Khamenei funeral – Mourners filled the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran on Saturday as week-long funeral ceremonies for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies, and Koran readings. The state funeral, marked by chants o
When the national anthem rose over Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla on Saturday, thousands were already packed into the vast courtyard—waving Iranian flags, holding photographs, and pressing forward as week-long funeral ceremonies for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially began.
The first hours were heavy with ritual: religious eulogies and readings from the Koran, broadcast to a public staging mass mourning for a leader whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the United States and Israel.
Television footage showed Khamenei’s coffin draped with the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban. It was placed alongside four other coffins—those of his slain family members—on a large black platform resembling the Kaaba. the cube-shaped structure at the center of Islam’s holiest site in Mecca.
As the ceremonies opened, chants cut through the crowd. State broadcaster Seda va Sima said “Death to America” echoed through Tehran’s Mosalla on the day of the farewell to “Mr. Martyr.” In video posts on other state media news sites. mourners were also heard chanting: “Our slogan is one word: Revenge. revenge. ” and “We will kill. we will kill he who killed our Imam.”.
Summer heat was met with cooling mist from rooftops as mourners waited. Khamenei’s coffin will remain in the Mosalla until Sunday evening.
The plan ahead is built for scale. His body was expected to be taken to Qom. Najaf and Kerbala. the great Shi’ite centers of Iran and Iraq. before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad. home to the country’s holiest pilgrim shrine. Authorities also plan to mobilize millions of people for big processions over the coming days. offering transport. food and lodging to buoy the numbers.
Before Saturday’s opening, the funeral staging already unfolded in stages. The coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters. who were swaying and beating their heads in time to a sung lament as flowers were thrown from the bier into the crowd. On Friday. the coffin was laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honor his predecessor. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
A final image of who would lead the moment is also being watched. The new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in any new image since being wounded in the strike that killed his father.
The result is a funeral that is not only a memorial—its choreography, chants, and procession plans place grief and political resolve side by side, from Tehran’s crowded courtyard to cities across Iran and Iraq where the coffin is expected to travel.
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