Tehran, Khavaran

Khavaran is a vacant lot, 15 kilometers southeast of Tehran, next to Golestan-e Javid and the Armenian Cemetery, located on Lappeh Zanak Street on Khorasan road. Since the early 1980s, the authorities buried executed Baha’is and political activists associated with leftist political organizations there, calling it “Kofr abad” or “La’nat abad” (damned land).

In 1988, the families of political prisoners discovered several mass graves in this area. They believed the corpses of their relatives killed during the 1988 massacres in Evin and Gohardasht prisons to have been secretly buried there.

The authorities have consistently prevented commemorative gatherings in this place and in 2007 closed the main entrance. In 2008, memorials, grave markers, and plants placed in Khavaran by families were destroyed by bulldozers. Many families believe that during these operations, the remains of executed prisoners were moved to another location.