Reports of suicide attacks around the world have never featured the name of an Iranian national, yet the country has an organisation dedicated to recruiting thousands of volunteers who are committed to fight and die in the name of their Islamic faith. 

Volunteers continue to sign up as potential suicide attackers with the Command for Safeguarding the Martyrs of the Global Movement of Islam, a radical non-government group.

The organisation's leader, Foruz Rajayifar, portrays the volunteer force as a kind of home guard that would only be activated in the eventuality that Iran's armed forces were no longer capable of protecting the country.

However, it is no secret that their purpose is to serve alongside Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinians insurgents, rather than to defend Iran.

In June, the organisation asked to be allowed to send volunteers to accompany an Iranian aid ship to Gaza, saying it had 110,000 ready to do so. The Iranian government did not give approval for this to happen, and in any case a decision was taken not to send the ship. (See Tehran Finds Neat Way Out on Gaza Shipment.)

The first Esteshhadi or "self-martyrdom" unit announced its existence in December 2004, and two years later the organisation said it had 55,000 members, a third of them women. There are no recent statistics on volunteer numbers.

Female volunteers are called "Daughters of Olive" while their male counterparts are called "Men from the Sun".

According to Rajayifar, volunteers do not receive military training, but are prepared psychologically to be able to penetrate enemy lines and carry out a suicide mission.

Javad Montazeri is a photojournalist and multimedia expert. He formerly ran the photography desks of several Iranian daily newspapers.