Crowds gather as six-day funeral for former Iranian supreme leader begins | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Large crowds gathered at the funeral of the former Iranian religious leader after the gates of the sprawling Grand Mosalla Mosque in central Tehran opened to let in thousands of people who had been waiting overnight to enter the mosque.

Iran is holding mass funerals for Ali Khamenei, whose 37-year reign ended in February with the first airstrike of the war launched by the United States and Israel. By 5:30 in the morning, the streets of Tehran surrounding the mosque had begun to fill; Iranians, some traveling for hours and many carrying flags or posters of Khamenei, set out for an event designed to highlight the country’s sense of loss and desire for revenge over the killing of the supreme leader. Emotions filled the air as the crowd chanted Death to America and Israel.

Khamenei, 86, was killed by Israeli jet planes, and the raised stage showing his coffin also made room for the coffins of other family members killed in the raid, including his 14-month-old grandson.

As many as 10,000 people were in the open-air mosque at 8 a.m.; They were divided in equal numbers, men on the right and women on the left.

The scale of the six-day, five-city funeral was designed to convey messages of political and religious resistance to the rest of the world. Organizers claim up to 30 million people could attend at one point. Upon the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will be moved to Iraq’s Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf.

The banner erected where the bodies were placed read: “Say: I advise you only one thing: Stand up for God, alone or in pairs.” Before the religious part of the ceremony began, the ringing of cymbals and tambourines and the cries of “Death to America” ​​and “Death to Israel” dominated the ceremony.

Even in areas reserved for the media, religious songs, national anthems, and eulogies to the martyrs dominate, while suffering grown men sit cross-legged, beating their chests, or crying uncontrollably for long periods of time with their shoulders heaving. Meters away, reporters were tending to Instagram accounts, with selfies showing the mourning mass behind them.

Authorities, who wanted to avoid the torture experienced in previous funeral ceremonies in Iran, called for people not to stay in the mosque for too long to protect the funeral from overcrowding. The numbers decreased as temperatures reached 36 degrees at noon.

Banners proclaiming Khamenei’s martyrdom and his indelible place in Iranian history were hung in the surrounding streets. Hezbollah’s yellow flags were visible among the crowd, while mourners had an Iranian flag draped over their shoulders as if they were attending a football match.

Hundreds of Mokebs (food stations) offered free boiled eggs, my mood cinnamon soup, lemonade, watermelon, kebabs, tea and endless plastic bottles of water. Aides spent the night in schools, cars or tents. Alms given to the poor could be given as gifts at the tables with a credit card. Water mist sprays attempted to cool the crowd. At one stand, school students offered passersby the chance to take photos next to a picture of the new religious leader (Ali Khamenei’s son).

One of the women, Fatima Khavari, said: “When our leader was killed, I felt like my head was crushed. He is the only real guide we know.” Another stall owner, a university professor, wanted to know why the United States was intervening in the Middle East. “How would you feel if we came to steal your mines and bomb your leaders?”

In the streets around the mosque, music, some revolutionary, some religious, began to be heard loudly from rival sound systems long before dawn. The men distributed posters saying “We are the avengers of Ali Khamenei.”

British and American journalists have been officially advised not to speak to mourners, but in reality most are happy to do so – if only to convey the contrast between US president Donald Trump, variously described as a megalomaniac and yellow dog, and their own martyred, polymath leaders.

Hossein Ajorlu, a white-turbaned cleric standing in front of the mosque, explained: “There is a brush with which we clean toilets. Over time it becomes dirty with things that the body processes and rejects. Then there is the clean water of renewal that comes from a spring. That’s how I compare the two men.”

He seemed genuinely surprised by any suggestion that the military was now replacing the clergy in Iran.

Inevitably, the crowd that filled the mosque represented a certain segment of the Iranian population; all women wore the chador, a large, full-body cloak that extended from head to floor. More than half of women in Tehran do not wear hijabs or scarves in shops, on motorcycles or in restaurants.

No Iranians are participating in what has been described as a “victory parade”. Roads out of Tehran were busy on Thursday despite government calls to attend the final farewell. One of the skeptics who remained in the capital this weekend had recently returned from the United States to be with his family. When asked if he would go to the mosque, he said: “This is not for me.” An admirer of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, he said: “Trump should have finished what he started, but he is bipolar. He thought Iran was Venezuela but this government is deeply rooted. Religion is deeply rooted.”

“The country is a complete mess. Prices in stores change every day and sometimes it is impossible to get basic things as a store owner. A society cannot survive this way. Maybe a government can, but a society cannot.”

It will be up to the government to gauge the veracity of its claims that the long-delayed funeral will help reunite and refocus a nation divided in part by Khamenei’s conservative and often rigid religious rule.

The pomp of the ceremony distracted from announcements that the French and British may be preparing to send warships to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Khamenei devoted much of his life to keeping Iran independent from the United States. This test of strength does not end with his death.