Tehran, Iran – A week of ceremonies for the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has adopted heavy symbolism to promote pro-government religious and political messages.
From carefully curated state rhetoric to organised demonstrations, a barrage of messaging is being used to create a narrative of unity among supporters of the Iranian government, which has been in power since the 1979 revolution.
Khamenei’s funeral began with three days of mourning in Tehran, before a procession weaves between cities in Iran and Iraq, embedded with heavy symbolism about the former supreme leader’s life and Shia Islam in general.
Khamenei was supreme leader from 1989 until his death in a US-Israeli airstrike on February 28, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei taking over as head of state in March.
Iranian authorities have emphasised the “martyrdom” of Khamenei in official messaging and promoted the idea that grief for his death is a national duty.
“We must rise”, the official slogan being used for ceremonies, can be seen on banners and images displayed by mourners in Iran. For Arabic-language and international audiences, the authorities have selected the Arabic equivalent of “Rise for God”. Both phrases are based on a Quranic verse that calls on Muslims to stand up for a divine cause.
Khamenei’s clenched fist
An illustration of Khamenei’s defiant clenched fist, on a red and black background, has become the defining image of the ceremony. It has been used extensively in government propaganda since his death and is rooted in a text message attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard of publicly since he became supreme leader.
The text message, released on March 12 shortly before the assassination of security chief Ali Larijani, said that Mojtaba had “heard that the fist of [Khamenei’s] healthy hand had been clenched”. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had lost use of his right arm after severe shrapnel and burn injuries in a 1981 bomb assassination attempt.
Ostensibly to avoid assassination, Mojtaba Khamenei is expected to remain absent from his father’s ceremonies, due to security risks.
The use of black and red colours is said to combine the concepts of grief, martyrdom and a call for revenge.
“This surging sea of people, now bidding farewell to and accompanying their leader in his funeral procession, is crying out two slogans: Resistance against the enemies, and revenge for the blood of Iran’s martyred leader,” the Supreme National Security Council said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.
A giant red flag has been unfurled over the Grand Mosalla, Tehran’s largest religious complex, where Khamenei’s body lay in state on Saturday and Sunday for farewells and official prayers, before the main funeral procession through the city on Monday.
The flag reads “O avengers of Hussein” in Arabic, to link Khamenei’s killing with Karbala in neighbouring Iraq, where the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson was killed 1,300 years ago by the forces of the first Umayyad Caliph Muwaiyya I. That dynasty is considered archetypes of illegitimate and oppressive rule among many Shia Muslims.
This frames retaliation against the US and Israel as a religious obligation, but it remains unclear exactly how Iranian authorities intend to exact revenge.
When General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in a US airstrike in 2020, the Iranian military attacked US bases in Iraq without inflicting any fatalities, but said the expulsion of US forces from the region remained their long-term strategy of retaliation.
A Shia Islam political map
The route selected to move Khamenei’s remains also carries a message. It stretches from the holy Shia city of Qom, south of Tehran, to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq – both important sites in Shia Islam – before his burial in Mashhad, at the shrine of Imam Reza.
Starting the events at the Grand Mosalla, built to honour Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, has been perceived as a way of linking the two important figures of the Islamic Republic.
Qom is crucial for clerical legitimacy and endorsement from the seminaries that underpin the theocratic establishment. It is where there was a major protest against the Pahlavi dynasty in support of Khomeini, which a year later culminated in the 1979 revolution.
Najaf is a Shia authority beyond Iran that provides a connection with Imam Ali, the first of 12 imams venerated by Shia Muslims. It was founded upon and grew around his shrine, which is now considered among the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
After trips to Karbala and Mashhad, Khamenei’s remains will effectively complete a grand tour of the ideological foundations of the Islamic Republic and clerical authority, which have endeavoured to propagate transnational Shia Islam over the past five decades.
The so-called “Axis of Resistance” – armed groups and movements in the region that back Tehran – also constitute an important part of this narrative. Officials from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Houthis in Yemen were warmly received in Tehran on Friday during state-run events to honour Khamenei.
Each foreign delegation that stood before Khamenei’s casket had a Quranic verse read out to them by a state-backed eulogist, before proceeding to exchange greetings with Iranian leaders.
The verses selected for Hamas, Hezbollah and Pakistan – described as a “brotherly” country by authorities that has been mediating talks with Washington – carried positive messages of loyalty to the covenant, steadfastness and devotion to God.
The verse selected for a delegation from Riyadh attracted much attention in Arabic-language media, as it described two camps of believers and non-believers facing off in the seventh-century Battle of Badr near Medina in Saudi Arabia.
“The believers saw their enemy with their own eyes as twice their number. But God supports with His victory whoever He wills. Surely in this is a lesson for people of insight.” The choice of this verse has been interpreted multiple ways by analysts.
