Iranian Revolution; CCWV.LIFE

The Islamic Republic proclaimed in 1979 recognizes the Zoroastrians of Iran as a protected religious minority with a reserved seat in the Majlis, under a constitution that also subordinates them in law. Many Iranian Zoroastrians emigrate in the revolution's aftermath, swelling the diaspora.

Tagged: Iranian Zoroastrian Zoroastrian Diaspora Zoroastrianism

The Event

Date: 1979 (exact)
Era: Modern and Diaspora; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
Location: Tehran; today Iran
Traditions: Zoroastrianism
Streams: Iranian Zoroastrian, Zoroastrian Diaspora

How the Tradition Tells It

The community's own accounts divide between those who emphasize the protected seat and continued public life in Yazd and Tehran and those who emphasize legal inequality and the emigration it drove.

Primary Sources

The tradition's own record of the event.

Secondary Sources

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 1979.
Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries on the Avesta, the Sasanians, and the Parsi calendar disputes.
Hinnells, John R. The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Provenance: HIST-1015; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.