Yesterday Tehran was a normal city. The shops opened and the posters in memory of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter accident on Sunday, were few compared to the abundance of images that could be seen in the days after the death of Qasem Soleimani in 2020. the general in chief of the Qods Force, the target of an American attack in Baghdad. In the capital you could see men dressed in the black shirts of martyrdom, but there was nothing really exceptional in the city. “Raisi didn’t care. They have not even declared a holiday of public mourning,” explained Mehrzad, a programmer who was carried away by the conspiracy theories circulating on the networks about the involvement of senior officials of the regime in the accident.
In contrast, in Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan province, the city closest to the accident site, thousands of people gathered to see the truck carrying the coffins of the eight deceased pass by. In Tabriz, shops and schools did close, and the streets were filled with mourning. The coffins then traveled to the sacred city of Qom and arrived yesterday in the capital to be laid to rest in the great Mausoleum of Tehran, still under construction. Today Raisi’s body will be taken to the city of Mashad where he was originally from and where he had great ties to the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth imam of the Shiites. His remains will rest there.
The funerals for Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdolahian will be presided over in Tehran by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Afterwards, the coffins will parade through the central artery of the capital, Enghelab Avenue. It will be inevitable to see if the influx equals that of previous funerals, such as that of Soleimani. Mass gatherings have been important in the history of Iran since one million people welcomed Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in 1979. They are one of the best thermometers of system health.
Authorities warned on Monday against any sign of joy over Raisi’s death, and a large deployment of security forces is expected today. However, celebrations over Raisi’s death quickly jumped to social media on Sunday. The anger, disconnection and hatred of a significant sector of Iranian society towards those who lead the Islamic Republic and Raisi’s repressive past contributed to this reaction. These are two of the testimonies collected: “I hate Raisi and the Islamic Republic. “I’m glad they died because they murdered a lot of people,” said Maral, a 24-year-old student. I spent the whole night drinking with my friends. We listen to and sing revolutionary songs, like during the protests” [he was referring to the September 2022 protests over the death of the young Mahsa Amini in a police station]. “Her death does not sadden me and I hope that other people responsible for the repression and murders follow their same path,” said Maryam, 38, a fashion designer. He was a puppet of Khamenei and did nothing for the people.”
A shopkeeper from Karaj, 20 kilometers from Tehran, had a completely opposite opinion. “Mr. Raisi was a good president,” said Shakeri, 60 years old. The Supreme Leader trusted him. I voted for him. In economic issues, he wanted to improve the situation, but the anti-revolutionary merchants, the American sanctions did not allow him… In my opinion, he is a martyr and he should be respected as such. In last year’s events in Iran, he tried to handle the unrest with tolerance.”
