Iran’s military and security institutions have formally vowed revenge. The pledge came within hours of the airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and five members of his family. State media confirmed the dead included his daughter, a grandchild, a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law.
One coffin was tiny. It held the body of a 14-month-old granddaughter.
Chants of “Death to America” echoed across the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla courtyard on Saturday. Thousands of mourners had gathered there for the public funeral. The crowd beat their chests.
Women in black chadors shielded themselves from the hot mid-morning sun with white visors and umbrellas. A compere worked the loudspeakers.
“Let us wail!” he shouted. “Everybody chant oppressed, everyone say Hussein.” The invocation of Hussein, the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, is a deliberate appeal to Shi’ite traditions of sacrifice and martyrdom. The crowd responded on cue.
They wailed. They chanted. The coffins — all five draped in Iranian flags — sat on a raised platform.
Mourners filed past at a distance. Television footage showed the scene.
Posters and A4 printed sheets were held aloft. They bore pictures of Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has already succeeded him as supreme leader. The transfer of power was immediate.
There was no public transition period. Mojtaba Khamenei now holds the top office in Iran’s theocratic state.
Khamenei had ruled for 37 years. His death came at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to Iranian state media. The strike that killed him was Israeli.
The mass funeral was a display of devotion to the Islamic Republic and its revolutionary ideology. Getty described it as such. The crowd waved banners of the Islamic Republic and historic Shi’ite Muslim martyrs.
The public grief was organized, choreographed, and deeply political. Iran’s military and security institutions have not specified the form their revenge will take.
They have stated only that it will come. The chants from the crowd made the direction clear. The message was directed at America and at Israel.
The funeral itself served as a rallying point. The state used it to consolidate loyalty and to demonstrate that the theocratic system remains intact despite the loss of its top leader.
The presence of the tiny coffin among the larger ones was a calculated image. It reinforced the narrative of victimhood and righteous anger. Senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials had already viewed Khamenei’s body indoors before the public viewing.
The outdoor stage was for the general population. The heat was oppressive. The crowd was large.
Tens of thousands filled the vast prayer complex. The compere kept the energy high.
He kept the grief directed. The state’s response, so far, is a promise of retaliation. The institutions that run Iran’s military and security apparatus have made that promise publicly.
The funeral was the first act of the new leadership. The second act, whatever form it takes, has not yet begun.
