Zahra Haddad-Adel
Zahra Haddad-Adel with her husband Mojtaba Khamenei and her children (2014)
Born c. 1979
Iran
Died 28 February 2026(2026-02-28) (aged 46–47)
Tehran, Iran
Cause of death Killed by airstrike
Education Allameh Tabataba'i University
Iran Broadcasting University
Spouse
Mojtaba Khamenei
​
(m. 1999)​
⁠[1][2]
Children 3
Father Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel

Zahra Haddad-Adel (c. 1979 – 28 February 2026) was the wife of Mojtaba Khamenei, who is the third supreme leader of Iran, elected eight days after she was killed in the Israeli strikes during the 2026 Iran war.[3][4][5][3] She was killed alongside her father-in-law, the second supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei.

Early life

Zahra Haddad-Adel was born in 1979/1980[6] to Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, a Conservative and Principlist politician. Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel was a member of the Islamic Republic Party from 1980 to 1987. He was an advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and served in a number of governmental positions including Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 1979, and Deputy Education Minister from 1982 to 1993. [7] He has also served as a Member of the Parliament of Iran from 2000 to 2016, and as the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran from 2004 to 2008. Currently he serves as a Member of Expediency Discernment Council since 2012, previously serving from 2002 to 2004.[1][8][9][10]

Marriage and family

After completing her secondary education in 1997, Haddad-Adel's future mother-in-law Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh approached Haddad-Adel's family to arrange a proposed marriage between Haddad-Adel and her son Mojtaba Khamenei, due to her father's political position,[11] with Euronews describing the proposed marriage as "creating what many observers viewed as a strategic alliance between the office of the supreme leader and a conservative technocratic-cultural faction within the political establishment".[1] The couple married in 1999.[12][13][14]⁠[5][8][9][10][15][16][excessive citations] Due to her parentage and marriage, Zahra Haddad-Adel was regarded as an important person in Iranian politics.[17][18]

Haddad-Adel and her husband had three children: a son Mohamed Amin (born 2007), followed by a daughter Fatemeh Sadaat, and then their second son Mohamed Bagher.[19] There was rumors that due to fertility issues, her first child Mohamed Amin was born in London "at a cost of over one million pounds", traveling to the United Kingdom with her husband and accompanied by a full protection and security team. Haddad-Adel has denied that her first child was born in London, having stated that all three of her children were born in a hospital in Tehran "at a cost of 500,000 tomans", with the attending physician being Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi.[11][16]

Death

According to the Iranian government in 2026, Haddad-Adel was killed in the US–Israeli strikes. Also killed in the strike were her in-laws, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sister-in-law Boshra Khamenei and her daughter Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, and her brother-in-law Mesbah Bagheri Kani, husband of Hoda Khamenei.[20][5][3][21][22][23][24][25][excessive citations] Her death resulted in considering her a martyr alongside her family members killed in the strikes.[26][27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b c Chandelier, Alain (8 March 2026). "Explainer: Who is Mojtaba Khamenei and how did he succeed his father?". Euronews. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  2. ^ Azar, Masoud (9 March 2026). "مجتبی خامنه‌ای‌، رهبر جدید جمهوری اسلامی کیست؟" [Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, the new leader of the Islamic Republic?]. BBC Dari. Retrieved 9 March 2026. Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, the father of Mojtaba Khamenei's wife, recounts a quote from Ali Khamenei about the marriage proposal and wedding ceremony of his daughter in the year 1999...
  3. ^ a b c "A son of Iran's late supreme leader is a possible candidate to replace his father as war rages". Arab News. 4 March 2026. A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when the Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader's offices killed his 86-year-old father. Also killed were the younger Khamenei's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country's theocracy.
  4. ^ Fassihi, Farnaz (3 March 2026). "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Son Emerges as Leading Choice to Be His Successor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 March 2026. Mojtaba Khamenei's wife, Zahra Adel; his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, and a son were killed alongside his father in strikes on Saturday, the Iranian government said.
  5. ^ a b c "Daughter and grandchild of Iran's Khamenei killed in US-Israeli strikes, state media says". Reuters. 1 March 2026. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
  6. ^ "زندگی‌نامه". Jam-e Jam (in Persian). 25 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2025-11-10. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  7. ^ Sharma, Vinay Prasad (9 March 2026). "Who Was Zahra Haddad-Adel? Mojtaba Khamenei's wife killed in US-Israel strike on Iran: Know more about family, kids". Wion. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b "Who was Mojtaba Khamenei's wife Zahra Haddad Adel? All about his family and children". Hindustan Times. 2026-03-09. Retrieved 2026-03-09.
  9. ^ a b "Who Was Zahra Haddad Adel, Wife Of Iran's Likely Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Killed In Strikes". NDTV World. 6 March 2026. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  10. ^ a b "Mojtaba Khamenei family, net worth: Know about wife Zahra Haddad Adel and kids as Iran gets new supreme leader after Khamenei's death". www.india.com. Retrieved 2026-03-09.
  11. ^ a b Reza, Talebi (2024). "The Relationship between the Centre and Periphery in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Implications of Change and Succession for the Country's Political Stability" (PDF). Open Journal of Political Science. ISSN 2164-0513.
  12. ^ Tait, Robert (26 February 2008). "Ahmadinejad favors his relatives". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2009. The daughter of Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, the current parliamentary speaker, is married to Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
  13. ^ Bazoobandi, Sara (11 January 2013). "The 2013 presidential election in Iran" (PDF). MEI Insight. 88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2013. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, who is Mojtaba Khamenei's (Ayatollah Khamenei's son) father-in-law
  14. ^ Azar, Masoud (9 March 2026). "مجتبی خامنه‌ای‌، رهبر جدید جمهوری اسلامی کیست؟" [Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, the new leader of the Islamic Republic?]. BBC Dari. Retrieved 9 March 2026. Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, the father of Mojtaba Khamenei's wife, recounts a quote from Ali Khamenei about the marriage proposal and wedding ceremony of his daughter in the year 1999...
  15. ^ Mishra, Neerja (2026-03-09). "Mojtaba Khamenei Family Tree: From Father, Wife, Mother to Siblings & Children | Explained". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  16. ^ a b Habibinia, Omid (2026-03-09). "Iran's New Supreme Leader's Billion Dollar Holdings and Hidden Documentation Revealed". The Media Line. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  17. ^ Amit, Apurwa. "Who was Mojtaba Khamenei's wife Zahra Haddad Adel? Know how she was killed". DNA India. Retrieved 2026-03-10. Zahra was an important person in the country's political circles.
  18. ^ Mishra, Neerja (2026-03-09). "Who Was Iran's New Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei's Wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel? All About Her And Their Kids". Bollywood Shaadis. Retrieved 2026-03-10. This marriage strengthened Mojtaba Khamenei's connections within Iran's conservative political establishment. Haddad-Adel has remained an influential figure in Iran's political system and is known for his close ties with senior leadership circles. The alliance between the two families has often been viewed by analysts as an important link within Iran's conservative power network.
  19. ^ "Expat source's information and views on Mojtaba Khamenei". The Telegraph. 4 February 2011. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  20. ^ "منصوره خجسته‌ باقرزاده، همسر علی خامنه‌ای" [Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, the wife of Ali Khamenei]. BBC Persian. 12 March 2026. Retrieved 13 March 2026.
  21. ^ "منصوره خجسته باقرزاده، همسر علی خامنه‌ای که در حمله اسرائیل کشته شد که بود؟". BBC Persian (in Persian). 2026-03-02. Retrieved 2026-03-09. [Previously, the killings of Zahra Haddad Adel, wife of Mojtaba Khamenei, Mesbah Bagheri Kani, husband of Hoda Khamenei, and Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, granddaughter of the leader of the Islamic Republic, were reported.]
  22. ^ "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 Dari. 3 March 2026. Archived from the original on 4 March 2026. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  23. ^ "«بانوی اول» نامرئی حکومت ایران؛ از همسر علی خامنه‌ای چه می‌دانیم؟" [The invisible 'First Lady' of Iran's government: What do we know about Ali Khamenei's wife?]. Iran International. 6 March 2026. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  24. ^ Sanij, Neda (5 March 2026). "از خویشاوندان علی خامنه‌ای و تاثیرگذارترین خاندان سیاسی ایران چه می‌دانیم؟" [What do we know about the relatives of Ali Khamenei and the most influential political family in Iran?]. BBC Dari. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  25. ^ "Who is Khamenei's son Mojtaba, Iran's next leader?". The Jerusalem Post. 2026-03-04. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  26. ^ "Could Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the former supreme leader, take power in Iran?". France 24. 2026-03-05. Retrieved 2026-03-10. Now with his father [Ali Khamenei] and wife [Zahra Haddad-Adel,] considered by hard-liners as martyrs in the war against America and Israel, Khamenei's [Mojtaba Khamenei] stock likely has risen with the aging clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts who will select the country's next supreme leader.
  27. ^ "Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, son and successor to Iran's supreme leader?". France 24. 2026-03-08. Retrieved 2026-03-10. With his father [Ali Khamenei] and wife [Zahra Haddad-Adel] considered by hardliners as martyrs in the war against America and Israel, the younger Khamenei's [Mojtaba Khamenei] stock likely rose with the ageing clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, tasked with selecting the country's leader.
  28. ^ Gambrell, Jon (2026-03-08). "Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's late supreme leader, is chosen to replace his father". PBS News. Retrieved 2026-03-10. The idea of having Mojtaba Khamenei replace his father had been criticized as potentially creating a theocratic version of Iran's former hereditary monarchy. But his stock rose after his father and his wife were killed and became martyrs in the war against America and Israel in the eyes of hard-liners.