Plan to register farewell to martyred Leader as national heritage
The Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts announced plans to officially register the millions-strong funeral procession for the martyred Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as a national heritage event, describing it as an unprecedented demonstration of national unity and solidarity.
Ali Darabi said, "We all took part wholeheartedly in the funeral and farewell ceremony for the martyred Leader to once again reaffirm our commitment to his ideals."
He also revealed that the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Reza Salehi-Amiri has formally requested the approval of the current Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, to register the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah — described as the Leader's residence and the country's center of governance — as a national heritage site and convert it into the great museum of Iran.
According to Darabi, the late Leader's former residence in Mashhad, where he lived between 1967 and 1978 and where his sons were born, has already been registered as the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and is currently being completed. He added that his residence in Iranshahr, where he lived during his exile during the Pahlavi era, has also been registered and converted into a house museum, IRNA reported.
Emphasizing the importance of preserving the memories of officials who worked alongside the martyred Leader, the official said a book documenting such recollections should be compiled.
"I have many memories of the martyred Leader from the years of the Islamic Revolution, the Construction Jihad, and the Coordination Council on Islamic Promulgation," he said. "I hope I will have the opportunity to turn those memories into a book so they can be preserved for future generations."
Darabi added that oral history constitutes the nation's historical and collective memory, stressing that recording these recollections in book form would help preserve an important part of Iran's history for the public and younger generations.