About the Podcast:
- Has the modern world sanitised death, and what have we lost in the process?
- Is the reality of human existence rooted in suffering, with happiness merely temporary? Does Muharram act as a reminder?
- Can the senses – touch, smell, taste, sound, sight – be pathways to reach God??
Drawing from his forthcoming book Senses of Mourning: Moharram Performances in Shi’i Iran from the Qajar to the Covid Era, Dr Babak Rahimi of UC San Diego asks a question many have wondered, but few have explored: why do Shi’as keep mourning? This episode reveals mourning not as passive grief but as active devotion, a technique for connecting to God through the body, the senses, and collective memory.
We begin with the philosophical claim that mourning is foundational to human existence—that we are, in Dr Rahimi’s words, “always either melancholic or in a state of mourning.” From there, we examine how Shiism transformed this existential condition into a ritual culture centred on Karbala. We explore how modernity’s devotion to pleasure has pushed death to the margins, how hospitals have sanitised the corpse, and how Muharram insists we confront what modern life conceals. The conversation moves through the gendered performances of grief, the capitalisation and standardisation of ritual by state and digital platforms, and the grassroots creativity that resists homogenization. Dr Rahimi, who describes himself as working at the intersection of multiple paths, offers a sensory framework that foregrounds the people experiencing Muharram, their memories, their bodies, and their hopes for a better world to come.
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Learn More About Our Guest:
Dr Babak Rahimi is Associate Professor of Communication, Culture and Religion at UC San Diego, where he directs the Program for the Study of Religion and the Middle East Studies Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the European University Institute in Florence and an M.A. in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy from the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on the intersections of culture, religion, and technology, with particular emphasis on sensory religion, public sphere theory, and the historical contexts of early modern Islamicate societies. Dr. Rahimi has held visiting fellowships at the London School of Economics and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
Read More of His Insights:
- Rahimi, B. (2026) Senses of Mourning: Moharram Performances in Shi’i Iran, 1866/7-2020. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Rahimi, B. (ed.) (2021) Performing Iran: Culture, Performance, Theatre. London: I.B. Tauris.
- Rahimi, B. and Eshaghi, P. (eds.) (2019) Muslim Pilgrimage in the Modern World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Key Themes Explored:
- Mourning as devotion and existential reflection
- Suffering as a technique for connecting to the divine (affective piety)
- The sensory dimensions of religious experience
- Memory, collective identity, and the creation of the “other”
- The carnivalesque and grotesque in Muharram performances
- Modernity’s sanitisation of death and devotion to pleasure
- Standardisation and capitalisation of Muharram by the state and digital platforms
- Grassroots diversity and resistance to homogenization
