The wife of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has reportedly passed away after suffering injuries in the same US-Israeli airstrike that claimed her husband’s life. According to Al Jazeera, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh died two days after Khamenei was killed at his residence in Tehran. Iranian state media also reported that the strike resulted in the deaths of the couple’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Bagherzadeh married Khamenei in 1965, and their union produced four sons and two daughters. Throughout the decades marked by political upheaval in Iran, she was said to have stood firmly behind her husband, though she largely remained out of public view and avoided any formal political role. In a rare 2011 interview with state media, she reflected on her role during her husband’s struggle against the Shah prior to the 1979 revolution. “I think my biggest role was to preserve a calm atmosphere in our home so that he could do his work in peace. “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. “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 assisted with domestic responsibilities, she responded: “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 even, though he often comes home tired from work, he does his best to keep work-related problems away from home.” She was believed to have been 79 years old at the time of her death.
