By Jaime León
Tehran (EFE).- While millions of people bid a final farewell to the assassinated Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, amid prayers and tears at Tehran’s Mosala Mosque, modern young people on Fereshteh Street sip cappuccinos to the beat of Western music, completely oblivious to the largest funeral in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The two locations are just 12 kilometers (7.45 miles) apart, yet an almost existential chasm lies between them.
Since Saturday, people have been bidding farewell at Mosala to the cleric who guided the Islamic Republic for more than 36 years until the United States and Israel assassinated him on Feb. 28, the first day of the war.
There, women wear the traditional chador, a black garment that covers the entire body except the face, and pray for a man whom many considered a father, as several people explained to EFE. Authorities estimated that some 20 million people would participate in Khamenei’s funeral.
Fereshteh Street, a luxurious street in the northern part of the capital, offers a glimpse and contrast into the Iran that has been trying for years to emerge from political and social repression, a country moving forward slowly and sporadically amid protests and wars.
Here, women don’t wear veils. Instead, they wear makeup and dress in styles that wouldn’t look out of place on the streets of Madrid or Paris. They smoke cigarettes on café terraces while Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” plays in the background.
There’s no talk of Khamenei, Islam, or martyrs. People here remember the January protests, during which some 7,000 people reportedly died in a state crackdown, and they yearn for political freedoms and a better economy.
«What I want is a free country with a strong economy and plenty of job opportunities. I want to feel that we can have a dignified future,” said Morvarid, a 25-year-old makeup artist.
The young woman does not wear a headscarf. She has dyed her hair red and is wearing an elegant, short-sleeved blouse, something that, not so long ago, was banned on the streets of Iran.
Speaking about the funeral, Morvarid noted that there are people with strong religious convictions who share the Islamic Republic’s ideology. However, she does not agree with those ideals, «neither religiously nor politically.»
«There are more of us who disagree with the Islamic Republic,» Morvarid stated.
She is not far off the mark, as analysts estimate that the political system established in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has the support of only 15 to 20 % of Iran’s 90 million people, based on the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Morvarid recalls the January protests that began as a response to rising prices but soon turned into a movement calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. The protests only subsided after what Amnesty International described as a “massacre.”
Nazanin, a 27-year-old graphic designer, also wants an Iran with social freedoms and freedom of expression. She said that she cannot attend Khamenei’s funeral.
«We have suffered many tragedies and much repression under Khamenei’s leadership,» she said, recalling the January protests.
Gaining ground
Nazanin does not wear a headscarf, nor do her two friends, and she has not worn one since Mahsa Amini died in police custody in 2021. Amini was arrested in Tehran for not wearing her headscarf properly.
Her death sparked fierce feminist protests that were crushed in a state crackdown that left 500 people dead. Since then, many Iranian women have stopped wearing the headscarf as an act of civil disobedience. Over time, the authorities have stopped enforcing the law.
Amid protests and street battles in Tehran, certain freedoms are gradually gaining ground. EFE
ash-jlr/dgp
