What luck! I like the 1964 movie, "Becket", and while searching for it on You Tube they suggested a new digital restoration of the movie on the Shakespeare Network. The movie had twice the effect on me because of Khamenei's murder in his home, just a couple weeks ago.
During the movie, analogies came to mind between the victims of King Henry II (of Normandized England) and Iranians' attitude towards martyrdom. The analogies fizzled out quickly and then reappeared. It was all quite tantalizing.
The characters in "Becket" were always talking about honor. King Henry II claimed an aristocratic woman (who was in love with Becket) just as a test of how loyal Becket would be when the chips were down. Would Becket live up to a previous promise to Henry II by turning the woman over to Henry?
When the woman learned that Becket was relinquishing her to King Henry II she said to Becket, "You've not found anything in the world to care for, have you?"
Becket: No.
Woman: We both belong to a conquered race, but you've forgotten that people robbed of everything, can still have one thing left to call their own.
Presumably she meant her Honor. When a drunken and lustful King Henry II came to her room later that night to "claim" her, and thus triumph over Becket, he found that she had killed herself with a knife.
I was hooked. It was so much like the Supreme Leader Khamenei's continuing his work in his own home, knowing full well that Israel and Washington DC might murder him there.
The woman was thinking of her female honor. Becket later became interested in the honor of God. In Roman times, the Stoics would not have used honor perhaps, but their notion of holding onto to virtue was similar to the honor that was being talked so much of, in "Becket." People sometimes see their soul as taking refuge in one indestructible thing, more precious than life itself.
Supreme Leader Khamenei probably wouldn't have used the word, honor, either. He would have gone to his desk in his home thinking of his Islamic devotion to Allah. But I really think it is similar to the words honor and virtue in other settings.
I doubt that Netanyahu and Trump would appreciate the importance of Khamenei's martyrdom to the Iranian people.
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