A man holds a flag with a picture of late leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

The eyes of the world are currently on Iran, as the Islamic Republic lays to rest its former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Foreign dignitaries, terrorist leaders, and anti-Western activists all descended on the Middle Eastern country in order to attend the funeral and pay their respects to the former Ayatollah, who was killed during the opening strikes of the American and Israeli war against Iran on February 28, 2026.

The international media coverage is not lacking either, with all the major news outlets giving the funeral ample exposure, and even several foreign journalists reporting from inside Iran.

However, with all the news stories and analyses focused on the Ayatollah’s funeral, the media seems to be failing in providing basic context to their audiences.

News outlets are choosing to present the funeral as a standard state ceremony for a departed leader, instead of a propaganda pageant for a tyrannical regime.

The Islamic Republic is not a standard regime and the Ayatollah was not a normal statesman. He was an authoritarian who firmly held the reins of power, subjugated his own people, and destabilized the Middle East.

In 1989, Khamenei assumed the highest office in the Islamic Republic of Iran, following the death of its founder, Ayatollah Khomeini. Upon his assumption of office, Khamenei became the guardian of the Islamic Republic’s ideology, the same ideology that had driven the replacement of the Persian monarchy with a theocratic state during the Iranian Revolution 10 years earlier.

This ideology, which continues to fuel the Islamic Republic to this day, is a unique blend of political Shia Islam, revolutionary Marxism, anti-imperialism, and anti-colonialism. According to this doctrine, the Islamic Republic is not merely a political regime but the vanguard of a crusade by the oppressed against their oppressors (i.e. the West) throughout the Middle East and the wider world. This ideology also does not view the Revolution as a historical event but an ongoing process, safeguarded by dedicated institutions like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Thus, within the worldview of this ideology, the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for spreading its “just” revolution to other countries and is constantly working to ensure that it is not corrupted by anti-revolutionary elements.

It is within this ideological system that Ayatollah Khamenei operated for more than 35 years.

As Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s reign was marked by the destabilization of the Middle East and expansion of Iran’s totalitarian state. Domestically, Khamenei’s 36-year rule saw the strengthening of the IRGC and other Revolution-focused institutions. Traditional state bureaucracies weakened, and the state gained greater control over the courts and media.

Elections were also restricted under Khamenei’s rule, with the Islamic Republic’s top clerics deciding on the eligibility of those running for political office. In effect, parliamentary elections were not true democratic exercises but limited expressions of choice by the Iranian people. As a conservative, Khamenei also weakened Iran’s reformist political wing, made it difficult to push forward its change-based agenda, and limited the electoral participation of reformist politicians.

Alongside the strengthening of fundamentalist institutions and the weakening of diverse political voices within Iran, Khamenei’s reign was also heavily defined by the Iranian state’s repression of its own people and its heavy reliance on violence in countering domestic opponents.

Khamenei’s rule saw the continued persecution of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, including Baha’i, Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, and Kurds.

In addition, since 2009, Iran had seen several instances of nation-wide demonstrations and protests, all of which were brutally put down by the state at the behest of the Ayatollah. The most recent outburst of outrage against the regime occurred less than two months before Khamenei’s death and saw Iranian security forces kill thousands (some put the number at tens of thousands) of Iranian civilians.

It was not only on the streets of Iran that the Khamenei-led repression of Iranian citizens was evident but also on the Islamic Republic’s execution platforms. According to human rights organizations, 2025 saw the most recorded executions in Iran since 1989, with 1,639 people being killed by the Iranian state for a variety of crimes, including drugs, murder, and political offences. According to the BBC, for many years Khamenei’s Iran has been considered the “world’s second most prolific executioner,” with only China killing more of its citizens every year.

It was not only on Iran’s domestic stage that Ayatollah Khamenei has such a tarnished legacy. It was also under Khamenei that Iran solidified its role as a regional belligerent and as a threat to the stability of the Middle East.

At Khamenei’s behest, Iran developed its network of terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East. Known as the “axis of resistance,” this network included destructive forces such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Islamic Jihad. Each of these organizations helped destabilize the Middle East on behalf of Tehran in their own way. Hamas and Islamic Jihad brought destruction upon the people of Gaza through their invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Hezbollah weakened the Lebanese state’s sovereignty by acting as a state-within-a-state. The Houthis engaged in fierce conflicts with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while also intensifying humanitarian disaster in the areas of Yemen that they controlled.

Under Khamenei, Iran intervened in the bloody Syrian Civil War on behalf of the tyrannical Assad regime and exerted undue influence in the governance of its neighbor Iraq. Tehran had increased its control in the country following the ouster of long-time Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Ayatollah Khamenei also increased the enrichment of uranium by Iran, using his 2003 fatwa against nuclear weapons as cover for a program that had the development of a nuclear weapon as its ultimate goal. As pointed out by analysts, Khamenei’s regime pursued a nuclear program while simultaneously feigning compliance with international standards.

It is clear that Ayatollah Khamenei’s legacy is one of repression at home and destruction abroad.

Now that he is being laid to rest by the totalitarian and theocratic regime that he helmed for over 35 years, are the media doing their due diligence in properly contextualizing his role as a despot and hegemon?

Or has the media been dazzled by the curated funerary spectacle and blind to the trail of blood and tears that has been left in the wake of Ayatollah Khamenei?

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Chaim moved to Israel in 2018. He has a B.A. (Hons) in Political Science and History from York University as well as an MA in Israel Studies from the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University. Prior to joining HonestReporting, Chaim worked with a variety of Israel advocacy organizations in both Canada and Israel. This article was originally published at HonestReporting.