The small Zoroastrian communities of Iran suffered various forms of persecution over centuries, particularly during the Qajar era (1789-1925) as did other non-Muslims. The succeeding rulers, the Pahlavi shahs (1925-1979) changed course, elevating Iran’s pre-Islamic Zoroastrian heritage as part of their effort to undercut the Muslim clergy and raise a nationalistic solidarity. Through this effort and gradual secularization of urban Iran, discrimination decreased considerably. Zoroastrians found themselves more integrated into Iranian life than had been possible previously. Religion and community cohesion lost much of their salience in the secular environment. With the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the re-imposition of much of Sharia law, conditions changed dramatically for most Iranians, especially non-Muslims. Although many Zoroastrians fled the country after the revolution, about 10,000 remained. Faced with an intense Islamization of the country, revived discriminatory laws, and population loss, many feared the end of the Zoroastrian community. But as Zoroastrians defensively turned inward, seeking internal solutions to social, spiritual, and economic needs, a revival took place. As one rabbi expressed, religious saliency permeated everywhere and we naturally partook as well. Anthony Wallace once theorized that faced with a culture distorted by oppression, communities may deliberately redefine their culture to function in a more adaptive manner. Patterns of change may include revivals, elimination of outside influences, and importation of new adaptive elements (Wallace, 1056:266-68). But we could not have predicted the form of changes that Zoroastrians orchestrated without consideration of the influences of the growing modernization that Iran underwent beginning in the 1990s. Educational levels rose rapidly, women were more integrated into diverse work spaces, and reformed politicians were being elected. Thus, there was an unusual confluence of governmental oppression, increase in religious salience, and an embrace of modernization and liberalism especially among the urban populations. Based largely on the author's ethnographic research, this paper will examine ways in which the community of Zoroastrians in Tehran responded to and interacted with these diverse, and at times contradictory influences, elaborating on Wallace’s theory of change. The findings illustrate how contradictory also have been the resultant changes including formalization along with revisiting of folk culture and centralization and decentralization tendencies, such centralization of leadership authority and increase of democratization and equality.