Iran Mourns Slain Supreme Leader Khamenei in Qom During Elaborate State Ceremonies]

Iran transported the body of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Qom on Tuesday for official prayers and street processions, marking the latest phase in elaborate state-organized mourning events following his killing in February at the onset of the U.S.-Israeli conflict.

The ceremony in Qom followed three days of public mourning in Tehran, where millions gathered to view Khamenei’s casket. Crowds wept and voiced calls for retribution. His body will subsequently be transported to holy cities in Iraq before burial on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad.

A funeral service at Qom’s Jamkaran Mosque was led by Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli, a senior conservative cleric and one of the few surviving figures from the 1979 revolution. State media broadcast footage of large gatherings paying their respects.

Qom has been central to Iran’s political and religious landscape for decades. It nurtured clerics who fought the monarchy, including Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei’s predecessor. During the revolution, clerics trained there prevailed in both the uprising and subsequent power struggles.

As Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei wielded both political and religious authority through velayat-e faqih, the doctrine of clerical guardianship. Despite rising to ayatollah status in 1989, he became supreme leader shortly after, consolidating control over religious institutions in Qom.

Khamenei tightly controlled clerical finances, education, and administration, increasing Qom’s dependence on the state. He also established a controversial clerical court criticized as unconstitutional and opaque, used to punish those challenging government policies on religious grounds.

A prominent dissenter during his tenure was Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was once next in line for supreme leader but condemned prison executions in the 1980s. Khamenei placed Montazeri under house arrest for years. Montazeri supported 2009 protesters, advocating reform and human rights until his 2009 death, when his Qom funeral drew massive opposition crowds.

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