Iran: Demonstration outside French embassy over Khamenei sketches published by Charlie

A demonstration outside the French embassy over the “offensive” cartoons of Ayatollah Khamenei published by Charlie was held today in Tehran.

Demonstrators burned French flags to protest cartoons of their top religious leader published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Mostly Shia seminary students and women wearing chadors, they held Iranian flags, pictures of Ali Khamenei and placards with slogans against the magazine. “Shame on France” and “France, stop your hostility”, chanted the demonstrators

Charlie Hebdo, in a special edition marking the anniversary of the deadly attack on its offices in 2015, published on Wednesday a series of caricatures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Tehran considers “offensive and obscene”. Iranian authorities have warned France that they will take retaliatory measures. Tehran then announced that it was closing the French Research Institute in Iran (IFRI), the oldest and most important French research center in the country, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The IFRI remained closed for years and reopened under the presidency of moderate Hassan Rouhani (2013-21), in a sign of a “warming” of bilateral relations.

A demonstration was also held earlier in the Shiite holy city of Qom, as reported by state television.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said today that freedom of expression cannot be used as a pretext to “insult” religious leaders. He called on Paris to “respect the fundamental principles of international relations” and not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.

Charlie Hebdo said it published the cartoons in support of the Iranian people who took to the streets after the death of 22-year-old Mahsha Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for not wearing her headscarf “properly”.

RES-EMP

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