Zoroastrians in Iran: What Future in the Homeland?

Zoroastrianism, a religion which arose among Iranian peoples some 3,000 years ago, was the religion of the majority of Iranians prior to the Arab conquests of the mid-7th century. Since that time, a steady process of conversion to Islam has left a small Zoroastrian minority of 20,000 or less in Iran today. While community leaders are making efforts to keep the religion alive, factors such as emigration, intermarriage, and low birth rates now put the very survival of this ancient faith into question, not just throughout the global diaspora but within the land of its birth.