Protests in Mashhad... Ali Khamenei's office refuses to name streets after him

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The office of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced today, Monday, his refusal to give his name to streets and public places that bear historical names that have been in circulation for years, in a position that reflects reservations about the renaming campaign that the country witnessed following his murder, amid a legal and administrative dispute regarding the decisions of the Mashhad City Council.

The office said, in an official response to a proposal submitted by the Municipality of Mashhad, that it does not support replacing the names of streets and places of a historical and popular nature with the name of Ali Khamenei, stressing the necessity of prior coordination with him before making such decisions, and avoiding hasty steps in this regard.

This came after the City Council of Mashhad approved changing the names of a number of prominent landmarks and streets, including Kohsangi Street and the University, to become associated with the name of Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the American and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. The decision also included, according to Iranian reports, Ali Shariati Square.

Meanwhile, members of the Council justified this step by saying that it comes, as they put it, “in memory of Khamenei” in the city where he grew up, pointing to demands presented by parties they described as “popular and cultural.”

However, the decision raised local objections and led to a dispute with administrative and supervisory authorities in the city of Mashhad and Khorasan Razavi Governorate in the northeast of the country.

Iranian reports stated that the oversight body for municipal council decisions rejected the renaming decision due to a lack of documents and procedural problems, before the dispute was referred to the dispute settlement body in the province. While local officials confirmed that the authority rejected the decision, the city council saw that the objection was not notified to it within the specified legal deadline, which makes it effective from its point of view.

While the position of the Office for the Preservation and Publishing of Khamenei’s Antiquities showed that the issue of naming public places after him does not enjoy consensus within the institutions associated with the regime, especially with the Office’s demand for the necessity of prior coordination, in exchange for the Municipal Council’s insistence on continuing to implement its decision.

This controversy came at a time when Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei's son and successor as guide, continues to be absent from public appearances since he assumed the position in March 2026, following the killing of his father. This absence has raised increasing questions in light of continued attempts to revive the name of the former guide in the public sphere.

Despite the coincidence of the two cases, there is no official data linking Mojtaba’s absence to the dispute over the renaming of streets, which keeps the matter within the framework of simultaneous time without any confirmed evidence of a direct link between them.

However, with the continued objections from the Office for the Preservation and Publication of Khamenei’s Antiquities and the regulatory and administrative authorities, the fate of the renaming decisions remains an unresolved scene, amid questions about whether the authorities will review these steps or whether the dispute will continue over the names of streets and landmarks that have been linked to the city’s memory for decades.