Hajar Ghorbani
I am a Ph.D. candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Alberta, specializing in death studies with a focus on Iran. I am privileged to be a recipient of the prestigious Killam Scholar award 2023 and the 2024 Vanier Graduate Student Scholarship, having been ranked first among 193 applicants.
My research, conducted over six years of extensive fieldwork in Iran, explores two main themes: The Modernization of Death and The Politicization of Death in Iran. These studies aim to illuminate the dynamic interplay between death rituals and socio-political transformations within Iranian society.
As an editor, I have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of twenty-five experts across fields such as Sociology, Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Law, Art and Literature, Religion, and Architecture. Together, we produced the pioneering edited volume titled "Social Studies of Death in Iran," marking a significant contribution to the academic treatment of death and dying in the region.
In my capacity as Iran’s ambassador to the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS), I try to elevate the discourse on death in Iran to a global platform, focusing particularly on engaging Western academic circles. My work in this role includes delivering keynote speeches at international forums, including a notable presentation at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, UK.
Complementing my academic research, my artistic expertise include proficiency in Wood Carving, Pastel Technique Painting, and Graphic Design. I am also deeply engaged in a project to produce a documentary exploring the theme of Martyrdom in Shia culture. My artistic works, including a series dedicated to remarkable Iranian women, have been exhibited at Isfahan University of Art, reflecting my commitment to blending academic inquiry with creative expression.
Currently, I am working towards completing my dissertation titled "The Politics of Death in Contemporary Iran," aiming to further our understanding of the cultural, social, and political dimensions of death in modern contexts.
Supervisors: Marko Zivkovic, Joseph Hill, and Mojtaba Mahdavi Ardakani
My research, conducted over six years of extensive fieldwork in Iran, explores two main themes: The Modernization of Death and The Politicization of Death in Iran. These studies aim to illuminate the dynamic interplay between death rituals and socio-political transformations within Iranian society.
As an editor, I have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of twenty-five experts across fields such as Sociology, Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Law, Art and Literature, Religion, and Architecture. Together, we produced the pioneering edited volume titled "Social Studies of Death in Iran," marking a significant contribution to the academic treatment of death and dying in the region.
In my capacity as Iran’s ambassador to the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS), I try to elevate the discourse on death in Iran to a global platform, focusing particularly on engaging Western academic circles. My work in this role includes delivering keynote speeches at international forums, including a notable presentation at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, UK.
Complementing my academic research, my artistic expertise include proficiency in Wood Carving, Pastel Technique Painting, and Graphic Design. I am also deeply engaged in a project to produce a documentary exploring the theme of Martyrdom in Shia culture. My artistic works, including a series dedicated to remarkable Iranian women, have been exhibited at Isfahan University of Art, reflecting my commitment to blending academic inquiry with creative expression.
Currently, I am working towards completing my dissertation titled "The Politics of Death in Contemporary Iran," aiming to further our understanding of the cultural, social, and political dimensions of death in modern contexts.
Supervisors: Marko Zivkovic, Joseph Hill, and Mojtaba Mahdavi Ardakani
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پس از توصیفاتِ مراحلِ انجامِ آیینهای مرگ در مجموعۀ عروجیان، واقع در سازمانِ بهشتزهرا، نشان دادهایم که آیینهای مرگ در دو الگویِ پیشامدرن و مدرن برگزار میشدند. موردِ اوّل مبتنی بر عقلانیّت ارزشیــ یعنی ارزشهای دینی و ثوابِ اُخرویــ بود، امّا امروزه در الگوی مدرن برگزاریِ این آیینها مبتنی بر عقلانیّت بوروکراسیِ سازمان بهشت زهرا است که تخصصیشدن و یک تقسیم اجتماعیِ کار را با خود بههمراه داشته است. همچنین، برخلافِ گذشته، این سازمان است که تمامیِ آیینهای وابسته به جسد را انجام میدهد و بازماندگان را از مشارکت سنّتیـ مذهبی در تدفین نزدیکان متوفی بازمیدارد، که خود منجر به انفصالِ کنشهای فیزیکیـ عاطفی در تجربه آيينهاي تدفين است. یعنی در فرآیندِ انجامِ آیینها تکنولوژی و عقلانیّت به مثابه ابزاری ظهور کردهاند تا یک جسد هرچه زودتر و بهشیوهای آسانتر به خاک سپرده شود. تمامیِ این دگرگونیها، حذف و اضافهشدنها ناشی از ظاهرشدنِ یک تجربۀ نو در نظامِ شهریِ مدرنِ تهران است که از آن میتوان با نامِ بوروکراتیکشدنِ پدیدۀ تدفین نام برد. این مسأله منجر به شکلگیری تغییراتِ فرهنگی در تجربه شده و درک جدیدی از تدفین و مسأله متوفی و مرگ را به همراه داشته است.
Observation and photography were conducted in the cemetery to better understand this symbol. The semiotic system of the gravestones was categorized into two types: text, which pertains to religious principles and the biography of the deceased person, and images, which depict gender and describe the individual in the context of an illiterate and oral culture among common people. The presence of the comb, together with other religious visual symbols in accordance with Islamic traditions and belief systems, signifies a male gender association. However, it's worth noting that we observed only two-headed combs on the gravestones, representing a female gender symbol. We also identified several significant binary oppositions, including male/female, intrinsic/extrinsic, private/public, socio-economic occupation/housekeeping, and cultural-religious/natural elements, forming the basis of the visual sign system on gravestones to convey the religious and cultural representation of gender.
Conference Presentations by Hajar Ghorbani
In the conclusion it will be shown that not only Karbala event or, as Fischer have stated, Karbala paradigm in Shia culture have had an important role in constructing these two concepts and legitimizing other nation states in the history of Irano-Shiite culture but also it have had a very important function in legitimizing nation state in the contemporary Iran.
In addition, we will witness strengthening of these concepts to the extent that it caused synchronization of martyrs’ funeral with political and religious conflicts, celebration of memorial days and martyrs commemorations, symbolic funerals and recently caused creation of new burial places.
پس از توصیفاتِ مراحلِ انجامِ آیینهای مرگ در مجموعۀ عروجیان، واقع در سازمانِ بهشتزهرا، نشان دادهایم که آیینهای مرگ در دو الگویِ پیشامدرن و مدرن برگزار میشدند. موردِ اوّل مبتنی بر عقلانیّت ارزشیــ یعنی ارزشهای دینی و ثوابِ اُخرویــ بود، امّا امروزه در الگوی مدرن برگزاریِ این آیینها مبتنی بر عقلانیّت بوروکراسیِ سازمان بهشت زهرا است که تخصصیشدن و یک تقسیم اجتماعیِ کار را با خود بههمراه داشته است. همچنین، برخلافِ گذشته، این سازمان است که تمامیِ آیینهای وابسته به جسد را انجام میدهد و بازماندگان را از مشارکت سنّتیـ مذهبی در تدفین نزدیکان متوفی بازمیدارد، که خود منجر به انفصالِ کنشهای فیزیکیـ عاطفی در تجربه آيينهاي تدفين است. یعنی در فرآیندِ انجامِ آیینها تکنولوژی و عقلانیّت به مثابه ابزاری ظهور کردهاند تا یک جسد هرچه زودتر و بهشیوهای آسانتر به خاک سپرده شود. تمامیِ این دگرگونیها، حذف و اضافهشدنها ناشی از ظاهرشدنِ یک تجربۀ نو در نظامِ شهریِ مدرنِ تهران است که از آن میتوان با نامِ بوروکراتیکشدنِ پدیدۀ تدفین نام برد. این مسأله منجر به شکلگیری تغییراتِ فرهنگی در تجربه شده و درک جدیدی از تدفین و مسأله متوفی و مرگ را به همراه داشته است.
Observation and photography were conducted in the cemetery to better understand this symbol. The semiotic system of the gravestones was categorized into two types: text, which pertains to religious principles and the biography of the deceased person, and images, which depict gender and describe the individual in the context of an illiterate and oral culture among common people. The presence of the comb, together with other religious visual symbols in accordance with Islamic traditions and belief systems, signifies a male gender association. However, it's worth noting that we observed only two-headed combs on the gravestones, representing a female gender symbol. We also identified several significant binary oppositions, including male/female, intrinsic/extrinsic, private/public, socio-economic occupation/housekeeping, and cultural-religious/natural elements, forming the basis of the visual sign system on gravestones to convey the religious and cultural representation of gender.
In the conclusion it will be shown that not only Karbala event or, as Fischer have stated, Karbala paradigm in Shia culture have had an important role in constructing these two concepts and legitimizing other nation states in the history of Irano-Shiite culture but also it have had a very important function in legitimizing nation state in the contemporary Iran.
In addition, we will witness strengthening of these concepts to the extent that it caused synchronization of martyrs’ funeral with political and religious conflicts, celebration of memorial days and martyrs commemorations, symbolic funerals and recently caused creation of new burial places.
Co-Editors: Dr Panagiotis Pentaris, Dr Stacey Pitsillides & Hajar Ghorbani
Overview
Social and cultural factors can strongly influence how we approach death and dying, including attitudes towards death, rituals and practices surrounding death, and end-of-life care. The World Health Organization notes that understanding these factors is important for improving the quality of life and care for individuals facing life-limiting illnesses (WHO, 2021).
Hamilton et al. (2022) note that current knowledge in death studies tends to be influenced by Western views, conforming identities, specific disciplines, the English language, and a certain generation, which can limit its application to policy and practice. The authors argue that decolonising death studies requires exploring the nature of knowledge that underpins claimed expertise in this area, which has universal implications for policies, practices, theory, and research. This is not a new argument, but one which was noted in 1978 by Lofland, critiquing the happy death movement’s lack of diversity, claiming that its proponents were predominantly heteronormative, white and affluent. More contemporary research groups in death studies, like the Queer Death Studies Network (2016) and the Collective for Radical Death Studies, address this by collecting a wider body of literature in the field of death studies.
The increasing diversity and plurality of populations around the world necessitates further attention to diversifying evidence and knowledge to ensure that it effectively serves its beneficiaries (Mokhov and Pentaris, 2022). However, there is potential risk for re-colonising knowledge in this area due to the persistence of English-speaking, Western, and conforming expertise in the field that may or may not understand the connected histories of colonialism. To address this, networks of knowledge and expertise that challenge these limitations and seek to avoid the risk of re-colonisation to broaden the case of knowledge and key texts used by death studies researchers are needed. Such networks may be physical, contextual or digital, but they always lead to collective discourses that break free from the colonisation of death studies.
The editor received full financial support from Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery for the publication of the book
Editor: Hajar Ghorbani
Publication: Anthropology
Location: Tehran, Iran
Language: Persian
Contents:
Introduction
Authors Biography
Death an Interdisciplinary Study
Chapter1
Social History of Death in Iran- Saeed Tavoosi Masroor
Death and Organizing its Space- Arash Heidari
Urban Cemeteries: Past and Present- Kaveh Mansoori
Chapter 2
Reversing the Meaning of Death- Reza Mahoozi
Religion, Death, and City- Mohammadreza Pouyafar
Death in the Pandemic- Reza Taslimitehrani
Death, Inheritance, and Equality- Mojtaba Vaezi and Hojjat Jaleh
Chapter 3
Disease, Aging, and Death in the Present Society- Nasser Fakouhi
Euthanasia in the Age of Capitalism
Body and Death After the Post Revolution- Fatemeh Sayyarpour
The Last Station- Gholam Hossein Motamedi
Hospitals and the Meaning of Death- Mohammad Zeinali-Onari
Chapter 4
A New Meaning of Martyrdom- Eric Butel
Martyr, Martyrdom and the Nation-State- Hajar Ghorbani
Death in the Post Revolutionary Calendar- Zohreh Soroush Far
The Secret of Graves- Alireza Kamari
Unification of Graves of the Iran-Iraq war martyrs- Mohsenhesam Mazaheri
Chapter 5
Death in Persian Paintings- Mohammadreza Moridi
Themes of Death in Contemporary Iranian Photo-Related Art-Practices- Agnes Rameder
Other Houses- Naser Fakouhi and Mehrdad Oskui
Glazing of a Cemetery- Mehdi Yazdani Khorram
Chapter5
A cemetery is not a silent space- Mohammad Reza Haeri
The Other Place: The Cemetery of Tehran- Sepideh Parsa Pajouh
Death and the Iranian Modernity- Zohreh Bayatrizi and Hajar Ghorbani
Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra a Live Society- Jabbar Rahmani
The Risk of Management, The Risk of Death- Zohreh Bayatrizi and Hajar Ghorbani
world, containing one and a half million graves. It is the main cemetery for a city of eight million residents. Due to the high volume of bodies arriving for burial everyday as well as the uniformity of Shia Islamic burial rituals, protocols have developed to implement an efficient division of labour and speed up the process. We study how this organizational and bureaucratic division of labour interacts with the communityoriented
spirit of Shia Islamic burial rituals, the compromises that have to be, and the human impact. We also examine the implications of these developments for a number of existing theories regarding “modernity” and the “sequestration of death”.