Shi’i mourning rites and rituals have played an essential role in the legitimation of the Iranian state since the sixteenth century. Over the past one hundred years, these rites and rituals have also emerged as popular religious-cultural sites for political contestation and resistance. In this study, I explore an independent, newly developed mode of practicing mourning rituals in the city of Yazd at the heart of Iran. The movement began almost a decade ago, and it has departed from the rituals’ traditional genre in both content and form to serve as the public’s political tool. I argue and show that Yazd rituals moved away from the dominant tropes of Shi’idiscourse and representation and turned into a protest movement. It does so by three key measures: by focalizing the message of Karbala around the modern concept of freedom instead of martyrdom and sacrifice; using she'r-e now (new poetry) instead of classical-traditional poetry, the former is less rigid, has uneven poetic lines and irregularity in rhyme, and relates to social context and address social and political issues; and finally, taking up a participatory approach in practice making nonhierarchical. Yazd mourning songs have three political implications: they voice sharp radical criticism of political structures and economic conditions, condemn corrupt clerics, and encourage people to stand up against tyranny and oppression. In this study, I engage in a cultural analysis of the most popular Yazd mourning songs over the last decade to examine the conceptual and practical shifts in their meanings and performances. In so doing, I explore the new identities that manifest themselves in these changes.