy to think this way; we made a big mistake and embarrassed ourselves. We got our lesson to stay away from you guys.
You guys are absolutely right every one of you, thank you so much for your honestly to show us your true nature, we were wrong.
We had 3 other projects planned for next week to dedicate to Iranian`s on the internet. I guess not, we got totally cold and sad and feeling hurt by you guys. So We will stop now.
We are sure now that we can`t please you guys. Sadly we tried to make a difference by breaking our rules, to connect with you guys. And as much as we want to break the isolation wall between us, you guys are putting up more blocks and making the wall longer.
We did try our best, unfortunately it didn`t work out, we will stick to our own forums and our communities websites.
And we will stay as far as possible from you Iranian`s because you guys are right, we cannot be included with you guys. We promise you guys, you will never hear from us ever again.
With best wishes to all of you, Good luck.
You’re truly
From our Zoroastrian Parse`s community
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Dear Maya,
When I first saw this blog, I thought it was silly and borderline offensive. I am not a big fan of Eurocentric fetishism so prevelant in the video as well as your own exclusivist comments. But in the grand scheme of things, I didn’t think it was worth the time to write a response and Mr. Darius Kadivar had made some of the same points anyway. Your actual points about being unfairly “criticized” had no merrit. Either you are not familiar with the Internet (for example try writing anything positive about Islam), OR you are simply trying to put down even that slight constructive comments as “criticism.” Either way, it points to a certain sheltered aspect (perhaps in more ways than one) of either your self or your organization.
It was only after seeing your response, that of “R. Patel” and “top5Max” that I realized what this really was. Unfortuntely, it looks like yet-another self-serving organization trying to promote itself on the back of poor Green movement protesters in Tehran. So, since “R. Patel” commanded that we should indeed speak our minds, I wanted to write this in order to do that.
In addition, since many other worth comments are now gone, I wanted to give others a chance to voice their opinions in print.
Qumars
PS. To JJ: This policy of deleting comments along with the whole Blog is patently unfair to your comment writers.
