The wife of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died after suffering injuries in the same US-Israeli airstrike that killed her husband.
Al Jazeera reported that Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh died two days after Khamenei was killed at his compound in Tehran.
Iranian state media said on Sunday that Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed in the strike.
Bagherzadeh married Khamenei in 1965. They had four sons and two daughters.
She was believed to be 79 at the time of her death. Over the years, she was said to have supported her husband privately.
Bagherzadeh did not take on public duties or hold any official role in the country’s leadership, keeping a low profile.
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In a rare interview with state media in 2011, she was asked about her role during Khamenei’s struggle against the Shah, the 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.
“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 helped her at 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 even, though he often comes home tired from work, he does his best to keep work-related problems away from home.”