In divided Iran, president's death met by muted mourning and furtive celebration
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.
While government loyalists packed into mosques and squares to pray for Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, both killed in a helicopter crash, most shops remained open and the authorities made little effort to interrupt ordinary life.
A year after Raisi's hardline government cracked down violently to end the biggest anti-establishment demonstrations since the 1979 revolution, opponents even posted furtive video online of people passing out 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 ordered the crackdown on women for hijab.»
«But I am sad because even with Raisi's death this regime will not change,» she said.
Rights groups say hundreds of Iranians died in 2022-2023 demonstrations 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 an array of political, social and economic crises have deepened 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
