The Daily Mail reports that it has obtained exclusive covert footage smuggled out of Tehran during a week-long, state-organised funeral for Iran's late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The article frames the mass procession as a regime effort to project strength and survival, while presenting hidden recordings that it says reveal ordinary Iranians' anger and disconnection from the official displays of grief. It matters because it offers a rare, if partial, glimpse of dissent inside a tightly controlled state during a moment of political transition.

The footage, captured by an anonymous driver and passenger, shows gridlocked streets draped in the Islamic Republic's flags and billboards featuring Khamenei alongside his son, Mojtaba. Those filming dismiss the black-clad crowds as "brainwashed" participants in "forced theatrical grief" rather than genuine mourners. The report also references wider regional tension, including US strikes on Iran following attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and images of riot police using water cannon to cool mourners in the summer heat. The account is one-sided and could not be independently verified.