(Dis)abling Sacrifice: Veterans’ Classification in Iran

This paper examines how disabled Iranian and Afghan ex-combatants oppose hierarchies among veterans and demand welfare benefits in Iran by mobilising a state-propagated sacrificial reasoning that defies economic calculations and encourages pan-Islamic solidarity. I show how the scope of veterans’ benefits are conditioned by the biometric assessment of disability and migration policies, which in turn produce different classifications of war veterans and perpetuate civic inequalities. I address how struggles to secure benefit entitlements, which involves questioning the multiple ‘ordering’ of disability in state institutions, have made it possible for both Iranian and Afghan ex-combatants to contest the state’s exclusionary care practices. Building on the anthropological literature on biological citizenship, I contribute to an understanding of the relation between disability and citizenship acts, in which appealing to sacrificial reasoning provides a counterweight to legal, medical, and national boundaries of deservingness, and enables both citizens and non-citizens to stake claims to social equity.