In societies affected by collective violence, social suffering can function as a framework that gathers dispersed individual experiences into a shared collective myth. The figure of the “martyr,” due to its extensive network of cultural and religious connotations, has the potential to become the center of an ideological system of meaning. This article analyzes the process of producing the myth of resistance in the short story “Al-Qabḍ ʿalā al-Shahīd” (The Arrest of the Martyr) by the Iraqi writer Ali Hussein Al-Khabbaz. Addressing the research question of how the mechanisms of constructing the myth of resistance operate, Roland Barthes’ theory of mythology is employed as a qualitative analytical framework to examine the transformation of primary signs into a mythological system.Findings indicate that the character Issam Al-Bayati undergoes a four-stage transformation into a myth of resistance: first, his conversion from a historical figure into an unstable signifier detached from fixed meaning; second, the inscription of the meaning of resistance by the community, elevating him to a central sign; third, the naturalization of this meaning in collective memory to the extent that it is accepted even within opposing discourse; and fourth, the consolidation of the myth’s ideological function in reshaping collective identity and enabling social mobilization. Furthermore, the association of this myth with cultural and religious elements, particularly the Ashura tradition, reinforces its function of resistance at the social level. Ultimately, the myth of resistance in this narrative becomes naturalized as an unquestioned and self-evident reality within the fictional world through semiotic processes.