Iran prepares for Khamenei's funeral

SIX-DAY MASS MOURNING ANNOUNCED

- YEGANEH TORBATI

There are few analogues in history for the size, scale and import of the funeral that Iran’s government is preparing to hold for its slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Starting Friday, and running for nearly a week, with ceremonies planned in at least five cities across Iran and Iraq, the funeral is expected to draw tens of millions of people, government officials have said.

Perhaps more striking than the funeral’s complexity and scope is its symbolism at this moment. It comes more than four months after Khamenei was killed in February at the outset of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Millions of mourners are expected to turn out next week.

While millions of mourners are expected to turn out next week, many Iranians remain deeply dissatisfied with what Khamenei’s reign brought to their country, over nearly four decades of authoritarian rule. He oversaw brutal repression, including the imprisonment, torture and killing of dissidents, and presided over widening corruption and the increasing control of much of Iran’s wealth by its security forces.

Khamenei was not only Iran’s head of state. As the leader of its theocratic system, he also presented himself as an authoritative Shiite Muslim cleric, with devoted followers across Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and other countries with Shiite populations. And he commanded the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an ideological military force that has backed Shiite militant groups, like Hezbollah, across West Asia.