by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Five days of official mourning have been instituted to honor Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash on Monday, but Iran has not seen any mass outpouring of public grief for him.
A brutal hardline Islamist, Raisi was known as the “Butcher of Tehran” for the atrocities and oppression he ordered against his own people, not least dissidents and women.
Many mosques and squares have been filled with government officials and loyalists who gathered to commemorate Raisi, but most shops have remained open in an indication that grief is not widespread, Reuters reported.
After decades of repressive Islamic rule ushered in during the 1979 revolution, civilians have fresh memories of hundreds of Iranians being killed by the government during nationwide protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of an Iranian woman arrested for not wearing her hijab correctly.
“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,” Reuters reported.
In an OpEd for Newsweek, Sheila Nazarian, an Iranian-American surgeon, wrote: “As a woman born in Iran, I feel not just a sense of celebration at the death of this evil man, but of relief. It is a feeling I share with a great many of my countrymen, and—in particular—countrywomen. To understand why, you have to know that Ebrahim Raisi—though robed by his brutal regime with the dignity of ‘President’—was a mass murderer responsible for atrocities and oppression in Iran and across the region. This is why he is known as the ‘Butcher of Tehran.’”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire that was to begin Friday afternoon, Worthy News learned.
At least 10 people, including four children, were injured in a Russian strike on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian authorities said Friday. In southern Ukraine, the State Emergency Service reported that one person was killed and four others were injured in a separate Russian attack on the Odesa region.
President Donald Trump signed the temporary peace deal with Iran ahead of schedule Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles in France, kicking off negotiations over a final nuclear deal.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement following the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the United States is being viewed by analysts not as an embrace of peace, but as a carefully crafted declaration that preserves Tehran’s revolutionary posture while allowing the regime to regroup.
The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday on individuals and entities linked to Hezbollah, accusing them of using political and financial influence to obstruct Lebanon’s peace process and delay the Iran-backed group’s disarmament.
Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow since the war began, hitting a key oil refinery and other targets around the Russian capital, leaving at least one person dead and numerous others injured, Russian officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Southeast Asian leaders in Kazan this week as Moscow moved to deepen ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and promote its vision of a “multipolar world order” aimed at countering U.S. global dominance.