A section of Behesht-e Zahra, the largest cemetery in Iran’s capital Tehran, called Lot 41, held the burial of thousands of people who were hanged after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now this place is being converted into a parking lot and their remains are probably buried under a layer of asphalt.
Satellite images revealed
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC clearly show that a parking lot is being built by laying asphalt on Lot 41. Construction material, trucks and piles of asphalt were clearly seen in the pictures. This is the same place where regime-opponents killed by gunshot or hanging in the early days of the revolution were hastily buried.
This place has long been watched through surveillance cameras so that no one can mourn or protest here. Earlier too, graves and stones here were damaged in government-backed vandalism.
UN concerns
A UN Special Rapporteur warned in 2024 that Iran was trying to destroy cemeteries “to erase evidence that could be used for legal accountability in the future.”
Opinions of researchers and experts
Shahin Nasiri, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and a researcher on Lot 41, said:
“The graves and stones of most dissidents were desecrated and the trees were deliberately dried up. The decision to turn this area into a parking lot is part of this wider process and represents the final stage of destruction.”
Clarifications by Iranian officials
Last week, Tehran’s deputy mayor and the cemetery’s manager acknowledged plans to build a parking lot there.
Tehran Deputy Mayor Davoud Goudarzi said: “Here were buried the renegades from the early days of the revolution and the place had been unchanged for years. We proposed that the place be reorganized. Since we needed parking, permission was granted. The work is going on very precisely and smartly.”
The reformist newspaper Shargh quoted Mohammad Javad Tajik, the cemetery’s in-charge, as saying that the parking would be convenient for those who come to visit those buried in that part of the neighborhood who were killed in the recent Iran-Israel war.
Context of the Israel-Iran war
A large number of people, including Iran’s top military generals, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in June 2025. Government figures put the death toll at over 1,060, while activists put the number at as high as 1,190.
Laws and criticism
Under Iran’s own laws, cemetery land can only be reused after 30 years, and only if the families of the dead give permission.
Mohsen Borhani, an outspoken Iranian lawyer, criticized the decision, saying:
“This piece of land was not just for hanged political figures. Ordinary people were also buried here. So turning it into a parking lot is neither ethical nor legal.”
Questions over remains
It is not yet clear whether there are human remains buried under the tarmac or whether Iranian authorities have moved the bones elsewhere. However, Iran has previously destroyed graves of those killed in the 1988 massacre in a similar way and left the bones in place.
The Iranian government has also damaged Baha’i burial grounds and demolished cemeteries where protesters killed in protests ranging from the 2009 Green Movement to the 2022 Mahsa Amini Movement were buried.
Statement by human rights organization
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said:“The Islamic Republic has seen decades of impunity for atrocities and crimes against humanity. There is a direct link from the massacres of the 1980s to the shooting of protesters in 2009 and the mass killings in 2019 and 2022.”
History of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery
The Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery was opened in 1970. It was built on the rural outskirts of Tehran to provide burial space for the dead amid growing population and urbanization.
After returning from exile in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini first visited the cemetery, where those killed in the uprising against the Shah’s regime were buried. His own religious courts later executed many of those buried in Lot 41.
After Khomeini’s death in 1989, a massive gold-domed mausoleum was built there.
How many graves are in Lot 41?
Researcher Nasiri says that according to his and other experts’ studies, Lot 41 contains between 5,000 and 7,000 graves of people whom Iran considered “religious criminals” — including communists, extremists, monarchists and others.
He said:“Many survivors and victims’ families are still searching for the graves of their loved ones. They want justice and for the perpetrators to be held accountable. The deliberate destruction of these graves is another major obstacle to exposing the truth and achieving historical justice.”
