Several years ago, a friend of mine met the Iranian photographer of Magnum Agency, the late Abbas Attar, who is my favourite photographer. I asked my friend to ask him: "How come you have photographed all the world's main religions but not Zoroastrianism, our ancient Iranian religion? He told my friend they are guarded towards their religion, and it is challenging to access their communities.
At that time, I had already started a project in 2009 using my analog camera, Nikon F100, for a subjective narration of Iran's pre-Islamic religion, Zoroastrianism, and its final breath under the severe suppression of the Islamic government. The black-and-white medium was inspired by the principle of Zoroastrianism based on the battle of light and darkness. Motivated by one of Abbas's long-term photo projects, "Children of Abraham, I named the project "Children of Mazda".
However, due to constant challenges, I could not continue the project and paused it at its early stage. I look forward to restarting the project.
