Ruzbeh Hodiwala is a PhD Candidate at SOAS, University of London. He grew up in a Parsi-Zoroastrian family in Ahmedabad, India, and joined the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) in 2013 after being coopted to the Gujarat chapter of RFYN-IARF India during an RFYN workshop on human rights at his alma mater, St. Xavier’s College. In addition to representing the World Zarathushti Cultural Foundation, an IARF member organisation, he has been a committee member of IARF-UK since 2021. Since 2010, Ruzbeh has represented Zoroastrianism at several national and international conferences and interfaith meetings in India, the UK, Italy, Kazakhstan, Germany and elsewhere, including the 34th and 36th IARF World Congresses, held in Birmingham and Cluj-Napoca, respectively. He has also served as a Personal Assistant to a Member of Gujarat State Assembly in India who represented the subaltern segment of the society, therefore he has garnered practical experience working in India’s volatile socio-political environs. He was a recipient of AFS Intercultural Programs Cultural Exchange Scholarship to Italy from India at the age of sixteen in 2010-11 and has been trained as a Trainer for Intercultural Learning, Volunteer and Organisation Development. He served as the Editor-in-chief of the SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research from 2021-2022. Ruzbeh Hodiwala’s primary motivation for serving on the council is to represent the minority Zoroastrian community in India and the larger diaspora in the West, as well as to bring ethnolinguistic and religious diversity to the IARF’s International Council. As a thirty year old doctoral researcher of contemporary Zoroastrianism, Ruzbeh has the experience and determination to positively contribute to uphold the values of IARF and to strive to achieve the association’s goals if elected to the council. There are fewer than 100,000 ethnic Zoroastrians in the world. The 2011 Indian Population Census estimated that there were roughly 56,000 Zoroastrians in India, meaning that the current number is far lower. Apart from India, the Zoroastrians are found in Pakistan and Iran which form part of their traditional homelands. Rest of the Zoroastrians are predominantly found in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and in other countries where they migrated in recent decades for better opportunities. Ruzbeh’s positionality as an Indian citizen pursuing Zoroastrian Studies in the UK – the oldest diaspora settlement of Zoroastrians outside India, Iran and Pakistan – offers him a unique possibility to represent not only the voices in South Asia but also globally. Over and above that, Ruzbeh is researching a phenomenon in which a number of individuals from the larger Persianate World, who have been subjected to persecution due to religious fundamentalism in the region, are accepting and identifying with religious groups that are distinct from their identity at birth after fleeing as refugees to Turkey and other Western countries. Ruzbeh’s access to their circumstances as a researcher and practical awareness of the on-ground socio-political situation in India better equips him to use his profile with IARF to address pertinent issues which are a result of religious fundamentalism and socio-economic and gender inequalities in the global south. There has not been a Zoroastrian representative on the International Council ever since the tenure of Dr. Homi B. Dhalla ended more than eight years ago. Dr. Dhalla, a longtime IARF member had worked with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the former president of India, and other world religions’ representatives, as well as actively represented the Zoroastrian community at international interfaith forums for more than 40 years. Dr. Dhalla has always inspired RFYN-India and the younger members of IARF, paving the way for the next generation to take on leadership roles at IARF. Ruzbeh’s election to the council will fill in this vacuum and further give a young voice to the council. More details about Ruzbeh’s profile can be found in his CV.