Gilles Deleuze called ele­gy “la grande plainte,” which trans­lates to “the great com­plaint,” sym­bol­iz­ing the pro­found sor­row that is often felt in the face of over­whelm­ing loss or soci­etal wrongs. This con­cept of deep grief has a par­tic­u­lar rel­e­vance in Iran­ian cul­ture, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the obser­vance of Ashu­ra. The day marks the mar­tyr­dom of Imam Hus­sain, who died in 680 CE dur­ing the Bat­tle of Kar­bala, and has since become an emblem of sac­ri­fice and defi­ance. His death, at the age of fifty-five, remains a pro­found event for Ira­ni­ans, and its lega­cy con­tin­ues to res­onate deeply with­in the nation. Ashu­ra is more than just a his­tor­i­cal com­mem­o­ra­tion; it is an ongo­ing expe­ri­ence of mourn­ing and reflec­tion that is woven into the fab­ric of Iran­ian iden­ti­ty. The per­son­al and col­lec­tive grief asso­ci­at­ed with this day extends far beyond the imme­di­ate loss of a reli­gious leader, touch­ing on themes of resis­tance, jus­tice, and the human strug­gle for mean­ing in a tumul­tuous world.

Ashu­ra is not just a day of reflec­tion on past tragedies but also a reminder of how those events remain rel­e­vant to con­tem­po­rary expe­ri­ences. The state­ment, “What hap­pened thir­teen cen­turies ago is still too much for us,” reflects the endur­ing nature of the pain asso­ci­at­ed with Imam Hussain’s mar­tyr­dom. Ira­ni­ans do not sim­ply remem­ber the events of Karbala—they con­tin­ue to feel the weight of that his­tor­i­cal grief as though it were hap­pen­ing today. “La grande plainte” becomes a liv­ing, breath­ing expres­sion of this grief, remind­ing every gen­er­a­tion of the sac­ri­fices made for the ideals of jus­tice and right­eous­ness. This per­pet­u­al mourn­ing cre­ates a deep emo­tion­al bond between the Iran­ian peo­ple and their his­to­ry, ensur­ing that past suf­fer­ings are not rel­e­gat­ed to mere his­tor­i­cal facts but are con­stant­ly reliv­ed and felt as an ongo­ing part of the nation’s col­lec­tive emo­tion­al land­scape. The rit­u­al of Ashu­ra, with its prayers, pro­ces­sions, and sym­bol­ic acts of mourn­ing, per­pet­u­ates this ongo­ing cycle of remem­brance and grief, weav­ing it into the social and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty of the peo­ple.

The con­cept of Shekay­at bazorg, or “the great com­plaint,” fur­ther illus­trates how his­tor­i­cal trau­ma con­tin­ues to shape Iran­ian soci­ety. It reflects the belief that the past is nev­er tru­ly left behind but instead con­tin­u­al­ly shapes the present. As Ira­ni­ans come togeth­er annu­al­ly to observe Ashu­ra, they col­lec­tive­ly express this sor­row, turn­ing it into a shared rit­u­al that rein­forces nation­al uni­ty. The sig­nif­i­cance of Ashu­ra lies not just in com­mem­o­rat­ing Imam Hussain’s mar­tyr­dom, but in the shared cul­tur­al mem­o­ry of resis­tance, oppres­sion, and the fight for jus­tice that tran­scends indi­vid­ual lives and touch­es the core of the nation’s iden­ti­ty. In this way, Ashu­ra serves as both a per­son­al and com­mu­nal expe­ri­ence, unit­ing Ira­ni­ans from diverse back­grounds in their shared grief, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly rein­forc­ing the val­ues of sac­ri­fice, jus­tice, and moral integri­ty. The act of remem­ber­ing becomes a pow­er­ful tool for under­stand­ing the present and shap­ing the future, ensur­ing that the lessons learned from the past con­tin­ue to guide the Iran­ian peo­ple.

Ashu­ra also plays a crit­i­cal role in pre­serv­ing the iden­ti­ty of the Iran­ian peo­ple, con­nect­ing them to their past and ground­ing them in a col­lec­tive under­stand­ing of what it means to be Iran­ian. The rit­u­als sur­round­ing Ashu­ra ensure that the lega­cy of Imam Hussain’s mar­tyr­dom is not mere­ly a his­tor­i­cal foot­note but a vibrant, ongo­ing force in shap­ing the country’s cul­tur­al and nation­al iden­ti­ty. By engag­ing with the mem­o­ry of the past in such a pro­found way, Ira­ni­ans main­tain a deep con­nec­tion to the prin­ci­ples of jus­tice, integri­ty, and sac­ri­fice that Hussain’s mar­tyr­dom sym­bol­izes. This ongo­ing cycle of remem­brance serves not only to hon­or the past but to pro­vide a moral and emo­tion­al foun­da­tion for con­fronting the chal­lenges of the present. Ashu­ra, there­fore, is not only an ele­gy for a mar­tyr but a liv­ing, evolv­ing prac­tice that con­tin­ues to shape the Iran­ian con­scious­ness, ensur­ing that the val­ues of sac­ri­fice and resis­tance remain cen­tral to the Iran­ian iden­ti­ty.