“Every Day Is Ashura?”: Transformation of the Martyrdom Narrative in Iranian Socio-Political Discourse

Abstract

This article deals with the transformations of the narrative of martyrdom in the official and unofficial Iranian discourse in recent decades. The narrative’s origin goes back to the Battle of Karbala (680 CE) which became the starting point in the separation of the Shīʻa branch of Islam and provided a basis for a set of commemorative practices and the development of the cult of martyrs. The two most prominent public intellectuals of the 1960–1970s — ʻAlī Sharīʻatī and Murtaẓa Muṭahharī — developed a new, consistent narrative of Shīʻa rituals and symbols, which is called the “Karbala paradigm” in recent scholarship. The “Karbala paradigm” emerged as a powerful ideological tool during the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Iran‑Iraq war, and the post‑war reconstruction of Iran. The adaptability of Shīʻa rituals and symbols sustained by the current Iranian regime’s monopoly on their interpretation became the reason not only for the active use of the mobilization potential of the “Karbala paradigm” but also for its routinization. However, the reaction to the most recent murders of Qāsem Suleimanī and Abu Mahdī al‑Muhandis showed a dynamic development of the cult of the “new martyrs” within the old paradigm.