What does the widow's actions in the chapter Persepolis reveal about the Persian people at this time?

Eby tells them that he saw something incredible. He had gone to the hospital to take pictures and he had seen a great crowd carrying out the body of a young revolutionary. The crowd had called him a martyr. Then, an old man being carried out on a stretcher had also been picked up by the crowd. They had called this old man a martyr. The old man’s widow had stopped them, telling the crowd that he was not a martyr but that he had died of cancer. The crowd had told her that it is okay and that he can be a martyr anyway. The old woman had then joined in their chants: “The King is a Killer!” This shows the Iranian people to be rather random and subjective about who they consider to be a "hero".