Several dozen Iranians gathered on Sunday January 8 in front of the French Embassy in Tehran, where they burned French flags, to protest against the caricatures of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic published in Charlie Hebdo.
Gathered in central Tehran, the demonstrators, mostly students of Shiite seminaries and women in chadors, held Iranian flags, portraits of Ali Khamenei and signs denouncing the satirical newspaper, journalists from the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Oh France, abandon your hostility! »and “Shame on France”chanted the demonstrators who burned French flags.
Charlie Hebdo published on January 4 a series of cartoons featuring the highest religious and political figure of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran immediately denounced these cartoons, published in a special edition on the occasion of the anniversary of the deadly attack, in 2015, against the premises of Charlie Hebdoin Paris, as being “insulting and indecent”.
The Iranian authorities had warned France that they would take retaliatory measures. Tehran thus announced the closure of the French Research Institute in Iran (IFRI), the oldest and most important French research center in the country, affiliated, according to its website, to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Closed for many years, the IFRI had reopened under the chairmanship of the moderate Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021) as a sign of the warming of bilateral relations.
Similar gathering in Qom
On Sunday, in front of the French Embassy, Karim Heydarpour, a 17-year-old seminary student, told AFP that he had participated in the rally to “support the revolution and the Supreme Leader”. “We have to give [aux opposants à la République islamique] an answer so that they don’t think that we don’t support our revolution”he said.
A similar gathering took place earlier in Qom, a Shiite holy city about 150 kilometers south of Tehran, according to state television footage.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on Sunday that freedom of speech should not be used as a pretext for “insult” religious figures. He called Paris to “respect the fundamental principles of international relations”and not to interfere in the internal affairs of Iran.
Charlie Hebdo said he published these cartoons to support the Iranian people during the protests triggered by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini22-year-old Iranian, after her arrest by the vice squad.