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Paper short abstract

This paper introduces the term 'Multi-Scenic Funerals' to try to explain the complex, contested and intertwined sociocultural and legal practices involved in burying Muslim migrants who died or went missing while attempting to cross Spanish borders in search of refuge and a better life in Europe.

Paper long abstract

Migrants in search of refuge and a better life in Europe have been dying and disappearing in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and in the African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla while trying to reach Spain's southern borders for almost 40 years. The first dead body was found on the shores of Los Lances, Cádiz, in November 1988, as a result of a shipwreck (Andalucía Acoge & porCausa, 2018). However, since 2021, death has also happened at the borders of northern Spain, when migrants decide to continue their journey through Europe.

In regard to border deaths in Spain, a large number of these persons were Muslims. Although the Spanish Organic Law on Religious Freedom (1980) should guarantee the right of each person to receive a dignified burial according to their religious beliefs, the reality is quite different. Spanish funerary architecture is mostly based on cemetery wall niches. Consequently, whether they are identified or not, these persons usually end up being buried there in charity graves, while Muslim funeral rites expect the body, among other Islamic principles, to be buried in an individual grave underground.

Therefore, the proposal of 'Multi-Scenic Funerals' in this paper is based on Islamic burial practices and the way they clash with Spanish cultural and legal funerary frameworks. This paper aims to introduce this term to illustrate and explain how this specific necropolitical context not only transforms experiences and expressions of mourning and burial among Muslim families and communities, but also shapes Spanish cemeteries.