Khalkhali retired to Qom, where he taught Islamic seminarians.He died in 2003, at the age of 77, of cancer and heart disease. At the time of his death, the speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karoubi, praised the judge’s performance in the early days of the revolution.
Khalkhali was married and had a son and two daughters. His daughter, Fatemeh Sadeqi, though born in a restrictive Islamic environment, has attended university, attained PhD and is now known for her secular views. She was the author of “Why We Say No to Forced Hijab” — a widely circulated 2008 essay.
