By Jaime León
Tehran (EFE).- While millions of people bid a final farewell to the assassinated Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, amid prayers and tears at Tehran’s Mosala Mosque, modern young people on Fereshteh Street sip cappuccinos to the beat of Western music, completely oblivious to the largest funeral in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The two locations are just 12 kilometers (7.45 miles) apart, yet an almost existential chasm lies between them.
Since Saturday, people have been bidding farewell at Mosala to the cleric who guided the Islamic Republic for more than 36 years until the United States and Israel assassinated him on Feb. 28, the first day of the war.
There, women wear the traditional chador, a black garment that covers the entire body except the face, and pray for a man whom many considered a father, as several people explained to EFE. Authorities estimated that some 20 million people would participate in Khamenei’s funeral.
