Parsis miffed as Snoop Dogg's recent video features the Zoroastrian sacred symbol

Snoop Dogg is no stranger to controversies, what with his sexist lyrics and homophobic remarks offending many. However, this time around the American hip-hop artist has earned the wrath of the Zoroastrian community. Sound surprised? [caption id=“attachment_2292888” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Snoop Dogg seated under the Faravahar. Screengrab from video.[/caption] As it turns out, a new video featuring the artist has been doing the rounds, which not only features stripper poles and skimpily clad women smoking hookah but also stars Snoop Dogg sitting on a throne underneath the ‘Faravahar’.  The Faravahar, which is better known in Persian as ‘fravahr’ is a Zoroastrian sacred symbol depicting the guardian angel. The song in question is called ‘King’ and is sung by an Iranian pop singer called Amitis.  Snoop Dogg only makes a brief cameo in the video. The use of the symbol and other Persian motifs throughout the video has not gone down well with Parsis worldwide who have started a Change.org  petition asking for the video to be taken down and for the singers to tender an apology. The petition created by Parsi Khabar, is called ‘Respect the sentiments of Zoroastrians’ and states that as Parsis and Zoroastrians all over the world worship the Fravahr as a religious symbol, the use of it in a music video is ‘insensitive towards the religious beliefs of one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world.’ It also includes screenshots of the parts of the video that have angered the community. Elaborating on the cause of outrage, Sheriar Irani, one of the Parsis in favour of the petition tells Firstpost, “I don’t think visual representation of any religion should rotate around skimpily clad women. The video is offensive more so, because the lyrics have nothing to do with Persian culture and as the background setup is as thoughtless too, it ends up looking like a mockery of our culture.” Echoing his views, Xerxes D, an Irani Zoroastrian explains, “A lot of Parsis I know are fuming over the video as it does not incorporate anything Persian and instead, just takes the superficial route for the sake of it, which we all think could have been avoided.” The petition has become an instant hit with the Zoroastrian community, with over 200 supporters in a span of two days. Watch the video here: