The Politicization of Death in Iran
Hajar Ghorbani
Published in Death and Institutions: Processes, Places and Past
Bristol University Press / Policy Press, 2025
Governing the Dead’s Territory: The Politicization of Death in Iran examines Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery as a major institutional space where death, burial, urban management, religious nationalism, and state power intersect in post-revolutionary Iran. The chapter asks how a cemetery can become more than a site of burial and mourning: how it can function as a governed territory through which the dead are classified, commemorated, organized, and incorporated into broader political narratives.
The chapter focuses on the transformation of Behesht-e Zahra into a large-scale municipal, ritual, and political institution. It considers how cemetery space, bureaucratic management, burial practices, martyrs’ sections, official ceremonies, and public memory contribute to the politicization of death in contemporary Iran.
This chapter is part of my broader research on death, mourning, material culture, political violence, and the social agency of dead bodies. It reflects my interest in how dead bodies and burial spaces continue to shape public life after death, generating forms of memory, obligation, legitimacy, and political meaning.
Publication Details
Chapter: “Governing the Dead’s Territory: The Politicization of Death in Iran”
Author: Hajar Ghorbani
Book: Death and Institutions: Processes, Places and Past
Editors: Kate Woodthorpe, Helen Frisby, and Bethan Michael-Fox
Publisher: Bristol University Press / Policy Press
Publication date: February 28, 2025