BBC NEWS | Middle East (original) (raw)

Ayatollah Khomenei, file image

The ayatollah instituted Iran's current system of cleric supremacy

Thousands of Iranians have attended the funeral of Khadijeh Saqafi - the widow of Ayatollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khadijeh Saqafi, who was known as the "mother of the Islamic revolution", died on Saturday at the age of 93.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials took part in the funeral prayer, led by current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

She was buried at Ayatollah Khomeini's shrine in Tehran.

The ayatollah, who died in 1989, became Iran's first supreme leader after the 1979 Islamic revolution and instituted the current cleric-led system.