International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 109

International Journal on Criminology
is due to the doctrinal construction and current history of the new identity of the
shahid. Iranian prerevolutionary literature (notably that of the leading ideologue,
Ali Shariati) has contributed greatly to the humanization of the leading “twelver”
Shiite martyr, Imam Hussein. In support of revolutionary aspirations against the
regime of the Shah, ideologues worked on secularizing the figure of the martyr.
Man must act as if he were Imam Hussein, sacrificing himself to escape oppression,
even if it means (due to the influence of strongly leftist concepts) desanctifying
the Imam, whose extraordinarily significant actions in facing certain death
and fighting injustice were inspired by God.
Beyond this prerevolutionary ideological literature—which has made martyrdom
a collective and human action rather than a specifically sacred one—the
contemporary Shiite martyr is also a historical construct, particularly evident in
the martyrdom during the Iran–Iraq war of the young Hossein Fahmideh. It was
in this incident that the political promotion of the sacrificial individual found its
expression. When the suicide bomber sacrificed himself in order to repel the Iraqi
tanks that were advancing toward Kout Sheikh, the Iraqi army found themselves
facing a new phenomenon: the sacrifice of a life as a weapon of war.
The weapon itself was not new, but its exploitation by the state during the
Iran–Iraq war was to become an unprecedented policy: martyrdom became an
institution. It became a means of social advancement that contributed to a redefinition
of the social hierarchy, a means of massification, and a phenomenon supported
by a state-run economy (through the bonyads). 6
The Revival of the Shiite Martyr in Opposition to Takfirism
Martyrdom remains linked to the sacred, but it is the nation and its mouthpiece—
the state—that is held to be sacred, rather than God. Moreover, it has a very different
character from traditional martyrdom, a character that makes it a true weapon
of war. In its modern guise from the beginning of the Islamic Republic, martyrdom
is no longer a phenomenon that is extraordinary and therefore isolated. It has been
humanized (everyone can be a martyr) and massified (everyone must be a martyr)
through the propaganda machine. The modern figure of the Iranian martyr
did not, however, die with the end of the Iran–Iraq war. Those in power were able
to re-invoke its spirit when events required. For example, the symbol of Hossein
sive or offensive. It can be a personal struggle; that of the will against one’s desires (i.e. those that
conflict with what Islam advocates). This is what Ibn Rushd (Averroes) called the jihad of the heart.
In this sense, jihad really means ijtihad, that is, a striving for internal purity. However, in the same
way that the Koran includes both passages encouraging peace and mercy while also promoting war
and violence, the term jihad also explicitly denotes war (there are 41 occurrences of the term in the
Koran, of which 19 mean a “battle for the cause of God,” one of which is explicitly nonviolent, while
the others relate to combat in the military dimension). Nonetheless, jihadism in its contemporary
ideological form is external and linked to the fight against Western domination.
6 The Bonyad-e Shahid (Martyrs’ Foundations) were established in Iran from 1979 to assist the destitute,
injured veterans, and the families of martyrs of the revolution and the war.
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