Tehran turns burial site of executed dissidents into parking lot
A section of Tehran’s largest cemetery holding executed dissidents from the early 1980s has been turned into a parking lot, Iranian officials have confirmed.
A section of Tehran’s largest cemetery holding executed dissidents from the early 1980s has been turned into a parking lot, Iranian officials have confirmed.
Lot 41 in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery contains the remains of members of groups who opposed Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule following Iran’s 1979 revolution—especially the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK)—as well as Baha’is and wealthy individuals accused of “corruption on earth.”
“Lot 41, where hypocrites were buried early in the revolution, was left untouched,” Tehran’s deputy mayor Davoud Goudarzi told reporters, using the pejorative for MEK in the Islamic Republic’s lexicon.
“We suggested to the relevant authorities and later to the provincial supply council that, since people frequently visit Lot 42 and parking was needed, this plot could be converted. We received permission and did it.”
News of the conversion quickly sparked criticism from human rights advocates and families of those buried in Lot 41.
“Destruction of these graves is a serious human rights violation as it hinders future investigations into the mass executions carried out by the Islamic Republic,” Shahin Milani, Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, told Iran International on Tuesday.
‘Curse-land’
For decades, Lot 41 has been heavily guarded, monitored around the clock with cameras and personnel. Some Iranians call it the “section of the executed” or “curse-land,” while the cemetery officials refer to it as the “scorched section.”
Authorities have tried to erase its traces over the decades by breaking headstones, concealing grave markers, burning trees and leveling the ground.
Tehran municipality established Lot 42 at the end of June to bury those killed during Israel’s 12-day military campaign against Iran.
According to Iranian media, Israeli strikes killed dozens of senior security officials and several nuclear scientists. Government figures put the overall toll at more than 1,000 Iranians, including hundreds of military personnel and civilians.
“We turned Lot 41 … into a parking lot for visitors to Lot 42,” cemetery chief Mohammad Javad Tajik told Shargh daily on August 16.
In the aftermath of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, many bodies were never identified or returned to families.
Calls for justice continue to this day, led by survivors, relatives, and human rights groups—who see the destruction of Lot 41 as part of a deliberate effort to erase evidence of past crimes.
“This action violates the dignity and respect of the dead and denies their families the possibility to honor their loved ones,” Milani said.
