The ayatollah’s body is expected to be carried through the city in a public procession. Later this week, it will be borne to several cities in Iran and neighboring Iraq that are significant to Shiite Muslims, before being buried in his hometown, Mashhad.
Grieving supporters of Iran’s Islamic Republic have wept and called for revenge as they viewed the casket of the killed leader since the funeral ceremonies began on Saturday. On Sunday, tens of thousands of mourners, including senior Iranian officials, packed Tehran for prayers for the slain supreme leader.
Though he was exalted by many, Ayatollah Khamenei was also despised by numerous other Iranians for presiding over an authoritarian state that brutally crushed dissent. Earlier this year, Iranian security forces suppressed mass antigovernment protests, killing thousands, according to Iranian officials and human rights groups.
For Iran’s current leaders, the mass funeral has served in part as a show of national unity around the deceased leader. But his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been conspicuously absent from the ceremonies.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since succeeding his father, who was killed when Israeli forces bombarded Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound on the first day of the war in late February. And his absence from the funeral ceremonies has emerged as a point of scrutiny for Iran’s leadership as they seek to project stability and continuity. Iran Live Updates » | Aaron Boxerman and Abdi Latif Dahir | Monday, July 6, 2026
