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Abstract
Despite the limited number of peace museums around the world, there exists an essential role for existing peace museums to promote a culture of peace and peace education. The purpose of this article was to introduce the origins, rationale, scope and work of the Tehran Peace Museum in Iran. The concept of the museum is to facilitate peace education and develop peaceful environments drawn from the personal experiences of war survivors. The museum encompasses exhibitions about the horrors of chemical and nuclear warfare and is balanced with awareness programmes, bridge-building dialogues, connections with other peace museums and a comprehensive peace education programme catering for younger and older members of society. It offers the space and opportunity for a community of learning within the museum and welcomes fresh ideas and initiatives from visitors and volunteers. The Tehran Peace Museum is unique in its body of volunteers, men and women who have been directly affected by chemical weapons. They are involved in the Veterans Voices of Peace Oral History Project and actively voice the need for creating peaceful societies in today’s world.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), known in Iran as the Imposed War, was a border dispute between the two countries over the Arvand Rud/Shatt al Arab Waterway in the Persian Gulf.
2. Sulphur mustard, mustard gas, is a cytotoxic and vesicant chemical warfare agent. It is normally colourless and emits a smell similar to garlic. It leaves large blisters on the skin and causes damage to the lungs and the eyes.
3. The Geneva Protocol was signed in Geneva on 17 June 1925 at a conference held under the auspices of the League of Nations and prohibited the use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices.
4. UN Doc: S/16433, 26 March 1984.
5. Unlike conventional bombs, chemical bombs do not explode noisily, as there is no explosive device. The gas and chemicals leak out from the bomb itself to infect victims.
6. UNMOVIC: Unresolved Disarmament issues, Iraq’s Proscribed Weapons Programs, 6 March 2003, UNMOVIC Working document.
7. United Nations Security Council. Report of the Specialists Appointed by the Secretary General to Investigate Allegations by the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning the Use of Chemical Weapons. S/16433, 26 March 1984.UN Document S/18,852, 8 May 1987 – United Nations Security Council. UN Document S/18866, 15 May 1987.
9. This section was inspired by ideas from the book A Higher form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (Random House Citation1982) by Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman.
11. Riley, Harry: Remember Me (The Voice of the Dead) http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/RemembranceB.htm#Remain.
12. The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction is administered by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
13. A border town in western Iran.
14. Sleep Apnoea is a type of sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing or instances of shallow or infrequent breathing during sleep.
15. Debridement is the medical removal of dead, damaged or infected skin tissue to help the healing process of healthy tissue.
18. International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (www.ippnw.org).
19. Hilary Cremin is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, who researches and teaches in the areas peace education and conflict resolution in schools and communities internationally. She has worked in the public, private and voluntary sector as a school teacher, educational consultant, project coordinator and academic. Hilary has been the principal investigator in a number of prestigious externally funded research projects, and has published her work extensively over a number of years. Her latest book is an edited collection, Sellman, E., Cremin, H., and McCluskey, G. (2014) (Eds) Restorative Approaches to Conflict in Schools: International perspectives on managing relationships in the classroom, London: Routledge http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/cremin/.
Sa’di Shirazi is one of the most famous Persian poets of the mediaeval period. His often-quoted poetry deals with social and moral conduct.