Martyr!

Content Warning: This section includes discussions of death and racism.

Cyrus draws upon a long list of historical martyrs to attempt to justify his own longing for death in the modern world. At many points, the book suggests that this modern form of martyrdom is more about performance and privilege than it is about the more traditional ideals of piety and sacrifice. Describing the cult of martyrs in Iran, Roya observes,

In Isfahan, the old capital, soldiers showed up unannounced at the doors of old women, saying, ‘Congratulations, your sons have been martyred.’ The mothers would have to hold back their tears, wringing their lips into the eerie not-quite-smiles they’d spend the rest of their lives perfecting. They were the lucky ones. Inside Tehran’s Revolution Square, the sons of other mothers hung from cranes (42).

Here, the Iranian military imposes the idea of martyrdom as a privilege onto mothers who have lost their sons to war. This privilege is juxtaposed and therefore heightened by the alternative: a shameful death for the sons who have been killed by the government. This anecdote demonstrates that the social glory of martyrdom helps fuel a violent status quo in Iran, implicitly calling into question the romanticization of martyrdom.