Iranians bid farewell to Rafsanjani
Mourners shout opposition slogans and ‘Death to Russia’
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranians bade farewell to Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday, with the sprawling state funeral veering slightly off script when groups of mourners started shouting opposition slogans.
Authorities were forced to raise the volume on the loudspeakers playing lamentation songs after some in the crowds took up cries of “Oh, Hussein, Mir Hussein,” a reference to a former presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who has been under house arrest since 2011.
Some of the chants were aimed at Russia, Iran’s ally in the Syrian conflict. Video clips on social media showed mourners shouting “Death to Russia” and “the Russian Embassy is the den of espionage,” as they passed the embassy’s complex in the heart of Tehran. People also called for the release of hunger strikers in Iranian prisons.
State television, broadcasting the funeral live, airbrushed the protests, which were nevertheless allowed to proceed without police intervention.
Rafsanjani, 82, who died Sunday, was laid to rest after an elaborate ceremony that lasted several days. Right after his demise, his body was placed in a coffin that was put on public display in the modest house of the late founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
For two days, mourners had filed through the northern Tehran site, untouched since Khomeini died in 1989. A religious chanter brought the crowds to tears as he recalled how Rafsanjani helped to oust Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in the 1979 revolution. “Our sheikh was so wise, he made the shah leave, leave,” the chanter sang.
Because of Rafsanjani’s close relationship with Khomeini, he was accorded the honor of being buried in the late leader’s mausoleum, in a golden cage. Before the interment, all Iranians were invited to gather around the campus of the University of Tehran, where Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led a prayer.