American hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg has often earned the ire of women’s groups for penning sexist lyrics and making off-the-cuff sexist remarks. This time, however, he’s facing the indignation of Zoroastrians.

Some Parsis are fuming over his latest song, King, which features skimpily-clad women smoking hookahs and the artist wearing heart-shaped sunglasses on a throne under the Faravahar. The Faravahar is a symbol for the Zoroastrian sacred guardian angel and is associated with ancient Persian culture.

The song, however, only features Snoop Dogg. Its lead is Iranian singer Amitis, which might explain the kitschy pseudo-Persian setting and the Faravahar’s presence.



Irate Parsis have taken screenshots of the offending images and created a Change.org petition calling for the artistes to remove the song and apologise.

“Zoroastrians and Parsis the world over worship the Farohar,” the petition says. “The use of it in a music video is very insensitive towards the religious beliefs of one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. We would respectfully ask Amitis, Snoop Dogg and their team to remove the video and tender an apology to Zoroastrians worldwide.”

The petition is already close to achieving its target of 200 signatories.