Millions of Iranians bid farewell to Khamenei
Millions of Iranians bid farewell to Khamenei
By Gürkan Demir from Tehran / Iran
At the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque
For Iran’s martyred leader Ali Khamenei and members of his family, who lost their lives in the US and Israeli attacks, the funeral prayer was held on July 5 at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque in Tehran.
After the religious ceremony at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque was completed, another official farewell ceremony was held for Khamenei in the streets of Tehran the following day, on July 6.
“This is not a farewell”
Millions of Iranians arrived at the ceremony site in the early hours of July 5, carrying flags in their hands, to attend the funeral prayer and bid farewell to their Supreme Leader. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, ministers and senior state officials also attended the funeral ceremony.
In a statement before the prayer, the President said: “I am not bidding farewell to our leader. Because this is not a farewell, nor a separation. We will continue to walk on his path, under his guidance. The flag will not fall.”
Officials from Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Ansarallah and Kataib Hezbollah, as well as representatives from Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Africa, were present at the ceremony.
A delegation from Türkiye was also present at the ceremony, carrying Turkish flags.
During the ceremony, I also had the opportunity to have a brief conversation with Colonel Iman Tajik, the spokesperson of Operation True Promise-3.
Three separate funeral prayers
Three separate funeral prayers were held during the religious ceremony at the Mosalla grounds in Tehran. The first prayer was for the martyr Ali Khamenei. The second was held for Khamenei’s son-in-law Mesbah al-Hoda Bakeri-Keni, his wife Zahra Haddad-Adel and his daughter Seyyedeh Boshra Khamenei. In the final part of the ceremony, a third funeral prayer was for his 14-month-old grandchild, Zahra Mohammadi-Golpayegani.
A sea of people
The courtyard we were in, despite having a capacity of hundreds of thousands, was completely packed. Because of the density of the crowd, even moving around was extremely difficult. Outside the courtyard of Mosalla Mosque, a sea of people numbering in the millions stretched for kilometers.
People carried Iranian flags, flags bearing Islamic symbols, red banners, Hezbollah flags and banners belonging to other resistance groups.
At the ceremony, I witnessed not only grief, but also anger and determination. Slogans were chanted against the US and Israel, as well as slogans declaring that Iran was ready for war.
The public farewell ceremony continued for a long time. People were only able to enter the ceremony area part by party. Even more than 36 hours after the farewell ceremony began, crowds arriving from across Iran continued to fill the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque.
5 million citizens transported
Mehdi Alizadeh, Director General of Tehran Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), made a detailed statement on the transportation operations carried out during the farewell ceremony. Alizadeh announced that more than 3,400 buses had been actively deployed during the farewell ceremonies held over the past two days, July 5 and 6, and that approximately 5 million passengers had been transported during this period. He said that the transportation of an average of more than 2.5 million citizens and ceremony participants per day was ensured without disruption.
