🔶 Khamenei’s funeral procession; a stage to display the power of the Iranian government 🔻A report by شبنم فون‌هاین A mourning ceremony for Ali Khamenei is expected to be “the largest gathering in the history of the capital.” This was announced by Alireza Zakani, the current mayor of Tehran, in an interview with Iranian media. A six-day ceremony has been planned for the burial of the former slain supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who for 37 years had the final say on all the country’s key issues. The 86-year-old cleric was killed, along with several members of his family, in missile attacks on the complex where he lived and worked in central Tehran. In the first day of the war, which began on February 28 with attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, several missiles were fired at this residential and office complex. The mourning ceremonies, initially scheduled for early March, were postponed due to the war. Only after a fragile ceasefire was agreed upon between Washington and Tehran did Iranian officials announce that the mourning ceremony would be held. According to Ali Akbar Pourjameshidian, the person responsible for organizing the ceremony, these rituals are meant to “strengthen national unity.” Whether that goal will be achieved is questionable. Zamirad Borojerdi, a professor of history and political science at the University of Missouri University of Science and Technology, says: “Unlike Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in power during the first ten years following the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei was at the head of the government for 37 years and ran the country through painstaking management and very prominent interference in details of affairs—so that he intervened in almost all political and governmental areas.” During Khamenei’s rule, conditions in Iran worsened. The country came under mounting pressure amid corruption, mismanagement, and the intensification of sanctions related to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.