Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, the first modern organization of death in Iran, has been a part of Iranian modernity, central policies, the division of labor, and the establishment of various institutions in the development of Iranian society. Nowadays, this cemetery is considered one of the twenty-two urban districts of Tehran and has its municipality managed by a mayor. However, the critical point is that the municipality, as an institution, is owned by the living, not the dead. Therefore, the main question is based on what socio-cultural and political reasons does the Iranian government decide to elect a mayor for an institution of death? This paper is a part of my field research in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahar cemetery. First, I will review how the institution of death, with the arrival of modernity in Iran, shifted from a traditional and local to a rational and bureaucratic form. Then, investigating these changes and their effects on the death phenomenon, burial, and mourning, I will show how historical, political, economic, social, and cultural situations have transformed the cemetery from a territory of the dead to a territory of the living. Finally, Behesht-e Zahra is not a cemetery; it is a city that needs a mayor to support the social life of Tehran as a political and ideological representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran.