Iran Closes France Embassy Wing Over New Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

Today, Iran shut down the cultural wing of the French embassy in Tehran as Iran’s international ministry summoned the French ambassador to Iran, Nicolas Roche,  in assist of the Iranian protest motion. Specifically, the cartoons targeted on Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian international ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani acknowledged that “France has no right to insult the sanctities of other Muslim countries and nations under the pretext of freedom of expression. Iran is waiting for the French government’s explanation and compensatory action in condemning the unacceptable behaviour of the French publication.” While the Iranian international minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, tweeted, “The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response. We will not allow the French government to go beyond its bounds. They have definitely chosen the wrong path.”

The Iranian authorities acknowledged that they’d reviewed cultural relations with France and determined to close the French Institute for Research, stating “In reviewing cultural relations with France and examining the possibility of continuing French cultural activities in Iran, the ministry is ending the activities of the French Institute for Research in Iran as a first step.”

Famously, Charlie Hebdo was topic to an Islamic terrorist assault, with a variety of its workers and cartoonists murdered or injured, in 2015. The journal was closely satirical of Islam and its followers, publishing pictures of the Prophet Mohammed, but additionally of different religions, extra notably Catholicism and its adherents. There was an nearly common response of unity in assist of Charlie Hebdo within the wake of the gunman’s assault, and in response the survivors of the assault revealed much more vehemently anti-Islamic cartoons. Protests in Iran have elevated after the dying of Mahsa Amini, allegedly killed after being detained by Iran’s morality police for violating the nation’s costume code, and nearly 500 folks have been killed for protesting.

The most up-to-date concern of Charlie Hebdo which can have led to the summoning, featured the winners of a contest to attract essentially the most offensive caricatures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Published for the eighth anniversary of the murders, the journal’s editorial by Charlie Hebdo’s director, Laurent Sourisseau, often known as Riss, learn “It was a way to show our support for Iranian men and women who risk their lives to defend their freedom against the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1979” and that the cartoons had “the merit of defying the authority that the supposed supreme leader claims to be, as well as the cohort of his servants and other henchmen.”

Le Monde describes a number of the cartoons thus; “One cartoon shows Khamenei being punched with the slogan ‘Women, Life, Freedom,’ while another depicts a mullah being crushed under a heel. Among the very political drawings, the supreme leader is also depicted as Marilyn Monroe, whose dress is lifted by the wind of the headscarves that women have freed themselves from. In another, armed with stones, they pommel him.”