AMNA NAWAZ: The multiday funeral of the slain supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continued today with his coffin traveling to Najaf, Iraq.

Iraq's prime minister and other political and religious leaders were at the airport to receive the body.

The funeral that began this past Saturday has drawn enormous crowds.

And "News Hour" special correspondent Reza Sayah has been in Tehran speaking with some who've come to pay their respects.

REZA SAYAH: In Shia Islam, crying is a virtue for women and men.

It's an act of worship and devotion for those killed in the path of God.

In the capital, Tehran, millions of Iranians expressed that devotion in the funeral ceremony for the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Samira Afshari traveled eight hours alone by bus to be here.

She credits her success as a neurologist to Khamenei.

SAMIRA AFSHARI, Neurologist (through translator): In this country, as a woman, I had free education.

I had free room and board.

I became a doctor.

It was this country that got me here.

And it was because of this dear and martyred leader who passionately wanted progress for this country.

REZA SAYAH: To Afshari, Khamenei was a father figure.

To Washington, he was enemy number one, the oppressive leader of a terrorist state that aspires to have nuclear bombs.

On the morning of February 28, in a joint operation with U.S.

forces, Israeli jet fighters bombed Mr.

Khamenei's home office compound, killing him and four of his family members, and started a war with Iran.

Four months later, authorities here called his funeral the biggest public event in modern Iranian history.

The crowds here are just astonishing, people as far as the eye can see, and they keep coming.

Opponents, critics, enemies of the supreme leader long claimed that he didn't have widespread support, that his opponents outnumbered his supporters, and the opponents wanted freedom, and he wouldn't give it to them.

They claimed that if the supreme leader was toppled, Iranians would pour out into the streets, take their freedom, and celebrate.

Obviously, that scenario never happened.

And many here will point to this crowd, point to this gathering to tell those critics that they were wrong, that they underestimated the strength and the resilience of the Islamic Republic, that they underestimated the support the supreme leader had.

So you don't view him as your supreme.

MARYAM, Tehran, Iran, Resident: Not at all.

REZA SAYAH: Maryam, a single mother in Tehran is one of those critics.

She asked us not to show her face on camera.

She blames Khamenei for the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in January and Iran's struggling economy.

During Khamenei's funeral, Maryam stayed home.

You didn't go.

MARYAM: No, of course.

REZA SAYAH: And what is the reason that you didn't go?

MARYAM: I personally hold him responsible for whatever has happened to our country.

It was all his decision-making, wrong decision-making, his ideology.

REZA SAYAH: Yes.

The turnout for this ceremony was huge.

When you see these numbers of people, when you see these crowds, how do you react?

MARYAM: I know still they are in minority.

I believe that with my heart.

REZA SAYAH: You think the opponents are more than the supporters?

MARYAM: Exactly.

But, of course, no one gives them any room to come up.

REZA SAYAH: Back at the funeral at a makeshift souvenir stand, Alireza Sadeghi sells pictures and keepsakes glorifying the slain leader.

He says critics have a right to question his policies, but how he was portrayed was not who he was.

ALIREZA SADEGHI, Souvenir Vendor (through translator): The way the media and the news all over the world claim the Islamic Republic is not for the people, that the people are against the leadership, that the leader was a dictator,it is not at all like this.

We really loved him.

We still love him.

That's why we're here.

REZA SAYAH: Many mourners attended the funeral for religious reasons.

For them, Khamenei was God's representative on Earth.

But we found many others who are not religious.

Instead, they are deeply anti-war.

They view Khamenei as a man who stood up to the world's imperialist bullies.

SHAYDA RIGI, Ph.D Student: You're right, I'm not religious.

This is a political statement on my part.

REZA SAYAH: Shayda Rigi left her Ph.D.

studies in industrial design in Sweden and came back to Iran to pay her respects to Khamenei.

SHAYDA RIGI: He was a soldier of the resistance to me.

And I understand the resistance as a phenomenon that spans the Global South.

And I understand that there are many countries in Latin America and in Africa who are inspired by the way that Iran has stood up to these world powers.

REZA SAYAH: Navid Rahman grew up in suburban Chicago and got his Ph.D.

in Middle East studies in New York's Columbia University.

MAN: The crowds at the funeral of Seyed Ali Khamenei were insane.

REZA SAYAH: Last year, he moved back to Iran and started an anti-imperialist Instagram page.

You view the late supreme leader as a revolutionary.

The country you spent a lot of time growing up in, the United States, views him as a danger to America.

NAVID RAHMAN, Anti-Imperialist Activist: When it comes to the general demonization of us' adversaries, so much of it is just polemical and propaganda.

And because the U.S.

does not tolerate countries that are politically and economically independent, it will create propaganda in order to delegitimize them.

And that is why the phrase Iranian regime is so popular, because that's a dog whistle to everybody around you that this is an illegitimate regime that we have to fight and destroy.

REZA SAYAH: Sara Larijani moved back to Iran after 14 years in Germany, where she got her Ph.D.

in historical geography.

Today, she's a member of We Defend Iran, a group of current and former expats here to honor Khamenei.

SARA LARIJANI, We Defend Iran: I'm here to give my tribute to this great architecture of Iranian sovereignty and indigenous development.

He's architecture of our indigenous defense system, and resilience is going to outlive him.

REZA SAYAH: Larijani's group is collecting signatures for this tribute letter, where Khamenei is called the leader of anti-colonial resistance.

Number two to sign is Bijan Abdolkarimi, a leading professor of philosophy in Tehran.

Karimi says Washington's view of the late leader comes through a biased lens.

BIJAN ABDOLKARIMI, Philosophy Professor (through translator): The West always views others through their own lens.

The West doesn't see Iranians through Iranian eyes.

The West only knows one pair of glasses, and that's their own pair of glasses.

REZA SAYAH: If Americans were to view Iranians with Iranian glasses, who would they see?

BIJAN ABDOLKARIMI (through translator): A country with culture, one of the world's greatest centers of religion and spirituality.

Iranian tradition says that among all humans there is friendship and love.

REZA SAYAH: At Ayatollah Khamenei's funeral, there was neither friendship nor love for the United States, instead, calls for revenge, a message that millions who support him still stand determined to continue his fight.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Reza Sayah in Tehran.