Comment | Sometimes a burning house is just a burning house – burning down the house of Iran’s supreme leader is much more than that

Thursday Shocking news came from Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini’s home had been set on fire.

Ayatolla Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) was the undisputed leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the founder of the current state, which overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979.

Iran played down reports of the arson and claimed that the doors of the house that serves as Khomeini’s home museum are still open.

Read more: The video shows how the house of the founder of modern Iran burns during the protests

Let’s pass for a moment the symbolic level. Sometimes a house on fire is just a house on fire.

The protests are getting more and more violent in Iran. Burning down a house is always a wildly violent attack.

The attack now targets the foundations of the Islamic Republic, in the case of Khomeini’s home, quite concretely.

On Thursday, a priest’s seminary was also set on fire in the city of Qom.

That too was an attack on the basic structures of the state. Qom is the holy city of Shiism, from whose seminaries Iran’s ruling clerical class has traditionally become.

Iran’s supreme religious leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei gave a speech on Thursday, the subject of which was the martyrs of Qom. (The speech was apparently recorded earlier.)

So, in his speech, did Khamenei honor the martyrs of the autumn protests?

Not of course, but comrades in arms of his youth.

The 83-year-old Khamenei recalled the 1960s, when the Islamic revolution was still a faint dream of young Qom clerics like him. He recalled the turn of the 1980s, when fellow revolutionaries gave their lives for their cause.

It is ludicrous that a leader weeps over the fate of men who died decades ago while his security apparatus is killing hundreds of people in the streets. According to the UN, at least 300 people have died in the protests, and according to various calculations by non-governmental organizations, almost 400 people have died.

Khamenei’s speech was intended as a show of support for the police and security forces. Khamenei showed that the state is steadfast in its support of order.

But don’t overinterpret. It was also the hum of an old man lost in his memories.

Iran’s many issues collide in the demonstrations: women’s rights, the impoverishment of the people, general outrage.

It is also about the struggle of generations. Khamenei is the last warrior of the revolutionary generation, and the 70-80-year-olds’ grip on the state is still firm.

Iran’s population, on the other hand, is very young. The median age is about 32 years. When Khamenei preaches about the revolution, he imagines young people listening admiringly to his recollections of the events of 1979.

In recent weeks, the youth have started to talk about the revolution. But that means overthrowing Khamenei’s rule.

Most Iranians were born after Khomeini’s death. To them, a burnt house is just a burnt house.

Secular politicians have always been looked down upon in Iran, but religious leaders were respected for a long time. This taboo has been broken. There are open calls for Khamenei’s death in the streets. A popular slogan is also “year of blood”.

At least in name, the members of parliament, the judiciary and the Revolutionary Guard are steadfastly behind the hard line. Now it’s hard to see the flames going out on their own.