Tens of thousands of mourners packed a sprawling prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday as Iran launched a week of funeral ceremonies for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The proceedings opened with the national anthem, religious eulogies, and readings from the Koran.
The Iranian government is organizing large-scale funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year leadership came to an end in February when he was killed in the first airstrike of the war initiated by the United States and Israel. The elaborate ceremonies are seen as a demonstration of loyalty to the Islamic Republic’s theocratic government and its revolutionary principles.
Video broadcast on television showed Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin, topped with his signature black turban, placed on a large black platform designed to resemble the Kaaba — the cube-shaped structure at the heart of Islam’s most sacred site in Mecca. Alongside his coffin were four additional coffins belonging to family members who also died in the strike.
The enormous courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla was filled with mourners waving Iranian flags and holding up photographs of the slain leader. Iran’s state broadcaster, Seda va Sima, reported that chants of “Death to America” rang through the complex, describing the occasion as a farewell to what it called “Mr. Martyr.”
Other state media outlets shared video in which mourners could be heard chanting: “Our slogan is one word: Revenge, revenge,” and “We will kill, we will kill he who killed our Imam.”
With summer temperatures running high, water was sprayed from rooftops to help keep the crowds cool. Khamenei’s coffin is set to remain at the Mosalla through Sunday evening.
Following that, his remains are expected to be transported to Qom, then to Najaf and Kerbala — major centers of Shi’ite Islam in Iran and Iraq — before the final burial on Thursday in Mashhad, the location of Iran’s most revered pilgrimage shrine.
The coffin had been publicly unveiled late Thursday to a crowd of grieving supporters who swayed and struck their heads in mourning as flowers were tossed from the bier into the crowd. On Friday, the coffin was placed on display in the grand prayer hall built to honor Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iranian authorities are working to mobilize millions of participants for the processions in the days ahead, offering transportation, meals, and accommodations to encourage attendance.
Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been named as the new supreme leader, has not appeared in any newly released images since he was wounded in the same strike that killed his father.
