Burial of 491 'Unknown Martyrs' in Universities Over 15 Years

The 'Noor Headquarters' of the Student Basij Organization has reported the burial of the remains of 491 unidentified casualties from the Iran-Iraq War in various universities across Iran over the past 15 years. According to this report published on Wednesday (July 6) by the Student News Agency, since 2001, the remains of 491 individuals have been buried in 193 universities across the country. The highest number of these unidentified individuals has been buried in 25 universities in Tehran province, while such burials have only occurred in one university each in the provinces of Bushehr and Ilam. There are 15 universities in Isfahan province, 12 in Fars province, 12 in Khuzestan province, 11 in Razavi Khorasan province, 11 in Mazandaran province, and two universities each in Ardabil, Kerman, and Kurdistan provinces where the unidentified war casualties are buried. The universities where these victims are buried include 84 branches of the Islamic Azad University, 68 state universities, 25 medical universities, eight technical and vocational universities, six teacher training universities, and two Payame Noor universities. The Student Basij Organization announced that the highest number of university burials of 'Unknown Martyrs' in a single year occurred in 2014, with burials in 30 universities. After 2014, the highest burials occurred in 2013 in 27 universities, 2012 in 25 universities, 2008 in 24 universities, and 2015 in 23 universities. The burial of the remains of unidentified casualties from the eight-year war in Iranian universities began for the first time in December 2001 at the Islamic Azad University of Yazd with the burial of the remains of eight individuals, and continued in January of the same year at the men's unit of Imam Sadiq University in Tehran with the burial of six more victims. The committee responsible for searching for the missing and burying 'Unknown Martyrs' in Iran is the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the initiative for burying the unidentified war casualties in universities was started by Mohammad Bagherzadeh, the commander of this committee. The 'Noor Headquarters' of the Student Basij Organization stated that the statistics and information published in this report do not include universities and educational centers of the armed forces. Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, is a supporter of the burial of the remains of unidentified war casualties in universities and has officially attended the burial sites of these casualties at Imam Sadiq University, Science and Industry University, and Shiraz University. In 2010, after the burial of the remains of five war casualties at Tehran University, he issued a message saying, 'I appreciate and thank this intelligent and committed action. This is a tribute to the dear martyrs of the Iranian nation who sacrificed their lives for noble goals and preferred the pleasure of God over trivial material desires.' The burial of the remains of unidentified war casualties in universities has always had both supporters and opponents, and has even led to conflicts in universities. Opponents believe these burials aim to limit the joy of student youth, glorify death instead of striving for life and future by the younger generation, influence the academic and scientific atmosphere of universities with ideological actions, and open the door for extremist forces and pressure groups to enter universities and confront students and their activities under the pretext of 'disrespecting the sanctity of Unknown Martyrs.' Meanwhile, supporters of this type of burial argue that it is to 'keep the memory of martyrs alive,' 'transfer revolutionary and religious values to the second and third generations of the revolution and even deepen them for the first generation of the revolution,' and 'compensate for negligence and shortcomings that have led to the gradual distancing of some members of society, especially youth, from Islamic values.' In March 2006, the burial of the remains of three war victims in the northern courtyard of the Sharif University of Technology mosque caused disputes and conflicts. With increasing rumors about the possibility of burying the remains of war casualties in universities, the Islamic Students Association conducted a survey among students, in which more than 83% opposed such burials in universities. However, despite a protest rally against this plan by students, the burial was carried out in collaboration with the Student Basij Organization, and reports of student beatings and the university president were published. A similar incident occurred in 2014 at Amir Kabir University, which led to a reaction from Mehdi Karroubi during a meeting with the families of several students arrested in these conflicts. Mr. Karroubi stated, 'Why were corpses not brought to universities during the time of Imam and afterwards, and why do they want to bring them now? They have seen that the university atmosphere has slipped from their hands or, as they say, has distanced itself from the culture of martyrdom, and they want to bury martyrs in universities to hold programs at their graves for any excuse and check who participates in these programs and who does not, and in the next stage, after identifying the second group, take action against them.' The website Alef also criticized in 2014 that the opposition of the people and government officials, especially officials of the Cultural Heritage Organization, to the burial of eight 'Unknown Martyrs' in the historical Amir Chakhmaq Square of Yazd was turned into a 'fanatical and ideological issue' by extremist forces. Alef wrote, 'Some consider themselves above the law. They believe their support is more sacred than the law. In this simple matter (the burial of war casualties), a group clearly disregards the legal prohibition of burial in historical sites and believes that if a manager adheres to this legal text, they are against martyrs and martyrdom.'