In this Persian name, the surname is Khojasteh Bagherzadeh.

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh
منصوره خجسته باقرزاده
Spouse of the Supreme Leader of Iran
In role
4 June 1989[a] – 28 February 2026
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Preceded by Khadijeh Saqafi
Spouse of the President of Iran
In role
9 October 1981 – 16 August 1989
President Ali Khamenei
Preceded by Ateghe Sediqi
Succeeded by Effat Marashi
Personal details
Born 23 May 1947
Mashhad, Iran
Died (aged 78)
Tehran, Iran
Manner of death Assassination by airstrike
Spouse
Ali Khamenei
​
​
(m. 1964; died  2026)​
Children 6, including Mostafa, Mojtaba, and Masoud
Relatives Khamenei family (by marriage)

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh (23 May 1947 – 2 March 2026) was the spouse of Ali Khamenei, the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination by an Israel-US coordinated airstrike in 2026, which subsequently killed Bagherzadeh as well due to sustained injuries.

Early life and marriage

Bagherzadeh was born in an Iranian religious family in Mashhad.[1][2] Her father was Mohammad Esmaeil Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, a famous businessman in Mashhad.[1] She was the sister of Hassan Khojaste Bagherzadeh, former deputy director of IRIB.[3] She first met Ali Khamenei in a private ceremony organized by Khamenei's mother in 1964, and they were wed the same year when she was 17 and he was 25.[1][2] Their marriage sermon was read by Ayatollah Mohammad Hadi Milani.[4] The wedding was paid for by Bagherzadeh's family.[1] They initially settled at an apartment rented from Khamenei's brother-in-law, Ali Tehrani.[1]

Bagherzadeh and Khamenei had 4 sons and 2 daughters:[2][5]

  • Mostafa, who is mostly engaged in seminary studies. He married the daughter of Azizollah Khoshvaght.
  • Mojtaba, who is more prominent in the country's media and politics, is the son-in-law of Gholam Ali Haddad Adel.
  • Masoud married the daughter of Seyyed Mohsen Kharazi and has a family relationship with Kamal and Sadegh Kharazi.
  • Meysam married the daughter of Mahmoud Lolachian, one of Tehran's religious bazaar merchants. Like Seyyed Masoud, he also collaborates with the office for preserving and publishing the works of "the Leader of the Revolution".
  • Boshra married the son of Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani.
  • Hoda married the son of Mohammad Bagher Bagheri.

Khamenei stated that his wife, during the period of his imprisonment and struggle before the 1979 revolution, "never expressed concern or complaints about me, and in fact she encouraged me in numerous matters. There were times… when some individuals and secret groups visited our home, including important and high-ranking people… she did not question me, did not try to interrogate me… she had no opposition at all, and in fact she even helped."[1] He later revealed that she facilitated a meeting between him and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1972, by introducing herself to prison guards as Rafsanjani's sister.[1]

Activities

Bagherzadeh had a limited public role during her husband's tenure as president and later supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[2] She refrained from adopting any political positions.[2] Khamenei's official website described her as a "patient spouse" and she did give one or two official interviews.[1] One such interview was given to the English-language magazine Mahjubeh, affiliated with the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, in which she shared memories of her married life with Khamenei. She stated that her most important role is "maintaining a peaceful atmosphere at home".[1] She added: "Of course, I was also involved in various activities such as distributing leaflets, carrying messages, hiding documents, and the like. But I think these are hardly worth mentioning. In the final months of the struggle, regarding the telephone messages of Imam Khomeini from Paris, I would send them for duplication and distribution to centers in Mashhad and other cities, and I would collect news from Mashhad and other cities in Khorasan and transmit it to Paris."[6]

With the release of interrogation videos of Fahimeh Dorri Nogorani [fa], the wife of Saeed Emami, deputy minister of intelligence during the chain murders of Iran, accounts were also shared regarding her connections to Bagherzadeh.[1] In 1999, the now-defunct website Nusazi published an article titled "Revisiting a Violated Right" quoting Dorri Nogorani about the relationship between Khamenei's family and the family of Saeed Emami. The article referred to a "secret trip" by Khamenei's family to London and stated that Emami accompanied them on this trip, and that Bagherzadeh even washed his clothes. Nusazi claimed that this account came from unpublished interviews in the Islamic Revolution Document Center. The claim was not denied or refuted by Ruhollah Hosseinian, the director of the center at the time.[1]

Bagherzadeh was present at certain meetings and ceremonies.[1] She would regularly visit the families of deceased military personnel and officials, and the wife of Dariush Rezaeinejad—one of the nuclear scientists who was killed on 23 July 2011—claimed in a documentary broadcast by the Islamic Republic that Bagherzadeh had visited their home "several times".[6][1] Despite the lack of in depth information about her activities and affairs, Jamileh Alamolhoda, the wife of President Ebrahim Raisi, described Bagherzadeh as "just a simple teacher" who was the only senior female figure in the country deserving of the title "first lady".[1] The wives of political prisoners, including Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour (the wife of Mostafa Tajzadeh), had written letters to Bagherzadeh on several occasions, asking her to help secure their release.[1]

In June 2010, she was hospitalized at the Baghiyyatollah al-Azam Military Hospital for several days and underwent surgery without reports specifying the exact timing or cause of the illness.[1]

Death

Bagherzadeh died on 2 March 2026 during the Iran conflict, from injuries sustained in the same United States and Israeli airstrike that killed her husband two days earlier.[7][8] Her death was announced on IRIB TV2.[1][9]

Notes

  1. ^ Acting until 6 August 1989

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "منصوره خجسته‌ باقرزاده، همسر علی خامنه‌ای به‌دنبال بمباران محل سکونت رهبر جمهوری اسلامی کشته شد" [Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, the wife of Ali Khamenei, was killed following the bombing of the residence of the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran]. BBC Persian. 2 March 2026. Retrieved 3 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e "درباره همسر علی خامنه‌ای و دیگر اعضای خانواده‌اش که کشته شدند، چه می‌دانیم؟" [What do we know about the wife of Ali Khamenei and the other members of his family who were killed?]. BBC Persian. 3 March 2026. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  3. ^ "حسن خجسته" [Hassan Khojasteh]. khojasteh.ir. Archived from the original on 16 June 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  4. ^ "ماجرای ازدواج سیدعلی/ خطبه عقد را چه کسی خواند؟" [The story of Seyed Ali’s marriage / Who recited the marriage sermon?]. Mashregh News. 28 November 2012. Archived from the original on 29 November 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  5. ^ "Rare Interview Surfaces With The Wife of Iran's Supreme Leader". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  6. ^ a b "همه همسران رؤسای جمهور ایران" [All the wives of the presidents of Iran]. Iranian Students' News Agency. 19 October 2014. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  7. ^ Ari, Lior Ben (2 March 2026). "Reports in Iran: Khamenei's wife dies from her wounds". Ynetglobal. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  8. ^ al-Batati, Saleh (2 March 2026). "Khamenei's Wife Dies From Injuries Sustained in U.S.–Israeli Attack, State Media Says". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  9. ^ "تایید کشته شدن منصوره خجسته باقرزاده، همسر خامنه‌ای" [Confirmation of the death of Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, the wife of Ali Khamenei]. VoA Farsi. 2 March 2026. Retrieved 5 March 2026.