Tehran: In a move that is drawing sharp criticism from human rights advocates, a desert-like patch of land in Iran’s largest cemetery is being paved over to become a parking lot. For decades, the site, known as Lot 41 at the sprawling Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, has been the final resting place for thousands of people executed in the chaotic aftermath of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC confirm that construction began in earnest at the start of August. An image from August 18 shows that about half of Lot 41 has already been paved with asphalt, with construction materials still visible at the site.
Iranian officials have acknowledged the decision to build the parking lot. Tehran’s deputy mayor Davood Goudarzi told state television, “In this place, hypocrites of the early days of the revolution were buried and it has remained without change for years. We proposed that the authorities reorganize the space. Since we needed a parking lot, the permission for the preparation of the space was received.”
A Pattern of Erasure and Impunity
The decision to repurpose the land is seen by critics as part of a larger effort to erase evidence of a brutal period in Iran’s history. The burial site has long been monitored by surveillance cameras, and officials have even referred to it as the “scorched section.” In the past, the site has seen state-sponsored demolition, with grave markers vandalized and trees deliberately dried out.
A United Nations special rapporteur has described Iran’s destruction of graveyards as an effort to “conceal or erase data that could serve as potential evidence to avoid legal accountability” for its actions. According to Shahin Nasiri, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who has researched the site, the decision to convert the lot into a parking lot “fits into this broader pattern and represents the final phase of the destruction process.” His research suggests that between 5,000 to 7,000 burial sites exist within Lot 41 for those considered “religious outlaws,” including communists, militants, and monarchists.
The move also appears to contradict Iran’s own regulations, which allow for the repurposing of cemetery land after 30 years only with the consent of the families of the deceased. An outspoken lawyer in Iran, Mohsen Borhani, publicly criticized the decision, stating that the lot also contains the remains of “ordinary people.”
The destruction of graveyards is not a new phenomenon in Iran. Authorities have previously destroyed other graveyards for those killed in the 1988 mass executions, and have also vandalized cemeteries for the Baha’i religious minority and for protesters killed in recent nationwide demonstrations.
A Cemetery Steeped in History
The Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, which translates to “the Paradise of Zahra,” opened in 1970 and has long been a key point in Iranian history. It was the first place Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini visited upon his return to Iran in 1979, paying respects to those killed in the uprising against the Shah. Khomeini’s cleric courts later issued the death sentences for many of those now interred at Lot 41.
After Khomeini’s death in 1989, Iran built a massive, golden-domed mausoleum for him adjacent to the cemetery.
While it remains unclear whether the human remains at Lot 41 were moved or now sit beneath the asphalt, the deliberate destruction of these burial sites adds an additional obstacle to the efforts of survivors and family members who continue to search for the graves of their loved ones. According to Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, there is a “direct line between the massacres of the 1980s, the gunning down of demonstrators in 2009, and the mass killings of protesters in 2019 and 2022.”