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‘PEOPLE ARE IN NO MOOD TO MOURN’: MIXED REACTIONS IN TEHRAN AFTER
DEATH OF PRESIDENT EBRAHIM RAISI  
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Deepa Parent
May 20, 2024
The Guardian
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_ Iran’s supreme leader has announced a five-day mourning period,
but there have been fireworks and cheering in the country since the
death was confirmed _

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, left, and Foreign Minister Hossein
Amirabdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024, [AP
Photo]

 

 

Activists in Iran have said there is little mood to mourn the death of
the country’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a
helicopter crash
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the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, announced a five-day
public mourning period after the deaths of Raisi, the foreign minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other passengers on the helicopter.
However, Iranians who spoke to the Guardian have refused to lament the
death of a man who they say was responsible for hundreds of deaths in
his four-decade political career.

It was during Raisi’s tenure that protests swept the country
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the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died in
police custody after being arrested by police under Iran’s harsh
hijab laws. More than 19,000 protesters were jailed, and at least 500
were killed – including 60 children
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during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. The police continue
to violently arrest women for refusing hijab rules
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Hours before Raisi’s death was confirmed by state media, videos
circulated on Telegram showing celebratory fireworks, one of them from
Amini’s hometown of Saqqez. Iranians from inside and outside the
country shared posts reminding the world of Raisi’s brutal
presidency and his repression of political dissidents.

Speaking of the president’s death, a family member of a teenager
killed by security forces during the Mahsa Amini protests said:
“Raisi’s soul will never rest in peace because he killed my
brother and the children of my homeland. He was a murderer who ordered
the killing of so many children. My brother’s soul will rest in
peace only when others like him are brought to justice. Until then, in
God, we believe.”

Among those killed during the protests was also Minoo Majidi
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a 62-year-old mother who was shot at close range by security forces
with more than 160 pellets. Her daughters shared a video of them
cheering to the news of the missing helicopter.

Majidi’s daughter Mahsa said: “We are happy because they were
murderers. Raisi ordered the killing of my mother and his minister
denied our martyrs. I know it is not right to be happy about the death
of a person, but they were not human. Congratulations to all the
victims’ families and people of Iran. _Zan_, _Zendegi,
Azadi_ [Woman, Life, Freedom].”

Those interviewed by the Guardian inside the capital said the mood may
be “jubilant” on social media, but inside the country the
reactions are mixed.

A Tehran-based reporter said: “Many military agents have been
stationed in the streets and even small squares since last night. The
police have repeatedly warned that people who are happy about the
death of the president will be prosecuted. People were lighting
fireworks, listening and dancing to music, and those in the traffic
kept honking in solidarity with those celebrating.

“The mourning period will see some arrests because people are in no
mood to mourn and won’t follow the orders. The surrounding mood is
nowhere close to sorrow, and people hope others will meet a similar
fate.”

A 22-year-old woman, who was among the first to hit the streets in
protest in September 2022, said: “Raisi’s death will do little to
change the repression we are facing every day. I am not happy or sad
about his death. But I will take it as a sign of justice for the
deaths of my friends. We continue to face death every day for simply
asking for basic human rights and that unfortunately will not change
unless this regime goes down.”

Political activist Taghi Rahmani, the husband of the imprisoned Nobel
prize winner Narges Mohammadi
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said: “Raisi’s death in itself will not structurally change the
leadership of the country which is ensured by the supreme leader
Khamenei. On the other hand, we must now scrutinise the looming
political battle and the internal balance of power within the regime,
since the Iranian constitution provides that new elections must be
organised within 50 days.”

Another protester, 30, from Tehran, said: “Life in Iran has taught
us that sometimes it is possible to be happy about the death of
people. It is painful, but I am happy. We lost our homeland and
hopefully, we will gain it back.”

_Deepa Parent is an independent journalist based in Paris who covers
conflict and its consequences on human rights_

* Iran
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* President Raisi
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* death
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* anti-government protests
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