Why does IRI bury obscure fallen soldiers of war in Universities?

Author: Elinor (Iran) - February 29, 2008

Yes, it’s been some time that they bury the bodies of fallen soldiers of war of Iran and Iraq in the universities of our country. Students are very angry. Some years back this measure caused unrest in Sharif university of technology in Tehran and as a result the vice president of the university was beaten up by the students, but they buried the bodies in the university any way. Even now and then we hear of such activities in the universities and people are even sure the bodies belong to fallen soldiers. Students do not like their universities being served as graveyards, and the families of fallen soldiers of the war find this insulting as well. They do not want the bodies of soldiers being played with anymore.

Yesterday, in the University of Science and Technology in Tehran through another ceremony, the burial took place and the president stated that the act was a very important task being done.

As a member of MEY I want to ask you guys from all over the ME, and the rest of the people who might read these posts, how do you feel about all this? If you were a university student how would you take it? Why you think they are doing this to us? What exactly is their objective? How would you react if you were (G-d forbid) to experience the same thing?



Report this post

Share This
Print Trackback Feed

9 Responses to “Why does IRI bury obscure fallen soldiers of war in Universities?”

  • david Wrote:

    Those “obscure” fallen heros are the reason why you’re not in a graveyard with an iraqi possing on your head. You apparently really do need to be reminded of that.

  • Elinor (Iran) Wrote:

    David.
    Indeed I agree with you, but does that mean that they have to be burued in the universities by the gov.? Do you find this a cultural or instructive decision ?

  • David:

    burying Unknown Soldiers in universities is not a free-of-politics decision to be respected as offering respect to both the fallen soldier and his family. This brings a political message, and I think the message behind the act is what Elinor and some students do protest against. you know, Imposed War (common name of that war with Saddam in Iran) is currently being exploited in favor of a radical movement to which belong Ahmadinejad and several others who try to revive Original Valuses of Islam and Islamic Revolution; and you know what those Original Values are.

    some people are afraid if such burials pave the way for further pressure. for example, they might call it offensive if a bad-hijab girl is about to cross the yards close to graves of Unknown Soldiers, etc…

  • Elinor (Iran) Wrote:

    Mohammad, it is a very sly decision, too political, but in an explicit and ugly way. There is opposition toward the regime and social issues in the universities, the ones who oppose this burial by the regime would look like the ones who are stepping on the values that as the regimes claims ” had been killed for those values” . This is merely a lie. My dad was killed in the war, and he volunteered for the recruitment, he had already done his military service long before the revolution, he was more a lefty, more affiliated to our communist party. He joined the war for his Motherland. he had nothing to do with these rediculous turbined pretenders who have stabed our nation in the back all these years after the revolution. I get too irritated when i even think about what they have made out of my Cool County, Our cool country. We didn’t need to have a war with iraq. All the years before the revolution, our king, ok an oppressor , as you call him, he tried his best to prevent this unnecessary war. The tenstion was there by the border, but he did try his best to keep Iran out of it, keep Iraqis out of it. Now these very religious ( who buys that , who does? ) ruling class, they try to push us to a war, when they are bankrupt and their throne seems to be shaken, they would love to bring us to the battle filed, to fight the ” enemies of our nation!!!! the assumed enemies” They talk aobut our enemies all the time. The war was fought by Iranian youth, they showed this as the youth backing them with all their might, they showed this as our youth dying for them, as some one who lost her precious dad in the war, I hate how they want interprete the participation of our youth in the war in their favor. I want to see if they create another unnecessary war for their benefits, who elese from our youth is gong to back them.
    We are no one’s enemy, not the enemy of any one’s land, nor nation, nor religion. The ones who try to show otherwise need to go to hell.

  • eric/canada Wrote:

    Well, there are cenopaths and memorials in schools and universities here in Canada to commemorate fallen soldiers who attended these institutions, (mostly from WWII) but are you actually talking about interring bodies on campus???
    That’s pretty freaking ghoulish.
    Also, not in my mind a particularly effective enlistment strategy.
    “Serve your country so mabye you can rest in peace beside the parking lot or cafeteria”
    Aren’t there some pretty strict religious laws concerning how and where the deceased should be interred?

  • Eric:

    Aren’t there some pretty strict religious laws concerning how and where the deceased should be interred?

    With regards to its social, religious and political aspects and dynamics, Islamic Republic is a complex phenomenon most of whose features are yet to be analyzed and understood. You know, Iran’s current regime is based on the idea of ‘rule of jurisprudent’ who is supposed to enact and enforce Islam’s laws. In this theory, the Jurisprudent is allowed to issue a decree and temporarily stop enforcing some Islamic laws if they happen to be so hard to apply, or make non-Muslims disrespect Islam, or cause an intolerable damage to the Islamic Regime, etc.

    Some radical theorists of this regime even claim that Jurisprudent is allowed to abandon most obvious Islamic laws if he finds them endangering the very essence of Islamic Regime, or is allowed to issue orders seemingly in conflict with original Islamic Values if they happen to help to the cause of Islamic regime. In other words, the Jurisprudent is allowed to interpret Islam in favor of the ruling elite.

    Now, let me answer your question: according to this point of view, of which some powerful clergies are approveing, administrators may bury Unknown Soldiers even in a coffee shop if it seems to strengthen the roots of Islamic Regime, even if such an act is originally prohibited by Islam.

  • elinor(Iran) Wrote:

    Eric,
    Universities are just one project for burying the soldiers. The mosques, the squares. Suppose there are islands or places that they didn’t have much people who joined the war, the bodies would be imported to be buried in the island, in a mosque. The are defiling the falling solders and what they want to impose upon the belief of the naive people is that if you go a way that is not attested by us or G-d ( they are the representatives of G-d in the land, didn’t you know that?), then people are stepping on the bodies of the fallen soldiers. It is the most explicit way of manipulating people. I would like to ask any one who knows if as an individual i can place a complaint against it, or if this is illigal. I would like to ask UN to stop this, to denounce this.

  • Elinor:

    once, in a similar case, I asked Gary Sick through email that how we could find a solution, or what his suggestion would be. his answer was unique: “I’m afraid if the solution is not coming from New York or Washington”

    thats the point. I think that the solution to this certain case is to:

    1- demonstrate the very fact that martyrs were brave patriots who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Mother Land, not the regime. indeed, there were many who did the sacrifice for the sake of regime and Ayatollah Khomeini, but that is not applicable to all.

    2- appreciate and demonstrate a difference between the act they did and the ideology they embraced. their act was heroic undoubtedly, but not necessarily every detail of what they had in mind about politics was right. then, we respect their sacrifice, not the policies some of them advocated.

  • Elinor (Iran) Wrote:

    Mohammad,
    This is how most of us think of the fallen soldiers. What prevents us from finding an applicable solution is lack of a unifying factor. It is very sad that our people unite only in the face of danger. I wish there was any other way of perserving a constructive harmony…

Insert your comment:

Quicktags:

Feel free to take part in our discussions and debates. Please be respectful and aware that what you say is only your opinion and may not agree with other points of views. Absolutely no hate speech or defamation will be tolerated. Be smart and comment smart. Read our comment policy to find out how not to annoy us.

Our Podcasts
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Make a difference

  • Stay informed

  • Login Form

Explore Our Projects