The Use of Collective Memory in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery as a Tool for Propaganda

Abstract

Behesht-e Zahra, Tehran’s only active cemetery for Muslims of the city, has rapidly grown in its mere forty years of operation. Despite its significant distance to the urban fabric, it is nonetheless present in the lives of all Iranians who see the cemetery reflected in the media as a location of high importance to the Islamic Republic. By housing the martyrs of regime as well the burial of Ayatollah Khomeini on its grounds, this cemetery has evolved to use pre-existing cultural practices and beliefs to allow for the viewing of secular deaths through a lens of political religion. This paper chronicles how the theocratic government of the Islamic Republic uses the longstanding traditions of martyrdom and pilgrimage as government practice, assimilating them into the modern Iranian life at Behest-e Zahra.

Keywords

• Collective Memory
• Propaganda
• Martyrdom
• Shia Islam
• Iran