In Iran, every spring, thousands of families travel to the battle sites of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Many of those who make these pilgrimages – called Rahian-e Noor in Persian (the passenger of light) – lost loved ones in the war, which caused more than half a million deaths on the Iranian side.

But they are also supported and organised by the regime, which sees the opportunity to disseminate its doctrine.

Thousands of pilgrims travel to the Shalamcheh war memorial in Iran, a few hundred metres from the Iraqi border

This photo essay focuses on the memorials of Shalamcheh, Talaieh and Arvand Kenar during the period of Nowruz, the Iranian new year.

Coming here gives me a feeling similar to coming out of a period of depression Fatima

Hundreds of buses are chartered from Tehran and the country’s main cities to transport families to the memorials.

Pilgrims take a quick boat tour on the Arvand Kenar memorial at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab River, which separates Iran from Iraq

Cruise passengers walk over American and Israeli flags painted on the deck of their cruise boat

Children arrive by bus at the memorial site. They are wearing T-shirts bearing the portraits of Ayatollah Khamenei and martyrs

Women remove their shoes at the entrance to the memorial. For them, this land is sacred

On the Talaieh memorial, a man from the Basij militia, an Iranian volunteer force, takes shelter from the sun under a giant reproduction of a military helmet

A couple rests in the shade of a ruin

The man who supervises the young Basij volunteer force, with his arm raised, is called Jaber

If Iran is attacked, it will not only be defended by the military but also by all of us in the Basij volunteer force Jaber

A woman holds her baby, wearing a banner indicating the expectation of the one who must return, a Shia reference to the missing 12th Imam, who must return to earth for the last judgment. Right, at the entrance of the memorial, stalls mix war memories, religious articles and military toys

One of the many propaganda posters, this one warns Iranians against the ‘soft war’ of the country’s enemies: ‘The war is also made of 1 and 0’

“Of course, the regime is trying to use these historical battlefields to indoctrinate youth,” says Amélie Myriam Chelly, “but make no mistake about it: this model now only works on a very small margin of young Iranians. This desire to revive the ghost of the martyr only works on families close to the Revolutionary Guards. For the rest of the population, it is rightly perceived as what it is – a charade.”