<\/p>\n
TEHRAN, July 6 \u2014 With electronic music blaring and free food and drinks on offer at hundreds of stalls, the area around late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s funeral ceremonies in Tehran on Sunday had the feel of a summer festival.<\/p>\n
Volunteers provided fruit juice and water under a scorching sun in the capital\u2019s city centre, on the second day of ceremonies honouring Khamenei and four of his family members killed on February 28 in US-Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n
At one stall, dozens of women in black chadors waited in line as three teenagers prepared trays of chips behind the counter. The display had no prices or menu, just portraits of some of the Islamic republic\u2019s \u201cmartyrs\u201d.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere was noisy, with electronic music mixed with Khamenei speeches and religious chants praising Imam Hussein, a revered early Shiah leader.<\/p>\n
The lively ambience stood in contrast to the solemn character of the nearby Grand Mosalla religious complex, where mourners have been paying their respects at Khamenei\u2019s coffin.<\/p>\n
Clad in black and waving blood-red flags symbolising vengeance and justice, some of them beat their chests in a sign of grief as chants of \u201cdeath to America\u201d and \u201crevenge, revenge\u201d echoed around the venue.<\/p>\n
The Islamic republic\u2019s authorities have declared Sunday and Monday public holidays, and urged Iranians to turn out en masse for the six-day funeral ceremonies.<\/p>\n
The weekend in Iran runs from Thursday to Friday.<\/p>\n
People are sprayed with water to cool off during the heat while queueing for food on their way to the Grand Mosalla in Tehran on July 5, 2026, for the funeral ceremonies of Iran\u2019s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018Have a drink\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Saturday, the first day of the public tribute to the late ayatollah, \u201cwe have distributed around 15,000 eggs, as well as potatoes, tea and beverages\u201d, 54-year-old volunteer Said Rezai Manesh told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hot and we need to take care of the pilgrims here,\u201d the Tehran resident added.<\/p>\n Another volunteer offered passersby fresh watermelon and lemon juice in front of posters showing Khamenei and his son Mojtaba, who was named supreme leader shortly after his father\u2019s killing but has yet to appear in public.<\/p>\n Calls to \u201chave a drink\u201d rang out from a loudspeaker, as the mercury rose above 35C.<\/p>\n Despite the Islamic republic\u2019s strict dress rules, some of the women queuing up at the stalls were unveiled or wearing light clothing.<\/p>\n One girl standing near police officers and Revolutionary Guards wore a colourful shirt and a backwards baseball hat, with her braids visible.<\/p>\n Majid Bastak sat on a chair and sprinkled passersby with water to cool them down\u2014to the delight of children, who were having an absolute blast and begging to be soaked.<\/p>\n Clad in a Hawaiian shirt and a black turban for protection against the heat, Bastak said he volunteered \u201cwhenever needed\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI consider myself a soldier of the homeland.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.malaymail.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TEHRAN, July 6 \u2014 With electronic music blaring and free food and drinks on offer at hundreds of stalls, the area around late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s funeral ceremonies in Tehran on Sunday had the feel of a summer festival. Volunteers provided fruit juice and water under a scorching sun in the capital\u2019s city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2490472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[490429,438023,490431,490430,490432,490428],"class_list":["post-2490471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-ahmad-parhizi","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-grand-mosalla","tag-imam-hussein","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-tehran"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Calls-to-\u2018have-a-drink-ring-out-as-Tehran-funeral.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490473,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490471\/revisions\/2490473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}