Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Iran is holding a funeral for its old leader, Ali Khamenei. He was killed in a war with the United States and Israel.
Millions of people are coming to Tehran for the funeral. It will last for many days.
Ali Khamenei's son is named Mojtaba. He is now the new leader of Iran.
But Mojtaba has not been seen. Nobody knows exactly where he is. People are asking who is really leading the country.
- funeral
- a ceremony held after someone dies
- leader
- a person who is in charge of a country or group
- mourner
- a person who is sad because someone has died
- successor
- the person who takes over a job after someone else
- security
- protection from danger or attack
- threat
- a warning that something bad might happen
- public
- open for anyone to see
- whereabouts
- where a person is located
Level 2 — Elementary
Iran is in the middle of a huge, multi-day funeral for Ali Khamenei, its Supreme Leader who was killed in an American and Israeli air strike earlier this year.
Officials say between fifteen and twenty million mourners could take part in the ceremonies across Tehran, Qom, and other cities, making it possibly the largest funeral in the country's history.
Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, was named the new Supreme Leader after his father's death. He has not been seen or heard from in public since the war began.
Iranian officials say Mojtaba is staying hidden for his own safety, since Israel has said it wants to target him too. Even his own relatives reportedly do not know exactly where he is.
- supreme leader
- the highest ranking official in Iran's government
- air strike
- an attack from military planes or missiles
- ceremony
- a formal event held for a special occasion
- target
- the person or thing that an attack is aimed at
- relative
- a family member
- hidden
- kept out of sight
- official
- a person who holds a position of authority in government
- uncertainty
- a state of not being sure about something
Level 3 — Intermediate
Tehran is in the grip of an unprecedented state funeral, as Iran mourns Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed alongside his wife in a joint US-Israeli strike on his compound in late February. Health officials estimate that fifteen to twenty million people could pass through the funeral events over the coming days, a scale without precedent in the Islamic Republic's history.
The ceremonies, centered on Tehran's Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, opened with a public farewell and funeral prayers before a main procession scheduled to wind roughly ten kilometers from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square. Delegations from more than a hundred countries are expected to attend.
Conspicuously absent from all of it is Mojtaba Khamenei, the cleric named as his father's successor. He is believed to have been wounded in the strike that killed his parents, and has communicated with the public only through written statements attributed to him by state media, never appearing on camera or speaking publicly.
A representative told reporters this week that Mojtaba will skip his own father's funeral entirely, citing an explicit Israeli threat to assassinate him. The prolonged absence has intensified speculation in Tehran and abroad over his health, his authority, and whether anyone is firmly in charge of Iran's fractured leadership.
- unprecedented
- never having happened before
- compound
- a group of buildings enclosed together
- delegation
- a group sent to represent a country or organization
- cleric
- a religious official or leader
- assassinate
- to murder a prominent or important person, often for political reasons
- authority
- the power to give orders and make decisions
- fractured
- broken or split into parts
- speculation
- guessing about something without knowing all the facts
Level 4 — Advanced
Iran's capital has become the staging ground for a state funeral of staggering scale, as the Islamic Republic mourns Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in February alongside his wife in a joint American-Israeli strike on his residential compound. Health authorities project that fifteen to twenty million mourners will move through the multi-day proceedings, a figure that, if realized, would dwarf any funeral in the country's modern history.
The ceremonial choreography, anchored at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, has proceeded through a public farewell and dedicated funeral prayers, building toward a main procession along a roughly ten-kilometer route from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square. Diplomatic delegations from upward of a hundred nations are due to attend, underscoring the funeral's function as much as an assertion of regime continuity as an act of mourning.
Yet the man meant to embody that continuity, Mojtaba Khamenei, remains conspicuously unseen. Widely believed to have sustained wounds in the strike that killed his parents, he has governed entirely through written statements relayed by state media, never once appearing on camera or addressing the public in his own voice since assuming the title of Supreme Leader.
A representative confirmed this week that Mojtaba will not attend his own father's funeral, invoking a specific Israeli threat against his life. The vacuum left by his sustained absence has sharpened both domestic and international speculation over the true state of his health and his practical command of a leadership structure now widely described as fractured, raising uncomfortable questions about who, if anyone, is exercising authority in Tehran.
- staging ground
- a location used as a base for a major event or operation
- choreography
- the careful planning and arrangement of a sequence of events
- continuity
- the state of being uninterrupted or unbroken
- vacuum
- a gap or absence of leadership or control
- invoking
- citing or referring to something as a reason or justification
- sustained
- kept up or maintained over a long period
- regime
- a system or government, especially one considered oppressive or that has not been democratically elected
- conspicuously
- in a way that is noticeably or obviously present or absent
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