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 controlled
vote in 2021.
"He was a hard working president. His legacy will
endure as long as we are alive," said Mohammad Hossein Zarrabi, 28, a
member of the volunteer Basij militia in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom.
But there was little of the emotional rhetoric that
accompanied the deaths of publicly revered figures, like Qasem Soleimani, a
senior commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards killed by a US missile in
2020 in Iraq, whose funeral drew huge crowds of mourners, weeping with sorrow
and rage.
For
opponents of Iran's clerical rulers at home and in exile, Raisi has been a hate
figure since the 1980s when he was blamed for playing a leading role as a
jurist in the execution of dissidents. Iran has never acknowledged that mass
executions took place; amnesty International says 5,000 Iranians, possibly more,
were executed in the first decade after the revolution.
"I congratulate the families of the victims of the
executions," internet user Soran Mansournia posted in an online forum
debating the legacy of Raisi's death.
However, Narges, another user, lamented Raisi as having died
"a martyr's death".
Many Iranians said they expected that Raisi's death would
have little impact on how the country would be ruled, with the establishment
likely to replace him with another figure with similarly hardline views.
"Who cares, one hardliner dies, another takes over and
our misery continues," said Reza, 47, a shopkeeper in the central desert
city of Yazd who did not give his full name fearing reprisals.
"We're too busy with economic and social issues to
worry about such news."
