The French Foreign Ministry calls the closure of the center “unfortunate”
The Islamic Republic of Iran announced on Thursday the closure of the French Institute for Research in Iran (IFRI), a small cultural center under the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in retaliation for the publication in the satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’ of various cartoons of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which Tehran considers “insulting”.
IFRI is part of a network of twenty-seven French research centers around the world, whose mission is the promotion of research in the fields of archeology and the human and social sciences. The Quai d’Orsay, the name given to the Foreign Ministry, found out about the closure from the press. His spokeswoman explained that if the closure is confirmed, it would be “unfortunate.” “In France, freedom of the press exists, contrary to what happens in Iran, and it is exercised under the control of the judge, within the framework of an independent judiciary, something that Iran undoubtedly knows little about,” said the foreign and ministerial delegate. Europe, Catherine Colonna.
‘Charlie Hebdo’ published in its last issue some thirty caricatures of Khamenei, several of them of a sexual nature. Some cartoons have been made by her regular cartoonists and others by the winners of a cartoon contest about Iran’s supreme leader convened by the French weekly in December. ‘Charlie Hebdo’ thus wanted to support the protests in Iran after the death in September of the young Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini after being arrested by the Moral Police in Tehran for wearing the Islamic veil incorrectly.
300 drawings
The magazine received 300 drawings from all over the world and has published a selection of the best. It has also received thousands of threats after the call for the contest, according to the weekly on its Twitter account.
‘Charlie Hebdo’ published the cartoons of Ayatollah Khamenei in a special issue, coinciding with the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attack against its newsroom on January 7, 2015. The jihadists attacked the weekly as revenge for having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad in 2006 . There were twelve dead and eleven wounded.
Riss, director of the French magazine and a survivor of the 2015 massacre, believes that “satirical drawing is the supreme guide to freedom.” The publication of the cartoons of Ayatollah Khamenei is “a way of showing our support for the Iranians who put their lives in danger to defend their freedom against the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1979” and “a way of remembering that the reasons why The ones that the cartoonists and editors of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ were murdered eight years ago are unfortunately still current. “Those who refuse to submit to the dictates of religions risk paying with their lives,” laments Riss, author of the cover cartoon, in a signed editorial.
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