By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
The wife of Iran’s Supreme Leader died on Monday, March 2, after succumbing to injuries sustained in the same US-Israeli airstrike that killed her husband.
Al Jazeera reported that Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh died two days after her husband, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in his compound in Tehran, the country’s capital.
Iranian state media reported on Sunday that Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were killed in the strike as well.
Bagherzadeh married Khamenei in 1965, and had four sons and two daughters with him during their marriage.
Throughout the decades of turbulence caused by Khamenei’s harsh rule over Iran, Bagherzadeh, who is believed to have been 79 when she died, is said to have quietly supported him.
She did not assume any public responsibilities or play any formal role in the leadership of the nation, instead shying away from cameras and public life.
When asked in a rare interview with state media in 2011 about her role in Khamenei’s fight against the Shah, the previous ruler of Iran before the 1979 revolution, she said: “I think my biggest role was to preserve a calm atmosphere in our home so that he could do his work in peace.
“Of course I was also active in distributing pamphlets, carrying messages and hiding documents, but I think [these actions] are not worth mentioning.”
When asked whether her husband helped her in the home, Bagherzadeh said: “He neither currently has time [to help] nor do I expect him to do so.
“One admirable trait he has which could be as an example for others, is that though he often comes home tired from work, he does his best to keep work-related problems away from home.
“I would sometimes visit him in prison without telling him about our problems. In response to his questions about us, I would only give him good news.”
