Iran Declares Mourning for President Raisi Amid Mixed Reactions
Iran proclaimed five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday, though the muted atmosphere revealed little of the spectacular public grief that has accompanied the deaths of other senior figures in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history.
Government loyalists gathered in mosques and squares to pray for Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, both killed in a helicopter crash. However, most shops remained open, and the authorities made minimal effort to disrupt ordinary life. A year after Raisi's hardline government violently suppressed the largest anti-establishment demonstrations since the 1979 revolution, opponents even posted covert videos online of people distributing sweets to celebrate his death.
Laila, a 21-year-old student in Tehran, told Reuters by phone that she was not saddened by Raisi's death because he had ordered the crackdown on women for hijab violations. She added that despite Raisi's death, she did not expect the regime to change.
Rights groups report that hundreds of Iranians died in the 2022-2023 demonstrations, which were triggered by the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman arrested by morality police for violating the country's strict dress codes. The authorities' handling of numerous political, social, and economic crises has widened the gap between the clerical rulers and society.
Supporters of the clerical establishment spoke admiringly of Raisi, a 63-year-old former hardline jurist elected in a tightly controlled vote in 2021. Mohammad Hossein Zarrabi, a 28-year-old member of the volunteer Basij militia in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom, described Raisi as a hardworking president whose legacy would endure.
However, the emotional rhetoric that accompanied the deaths of publicly revered figures like Qasem Soleimani was largely absent. Soleimani, a senior commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, was killed by a U.S. missile in Iraq in 2020, and his funeral drew huge crowds of mourners expressing sorrow and rage.
For opponents of Iran's clerical rulers at home and in exile, Raisi has been a hate figure since the 1980s when he was blamed for playing a leading role as a jurist in the execution of dissidents. Iran has never acknowledged that mass executions took place, but Amnesty International reports that 5,000 Iranians, possibly more, were executed in the first decade after the revolution.
On an online forum debating Raisi's legacy, internet user Soran Mansournia congratulated the families of the execution victims, while another user, Narges, lamented Raisi's death as that of a martyr.
Many Iranians believe Raisi's death will have little impact on how the country is governed, expecting the establishment to replace him with another figure holding similarly hardline views. Reza, a 47-year-old shopkeeper in the central desert city of Yazd, who did not give his full name fearing reprisals, expressed indifference to Raisi's death, noting the persistent economic and social issues that overshadow such news.
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