All the Iranian people do not seem determined to demonstrate against their elites in power. Several dozen Iranians gathered outside the French embassy in Tehran on Sunday where they burned French flags to protest against the cartoons of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic published in the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Gathered in central Tehran, the protesters, mostly Shiite seminary students and women in chadors, held Iranian flags, portraits of Khamenei and placards denouncing the satirical newspaper. “Oh France, abandon your hostility! “, and” Shame on France “, chanted the demonstrators who burned French flags.
Charlie Hebdo published on Wednesday a series of cartoons featuring the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has denounced the “insulting and indecent” cartoons that appeared in a special edition on the anniversary of the deadly 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo premises in Paris.
IFRI closed again
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 to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The IFRI, located in the center of the Iranian capital, had been closed for many years. It had reopened under the chairmanship of the moderate Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021) as a sign of the warming of bilateral relations.
On Sunday, in front of the French Embassy, Karim Heydarpour, a 17-year-old seminary student, said he had participated in the rally to “support the Revolution and the Supreme Guide”. “We have to give (opponents of the Islamic Republic) 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 nearly 150 km south of Tehran, according to state television footage.
Charlie Hebdo said it published the cartoons in support of the Iranian people during the protests sparked by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being arrested by vice police. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on Sunday that freedom of expression should not be used as a pretext to “insult” religious figures. He called on Paris to “respect the fundamental principles of international relations”, and not to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.