Iran’s Regime Plans to Turn Graves of 1980s Executions into Parking Lot

Iran News -Aug 20th2025

By Pejman Amiri

Tehran Municipality’s plan for Behesht-e-Zahra’s Plot 41 threatens to erase the memory of political prisoners executed in the 1980s.

Tehran authorities have announced plans that could permanently erase one of the most painful chapters of Iran’s modern history. The deputy mayor of Tehran revealed that Plot 41 of Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery—where hundreds of political prisoners executed in the 1980s are buried—will be reorganized and turned into a parking lot.

Davoud Goodarzi, deputy director of urban services for Tehran Municipality, stated on Tuesday, August 19, that the municipality had obtained permits to build a parking facility. He claimed that Plot 41 had been “abandoned for years” and that the project would be carried out “correctly and intelligently” to serve the needs of visitors to neighboring Plot 42, where victims of the recent Iran-Israel war are buried.

However, Plot 41 is far from an “abandoned” site. It contains the graves of political prisoners executed in the early years after the revolution, many of them members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Families of victims and human rights advocates warn that converting this area into a parking lot would destroy historical landmarks, prevent access to the graves, and further the regime’s ongoing effort to erase the memory of political executions.

A History of Erasure

The Iranian regime has long sought to conceal the graves of its victims. At Behesht-e-Zahra, authorities have previously broken tombstones, uprooted trees, and concealed grave markers to make identification difficult. Plot 41, also known as the “Section of the Executioners” or the “Burnt Plot,” has already faced repeated vandalism and tampering over the years.

Critics argue that the new parking plan fits into a familiar pattern: erasure and fading of collective memory. By eliminating physical traces of the executions, the regime seeks to obstruct researchers, families, and future generations from reconstructing what happened during those years of repression.

Parallels to Khavaran Cemetery

The move echoes what has taken place at Khavaran Cemetery, another burial ground for victims of the regime’s brutal crackdowns. Khavaran is the final resting place of thousands of political prisoners, particularly those massacred in 1988. For decades, families and human rights organizations have been barred from installing headstones, conducting independent research, or even holding memorials without harassment. Authorities have repeatedly tampered with the graves there, further tightening restrictions on preserving historical memory.

Silencing Memory Through Force

For more than 40 years, Plot 41 has been under surveillance and control by the regime’s security forces. Families who attempt to visit face intimidation, and tombstones belonging to PMOI members have often been broken or defaced. While the site has already been partially destroyed, the proposed parking lot would represent its complete eradication.

Families and rights groups argue that this move is not about urban planning but about silencing history. By erasing the graves of those executed in the 1980s, the regime hopes to erase the evidence of its crimes.

The transformation of Plot 41 into a parking lot is therefore more than a municipal project. It is another step in the regime’s systematic attempt to bury the truth along with the victims—an assault not only on the families of the executed but on the collective memory of a nation still struggling with its past.

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