Iran International
Iran's Ashura commemorations have again become a stage for competing political narratives, with government supporters and opponents alike using Shi'ite mourning rituals to advance sharply different messages.
Every year during the Islamic month of Muharram, millions of Shi'ite Muslims across Iran commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in 680 AD.
Hardliners often invoke his example to argue Iran should continue confronting the United States, while government critics use the same symbolism to condemn injustice at home.
Political messaging also comes through speeches by eulogists (maddahs), who preside over ceremonies recounting Hussein's sacrifice and heroism.
At one ceremony, well-known maddah Reza Narimani criticized President Masoud Pezeshkian for disclosing in a recent speech that funds equivalent to the value of 20 million barrels of oil had been allocated to the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force during the war.
Narimani also claimed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei opposed negotiations and an agreement with Washington and had merely observed the government's recent diplomatic efforts.
Another eulogist, Mohammad Reza Bazri, criticized officials he accused of ignoring "the ten conditions of the Imam"—a reference to slain leader Ali Khamenei—while pursuing an agreement with Washington and failing to respond to what he described as US violations of the ceasefire.
"The Iranian people would never consent to an agreement with the United States," he claimed.
Opposition mourning
Government critics have likewise used Ashura ceremonies to express dissent, often through traditional mourning chants or carefully worded speeches condemning injustice without directly naming officials.
Religious gatherings in Yazd and Bushehr have become known for incorporating such politically charged poetry.
One widely performed lament, heard again this year, calls on people to rise up and "bring down the idols and palaces of tyrannical rulers."
Another popular mourning chant, which has gained prominence among religious opponents of the government in recent years, criticizes what it portrays as state-sponsored religion.
"In your religion, there is God's name, but God is absent," the lyrics say.
The poem's author, Shahabeddin Mousavi, was detained for a period after it became widely known.
Remembering those killed
While many ceremonies are organized or supported by the state, independent local communities also hold mourning processions that sometimes become venues for political expression.
According to social media posts, some Ashura gatherings this year included performances of the patriotic song Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan ("From the Blood of the Nation's Youth") in memory of thousands of young people killed during the January unrest.
Originally composed during Iran's Constitutional Revolution more than a century ago, the song likens the blood of fallen youth to red tulips blooming from the earth.
At some ceremonies, eulogists reportedly read aloud the names of those killed.
In the central city of Arak, the mother of Mohammad Radmannia, a 29-year-old who was fatally shot in the back of the head with live ammunition in Tehran, urged mourners to continue her son's path.
In a village in the northern province of Gilan, mourners attached a photograph of Mani Safarpour, an 18-year-old from Lahijan who was also killed in Tehran, to a ceremonial drum and cymbals before gathering at his grave to perform chest-beating rituals.
Some opposition activists criticized fellow government opponents for attending Ashura ceremonies, arguing that the events are widely viewed because of state promotion as expressions of support for the Islamic Republic.
"The massacre of protesters in January was carried out on the direct orders of the leader of Shi'ites (Ali Khamenei), while other senior clerics remained silent," one user wrote on X. "A couple of Yazdi or Bushehri mourning chants cannot erase that crime from our society's memory."
Another user wrote: "The blood that was unjustly spilled will never be washed away. No lament or elegy can diminish the scale of this tragedy in our collective memory."
Others defended participation in the ceremonies.
"These mourning chants serve to remind people of those tragedies," one user argued.
Another wrote that participating in Ashura ceremonies was "part of the struggle to reclaim religious symbols" from the government.
A further comment added: "When will people understand that many ordinary religious Iranians have nothing to do with the government or its hardline supporters?"
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.