Mourners begin day-long funerals for Iranian president and others killed in crash: NPR

People hold posters of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a funeral ceremony for him on Monday at Vali-e-Asr Square in downtown Tehran, Iran.

Vahid Salemi/AP

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Vahid Salemi/AP

People hold posters of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a funeral ceremony for him on Monday at Vali-e-Asr Square in downtown Tehran, Iran.

Vahid Salemi/AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days-long funerals and processions for Iran’s late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash in a troubled Middle East.

Mass demonstrations have been crucial to Iran’s Shiite theocracy since millions of people flocked to the streets of Tehran to greet Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. An estimated 1 million attended processions in 2020 for the late Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

Whether President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others will draw the same crowd remains questionable, especially since Raisi died in a helicopter crash, won office in the election with the lowest turnout in the country’s history and advocated a comprehensive crackdown on all dissent cared. Prosecutors have already warned people against displaying public signs celebrating his death, and there has been a heavy presence of security forces on the streets of Tehran since the crash.

But the 63-year-old Raisi was discussed as a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His death now calls that selection into question, particularly because there is no cleric to succeed him as president before the scheduled June 28 elections.

“Raisi’s death comes at a time when the Islamist regime is consolidating,” wrote Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute. “In short, there will be no power vacuum in Tehran; “Nevertheless, post-Khamenei Iran suddenly looks far more unpredictable than it did a few days ago.”

On Tuesday morning, a procession led by a tractor-trailer carrying the coffins of the dead moved slowly through the narrow streets of downtown Tabriz, the closest major city to where Sunday’s accident occurred. Thousands in black walked slowly beside the coffins, some throwing flowers up to them, while a presenter wept over a loudspeaker to thank the men he called martyrs.

The bodies will travel on to the holy Shiite seminary city of Qom before traveling to Tehran later on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the funeral led by Khamenei will also turn into a procession. A procession will take place in Raisi’s hometown of Birjand on Thursday, followed by a funeral at the Imam Reza shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, the only imam of the Shiite religion buried in Iran.

This shrine has long been a center for pilgrims and is visited by millions of people every year. Over the centuries, the site served as the final burial site for heroes of Persian history. It is an incredibly high, rare honor in the faith. Iranian President Mohammad-Ali Rajai, the only other president to die in office when he was killed in a bombing in 1981, was buried in Tehran.

The Iranian theocracy declared five days of mourning and encouraged people to attend public mourning sessions. Typically, government employees and school children attend such events en masse, while others attend out of patriotism, curiosity or to witness historical events.

Across Iran, rural populations are often more inclined toward the Shiite faith and government. However, Tehran has long had a completely different opinion of Raisi and his government’s policies, as mass protests have been taking place in the capital for years.

The most recent case involved the death in 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was arrested for allegedly wearing a loose headscarf, or hijab. Months of security crackdowns following the demonstrations left more than 500 people dead and over 22,000 arrested. In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death.

When news of the helicopter crash spread on Sunday evening, some people chanted anti-government chants during the night. Fireworks could be seen in some parts of the capital, but Sunday was also a day of remembrance for Imam Reza, who was also seen setting off fireworks. Critical messages and dark jokes about the crash also circulated online.

According to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Iran’s top prosecutor has already issued an order calling for charges to be brought against those who published “false content, lies and insults” against Raisi and others killed in the crash.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Iran’s new assembly of experts opened its first session after an election that decided the new assembly, a body that included both Raisi and the late Tabriz Friday leader Mohammad Ali Ale-Heshem. Flowers sat in the seats she would have occupied at the meeting of the 88-member panel tasked with selecting the country’s next supreme leader.