Iranian mourners gather as others flee Tehran after Khamenei’s death

Mourners filled Tehran as Iran staged the main procession for Ali Khamenei, while social-media posts showed other residents heading out of the capital and documenting getaways that sat uneasily beside the official display of grief. The seven-day funeral program, which opened in Tehran on July 3, drew delegations from more than 100 countries and was meant to project unity around the death of the supreme leader.

That unity was already fragile after Khamenei was killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28. Accounts from Tehran described people cheering from balconies, windows, rooftops, and residential neighborhoods, while others grieved his death, laying bare a country split over the man who had led the Islamic Republic since 1989.

Khamenei stood at the center of the system as Iran’s supreme leader, widely seen as the country’s highest political and religious authority and the figure with decisive influence over key state institutions. His body lay in state in Tehran on July 3, before the main procession moved through the capital on July 6. Burial was planned for Mashhad, his hometown and the site of one of Iran’s holiest shrine complexes.

The state funeral has become a test of authority as much as a rite of mourning. Officials have used the ceremonies to signal continuity after the killing of the most powerful figure in the Islamic Republic, even as the public mood visible in Tehran has been more uneven. For some residents, the safest expression of dissent has been silence, departure, or a vacation photo posted far from the capital, while the streets of Tehran have carried the heavier symbolism of state-managed grief.