• Govt to hold funeral events in Tehran, Qom, Mashhad and Iraq
• Hotels offer discounts, buses and trains diverted for mourners

DUBAI: Iran is preparing days of mass funeral rites for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a show of public devotion, and proof that its revolutionary fervor still burns strong.

The former supreme leader was killed by US and Israeli strikes in their first attack of the war, and the funeral rites will begin over the weekend in Tehran, with mass processions planned next week in Qom and Mashhad and ceremonies in Iraq.

“The large public turnout at the funeral procession of the martyred leader and the other martyrs will, in effect, be another referendum for the Islamic Republic,” Qom prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi told state media.

Khamenei’s death in an enemy attack plays into a powerful Shia tradition of martyrdom and mourning. That potent symbolism has been evident in the black funeral flags hanging over city streets since his death and in mourning ceremonies for him referencing the sacrifice of Imam Hussain (RA).

The current month of the Islamic year, Muharram, marks the anniversary of the imam’s martyrdom.

On Thursday, workers were stringing up new posters in Tehran proclaiming support for the new leader Mojtaba, with the images of the late Khamenei and a raised revolutionary fist behind him.

Officials and foreign dignitaries, including from Russia and China, will offer condolences in events on Friday.

On Saturday, Khamenei’s remains will be taken to a Tehran mosque for the first stop in a national funerary tour. The bodies of his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter, as well as the widow of the new leader, his son Mojtaba, who were all killed in the same strike, will be carried alongside.

Hotels are offering 50pc discounts, schools, mosques and sports halls have been prepared to house mourners, and bus and rail networks are being diverted to serve the main events.

After what authorities are billing as a massive procession in central Tehran on Monday, the remains will be taken to the seminary city of Qom, the centre of Iran’s clerical hierarchy, for ceremonies on Tuesday.

Ceremonies will then be held in Iraq’s shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday with prominent attendees.

He will be laid to rest on Thursday, after another procession, in Mashhad near the tomb of the Imam Reza.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026