Thread by @kainazamaria

A few thoughts on @BoRhapMovie

As a Parsi Zoroastrian I want to make sure folks don’t think Freddie’s father just came up with the concept of👇🏽

“Good thoughts, Good words, and Good deeds”

He says it a few times in the film, while looking directly into Freddie’s eyes.

This simple phrase is one of the basic maxims of Zoroastrianism

Humata, Hukhta, Hvarshta in the Avestan language or good thoughts, good words, good deeds.

As kids this is drilled into us as a way to follow our own “righteous path.”

The order matters

Good thoughts - first you think, contemplate, possibly reconsider

Good words - you begin to speak it out loud, in public, to close friends

Good deeds - you then act, because step one and two are complete this then doesn’t seem like an insurmountable task.

Here’s a great 101 on Zoroastrianism by Vasudha Narayanan, Professor of Religion, University of Florida

“The religion is one of the oldest examples of monotheism, or the belief in one god.”

(Yup - we starts that one god trend 😉)

theconversation.com/amp/freddie-me…

BUT - wait for wait for it ...

the concept of GOOD vs. EVIL // LIGHT vs. DARK - you know the foundation of many religions and the basis of storytelling both fiction and non-fiction 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

THAT WAS US TOO!

bbc.co.uk/religion/relig…

I know I know - 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

This is a quote form Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, "Why I Am a Destiny.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thus_Spok…

As a kid, there was a one-sentence reference in our world religion book on Zoroastrianism - only that it was the first monotheistic religion.

It read like it was a dead faith 😢 - when in fact it lives and thrives in our popular culture💪🏽we still here!!

bbc.com/culture/story/…

Which brings me back to @BoRhapMovie

Seemed like a huge missed opportunity to not thread themes of our faith into the film or at least delve a bit further into Freddie’s relationship with his faith.

theconversation.com/amp/freddie-me…

I was joking with my cousin yesterday that only a Parsi Zoroastrian kid, who had to grapple with his identity within himself, his family, his faith and his countries could have written the greatest nihilist-rock-operatic banger that is BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ❤️

According to this 2006 NYT article we don’t have clear numbers on how many Zoroastrians are left - but I do know there are fewer than 120,000 Parsi Zoroastrians (the ones that settled in Gujarat after fleeing Persia) throughout the world.

nytimes.com/2006/09/06/us/…

So as kids - our faith’s eminent extinction is the basis for how we were to orient ourselves to the world.

We had a responsibility to keep the faith alive or we would cease to exist.

(yeah this shit got really heavy for a confused awkward girl growing up in a white suburb)

A self-distructive (I’ll get shit for this descriptor by many Parsi Zoroastrian purists) notion we have adopted in trying to remain “pure” is by condemning folks who marry out of the faith and not allowing others to convert into the faith.

This is not in our scriptures.

When I was workin on my thesis film on Paris Zoroastrians (I’m mortified to share this because it’s sooooooo bad but fuck it I’ve grown creatively since this, no shame vimeo.com/65067357) I remember one priest explaining to me “We’d rather the faith die with us, pure.” 😢

He blamed the decline of the faith to five things ::

1. Women being over educated
2. Women not marrying early enough
3. Women not marrying Parsis
4. Women moving away from Bombay
5. Women not having enough children

Let’s sit in the misogyny for a minute.

So guess what happened - I went into a long period of existential depression - alone in Bombay.

Because nothing really mattered to me.

We’ll likely never know how Freddie grappled w/ all these things - but my God what a gorgeous soul and voice and life.

Parsis are now filled with pride when they speak of Freddie Mercury - we call him “Appro Farrokh” - or “Our Farrokh” ❤️

RIP FREDDIE - you are loved.

ps - I tried to find the photographer’s name for this image but the Internet sucks - so if anyone knows please @ the thread with the image credit. 🙏🏾

* imminent (English is my second language 😉)

A little intel on the image 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽