Dear all,

I hope to find you well. One year after my last email (see below), I am pleased to send you the link to an online article on the “Zoroastrian e-diaspora” which I published as part of a global research program entitled the “e-diaspora Atlas”:

Please note that I also published an article in FEZANA 2012 Spring Issue on Transformations. I had contacted you in May 2011 with the purpose to fill in a questionnaire for Zoroastrians originating from Pakistan in USA and Canada. I received some interesting replies and warmly thank those who replied; however I got too few replies to write a separate study based on the questionnaire but I will be able to use the information for the PhD thesis. I would be very glad if others would like to fill in the same questionnaire now (it is attached to this email – feel free to post it on some websites and/or forward it to some friends).

Besides, it would be great to receive your feedback on the online article on the Zoroastrian e-diaspora! It is based on the analysis of 159 Zoroastrian websites; I may have omitted some, and it would be interesting to hear your views about the conclusions presented in the article.

Please feel free to ask any question about my research (nb: my PhD thesis is due to be completed by mid-2013). I would be glad to exchange with you.

Best regards,

David

— En date de : Dim 22.5.11, David Knaute <dknaute@yahoo.fr> a écrit :

De: David Knaute <dknaute@yahoo.fr>
Objet: questionnaire for Zoroastrians originating from Pakistan in USA and Canada
À: “David Knaute” <dknaute@yahoo.fr>
Date: Dimanche 22 mai 2011, 2h11

Dear Zoroastrian friends from North America!My name is David Knaute, PhD student in social anthropology in France (CEIAS/EHESS: http://ceias.ehess.fr/document.php?id=1535). I am very much  honoured to introduce myself to you, especially to those who have not yet heard about my research project on Zoroastrianism. I have lived for one year in Pakistan in 2009-2010 and I am now living in Paris where, besides my job in the  human rights sector, I am preparing a PhD thesis on the Zoroastrian diaspora,  with a focus on Zoroastrians from Pakistan.

Besides Pakistan, I had the opportunity to meet Zoroastrians in India, Dubai,  France, United Kingdom… However, as part of my thesis, I am looking at the diaspora in North America, where many Zoroastrians of Pakistani origin are settled. North America may also be the most interesting place to study in order to understand the transformations of the Parsi/Zoroastrian identity in the context of the diaspora.

I finalized in March 2011 a report on Zoroastrians from Pakistan, and this is what I would like to share with you today. The report was prepared for the Parzor Project directed by Mrs Shernaz Cama in Dehli, India (see http://unescoparzor.com/images/documents/karachi.pdf).

Concerning Zoroastrians from North America, I am currently preparing a global survey on Zoroastrian websites which of course means that I am looking at the
many Zoroastrian websites in North America (I already got in touch with many website managers to discuss about this project which will be completed by the
end of 2011).

Now, I would like to take an important step in my research, which is to discuss directly with Zoroastrians living in North America and originating from Pakistan… I am already in contact with a few of you, but the present questionnaire aims at obtaining multiple views about the perceptions of Zoroastrians in a more formal way. Of course, I hope to be able to meet some of you face-to-face at the occasion of visits in North America (I will for instance meet a few Zoroastrians during a short visit to Boston in June 2011).

In order to disseminate the questionnaire, I am sending this message to you as you are in charge or engaged in running a Zoroastrian website, and I hope you may be able to forward this message to all the Zoroastrians originating from Pakistan you may know in your State/Province or elsewhere in North America.

I am sure that before forwarding this message to some of your Zoroastrian friends, most of you would have some questions to ask, comments to make or information to send out to me. Please feel free to do so and write to me at the following email address: dknaute@yahoo.fr.

I hope this message fulfills its intended purpose, which was to introduce myself
and kindly solicit your collaboration to disseminate the questionnaire and
progress in my research (in addition to replies from Zoroastrians originating
from Pakistan, I also welcome replies from Zoroastrians originating from India,
Iran and/or living in UK/Australia/New-Zealand/Dubai, etc). Last but not least,
I would like to thank you as well as all the Zoroastrians who have not only
supported me but also, indeed, introduced me to a wonderful religion and
culture.

Most sincerely,

David