In Mashhad, the holiest city in the country, Iran buried not only the last big leader of its 1979 Islamic revolution but also the cleric who had been at the helm of the regime for nearly 4 decades. The Islamic Republic of Iran stage managed a massive funeral, attended by tens of millions, to send out very clear political messages aimed not only at its foreign detractors but also to the nations of the Global South. The drawn-out death ceremonies of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed Iran’s moral high ground and, in many ways, symbolically exposed the gap that exists between the western understanding of Iran and the Shia symbolism of martyrdom. It was a 6-day, multi-city, event that even crossed and recrossed the border with Iraq – diluting differences and consolidating regional Shiite identity. This is NDTV Focus on the FUNERAL OF EPIC FURY.