Mehri, Rastin. 2026. The Zoroastrians in British Columbia. Vancouver: UBC Press.
The Zoroastrians in British Columbia begins with a consideration of the formation of the Zoroastrian Society of British Columbia in 1968 within the context of provincial and national immigration policies. It then moves to examine various controversial attempts in the 1980s to found the first Zoroastrian house of worship in Vancouver. Rastin Mehri explores the ways in which members of this community defined themselves ethnically and spiritually before settling in the province, and how they have done so since, revealing the demands of navigating the incongruities between Parsi/Zartoshty discourses of exclusion and the Canadian conception of multiculturalism.
This unique study convincingly demonstrates that twenty-first-century experiences of exclusion and racialization have had a transformative impact on traditional patterns of belief and behaviour, including religious worship, personal relationships, and identity within the Zoroastrian community, particularly among its youth.