The official outside Tehran University motioned towards me. “If he goes in, what is he going to report?” asked the elderly man in a stage whisper. “Hardly anybody is there: it’s almost empty.”
Friday Prayers at Tehran University is supposed to be one of Iran’s great set piece occasions. Every week, the authorities clear the city centre of traffic and lay on free buses to encourage the faithful to gather in a vast prayer hall beside the main campus.
As an added attraction, an A-list Ayatollah usually delivers a fire-breathing sermon. The previous week, the man on the dais had been Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader himself, who commended the faithful for their enthusiastic cries of “Marg bar Amrica”, or “Death to America”. Read on and comment » | David Blair | Saturday, August 1, 2015
