Tehran appears strained to breaking point, its streets clogged with traffic, its residents enduring punishing summer heat, and its public spaces dominated by a government intent on projecting endurance and control.
Disturbing firsthand video from the Iranian capital, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, offers a rare glimpse of the atmosphere inside Iran today as the Islamic Republic stages a vast, week-long funeral procession for its late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
For many Iranians opposed to the authorities, small acts of quiet defiance have become woven into daily life.
In the leaked clips, an Iranian driver and passenger, who requested anonymity, refuse to describe the crowds as sincere mourners or grieving members of the public.
Instead, they dismiss the participants as “brainwashed” attendees — language that underscores the anger and alienation many ordinary Iranians feel toward what they view as the regime’s “forced theatrical grief.”
In one recording, the driver inches through the capital’s chaotic, gridlocked roads and comments on black-clad participants nearby: “I’ve seen this one guy a million times before. They are retarded,” they say.
Iran’s red, white and green flags hang from seemingly every vantage point, while giant billboards tower above the traffic, showing the late leader’s image alongside that of his son, Mojtaba.
An Iranian makes a victory sign while standing under cool water sprayed by municipal workers after paying final respects to Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the third day of his funeral ceremonies on July 6
Riot police cool down mourners from atop a water canon vehicle after thousands paid final respects to Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
It’s a city on the edge, choked by heavy traffic, sweltering summer heat and the oppressive weight of a regime desperate to showcase its own survival
A police officer approaches the vehicle in another video. In a flash of panic, the passenger filming the scene drops the phone, trying to hide it from the officer standing just inches from the window.
‘Don’t be scared,’ the driver mutters quietly, trying to calm her when she says she just saw police. In this city, being caught recording the regime can mean an immediate arrest.
One Iranian citizen who shared the videos told the Daily Mail, speaking on the strict condition of anonymity for their own safety, says people can get into huge trouble if they’re seen recording because there are police stationed all around the city. There have been many documented cases of jailing, torture and executions.
Despite the state-orchestrated spectacles broadcasted on state TV, Iranians say the atmosphere on the streets tells a different story.
At one point in the footage, the driver looks out at the crowds and remarks sarcastically: ‘There aren’t that many people tonight. They are afraid of Israel, aren’t they?’
One day before the official ceremonies began, a frantic banner blitz blanketed the capital. Signs promoting the regime were plastered everywhere, stretching along the strategic Modarres Expressway from the ultra-wealthy Elahiyeh neighborhood in northern Tehran all the way south to Haft-e Tir Square.
Subsequent footage taken under the cover of darkness reveals regime operatives in northern Tehran actively distributing free food and cash gift cards to pedestrians, designed to entice cash-strapped citizens into the streets to swell the size of the crowds for the rolling television cameras.
The source also exposed the ‘hypocrisy’ of the regime’s supposedly ‘working-class’ support base.
Ominous ‘Kill Trump’ signs – written in both English and Farsi – have also been erected across the capital, a stark reminder of the regime’s ongoing anger and isolation on the world stage
Vehicles drive past the flags of Iran and Iraq installed along a street, a day before the funeral procession of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala on July 7
‘While the mullahs constantly claim their loyalists are the low-income, pious backbone of the nation, the streets of northern Tehran are filled with high-end luxury vehicles – including brand-new Mercedes-Benz and BMW models – proudly flying Islamic Republic and Hezbollah flags from their windows,’ they explained.
The source revealed that the white car seen in one video is considered a relatively expensive car in Iran, worth around 7 to 8 billion tomans, which translates to roughly $115,000 to $130,000.
At the same time, Iranian sources say many wealthy individuals in their country have businesses or financial interests that are closely tied to the current political system.
If the system were to change, they could lose those advantages.
Ominous ‘Kill Trump’ signs – written in both English and Farsi – have also been erected across the capital, a stark reminder of the regime’s ongoing anger and isolation on the world stage.
But it is who is not in the city that is fueling intense speculation.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, his father’s successor, is completely missing, sparking a wave of rumors across the country.
Following the February US-Israeli airstrikes that assassinated his father, Iran’s Assembly of Experts swiftly fast-tracked his hardline son, Mojtaba, as the country’s third Supreme Leader to project immediate stability.
Yet, despite holding ultimate power, Mojtaba has vanished entirely from public view. While the official regime narrative insists he is operating from deep underground due to extreme security protocols, intense internal rumors suggest he was severely disfigured or injured in the initial blast that killed his family.
Thousands of people took to the streets on July 7 in the Iranian holy city of Qom during a fourth day of marathon funeral proceedings
For many Iranians against their government, quiet rebellion has become a part of everyday life
Mourners pray during the funeral of three women killed in an Israeli drone strike in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, southern Lebanon, on July 7
In one video, a driver crawls through the chaotic, gridlocked streets of the capital: ‘I’ve seen this one guy a million times before. They are retarded,’ they remark while observing protestors dressed head to toe in black
If Mojtaba is in fact dead, the country is legally run by a fragile, ideologically divided three-man council that includes the President, the Chief Justice and Senior Cleric. This would eventually result in elections for a new Supreme Leader, sparking a massive crisis of legitimacy and first break in the Khamenei bloodline.
Several Iranian sources stressed that nobody has seen or heard from the late Supreme Leader’s son in months.
‘There isn’t even audio of his voice. If he isn’t there for his father’s burial – it will be a sure fire sign that something is very, very wrong with him. But the regime wants to main the optics of control,’ the Iranian citizen explained.
The marathon funeral procession, which began on Saturday, is slated to last the entire week, a move that directly flouts strict Islamic customs, which dictate a body must be buried within 24 hours.
Instead, Khamenei’s body is being subjected to a grueling multi-city tour, traveling across several locations in Iran and even into neighboring Iraq before finally being laid to rest in his hometown.
The spectacle has unfolded under an informal, tense truce, with both sides promising not to launch surprise military strikes while the ceremonies take place.
Monday, as Khamenei’s coffin was paraded through the streets of Tehran in a heavily staged public march, temperatures soared to dangerous levels. The heat was so suffocating that regime officers were forced to blast massive water cannons into the tightly packed crowds to keep the attendees from collapsing.
For ordinary Iranians who want no part in the mandatory grieving, the week-long funeral has sparked a mass exodus.
Thousands of citizens have fled the capital entirely, traveling to northern Iran to wait out the ‘forced regime pageant’ in isolation.
Meanwhile, state television is broadcasting images of the surviving leadership standing shoulder-to-shoulder to project total unity over the casket.
Current President Masoud Pezeshkian and hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been prominently featured, attempting to reassure a skeptical public that the Islamic Republic remains intact.
‘We are watching this theater with, what I would describe as fear and intense bitterness,’ a third Iranian living inside Tehran remarked.
