Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was laid to rest early Friday morning. In Tehran and other cities, the funeral processions drew large crowds of supporters, marking a show of strength by the hardline faction at the heart of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

However, amid decades of bloody repression, international sanctions, and economic mismanagement, this discontent has been simmering beneath the surface, and it has grown even further since the authorities killed thousands of anti-government protesters in January of this year.

A senior aide to Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged last month that there is a deep divide in Iran between staunch supporters of the Islamic Republic and those who hope to see it collapse.

One of Khamenei’s legacies is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ability to survive both his death and large-scale attacks by the United States and Israel. After the war ended, the leadership reached an interim agreement with the U.S. that secured some immediate benefits. The agreement promised that if Iran and the U.S. reached a final nuclear deal, Iran would receive a greater windfall—the lifting of sanctions—though this remains uncertain.