By Ali Akbar Dareini
Tehran, Iran - Hundreds of mourners paid their respects on Thursday to Iran's formerly conjoined twins, Ladan and Laleh Bijani, as their bodies lay in separate coffins in Tehran's Grand Mosque ahead of their burial on Friday.
The 29-year-old sisters died within 90 minutes of each other on Tuesday after doctors in Singapore separated them but failed to control the bleeding in the unprecedented surgery.
Earlier on Thursday, in a reception usually reserved for slain soldiers and prominent figures, a plane carrying the twins' bodies arrived at Tehran's airport as grieving friends wept and a military band played solemn music.
About 60 friends and government officials, led by the head of the State Welfare Organization Mohammad Reza Rahchamani, watched yellow-jacketed airport staff carry their coffins, draped in brown cloth, off the plane. Each coffin bore a bouquet of white flowers tied with black ribbon.
Their death caused grief across Iran. People stopped work or parked their cars and cried when the news of their deaths was broadcast on radio and television. On Friday, hundreds paid their respects at Tehran's Grand Mosque, where an ambulance brought the separate coffins bearing their bodies.
"They are separated now and rest in peace," said close friend Noushin Mehran, as she watched on at the airport with tears in her eyes. "They died while struggling for an independent, separate life."
The twins are scheduled to be buried in Lohrasb, the village in southwestern Iran where they were born, on Friday.
Their parents, Dadollah Bijani and Maryam Safari, were said to be in Firouzabad, a town close to Lohrasb, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, President Mohammad Khatami paid tribute to the twins' resolve and patience.
"What happened to our dear Laleh and Ladan was one page in the great book of destiny," Khatami was quoted as saying.
"We should appreciate the patience of these two innocent birds who tolerated their difficult life and enthusiastically welcomed a happier future."
The sisters, who had spent years looking for surgeons try to separate them, left Iran seven months ago to prepare for the operation in Singapore.
They made many friends in Singapore, where more than 400 people prayed for them on Wednesday evening in a mosque.
Muslim nurses at Raffles Hospital, who had become friends of the twins during months of pre-operative tests, helped women from Singapore's Iranian community purify the bodies for the 6 400km journey back to Iran.
The women wound wide strips of cloth around their bodies, from their shoulders to their feet, in accordance with Shi'a Muslim tradition.
The operation was the first time surgeons had tried to separate adults joined at the head. The surgery had been performed successfully on infants, whose brains can recover more easily.
The twins, who were fully aware of the risks of the operation, won wide admiration in Iran and elsewhere for their courage. Iranian television and newspapers gave extensive coverage to their lives and the operation - which lasted more than 50 hours and was carried out by a team of 28 doctors and about 100 nurses and technicians.
"If God wants us to live the rest of our lives as two separate, independent individuals, we will," Ladan Bijani had said. - Sapa-AP