The French Foreign Ministry calls the center’s closure “a pity”
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 Foreign Ministry, in retaliation for the publication in the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” of several cartoons of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom Tehran considers “insulting”.
IFRI is part of a network of twenty-seven French research centers around the world, whose mission is to promote research in the fields of archeology and humanities and social sciences. The Quai d’Orsay, the name given to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, learned of the closure through the press. His spokesman explained that if the closure is confirmed it would be “a shame”. “In France, unlike what is happening in Iran, freedom of the press exists and is exercised under the control of the courts, within the framework of an independent judiciary, something Iran undoubtedly knows little about,” said the foreign minister. Europe delegate, Catherine Colonna.
In its latest issue, ‘Charlie Hebdo’ published about thirty caricatures of Khamenei, some of them of a sexual nature. Some caricatures were created by their usual cartoonists and others by the winners of a caricature contest about Iran’s supreme leader convened by the French weekly in December. ‘Charlie Hebdo’ 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.
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 following the call for the match, according to the weekly on its Twitter account.
‘Charlie Hebdo’ published Ayatollah Khamenei’s cartoons in a special issue, coinciding with the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attack on his newsroom on January 7, 2015. The jihadists attacked the weekly in retaliation for publishing the controversial cartoons of Mohammed in 2006 . Twelve were killed and eleven injured.
Riss, director of the French magazine and a survivor of the 2015 massacre, believes that “satirical drawings are the ultimate guide to freedom.” The publication of Ayatollah Khamenei’s cartoons is “a way of showing our support for the Iranians who have put their lives at risk to defend their freedom against the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1979” and “a way of remembering that the reasons why the cartoonists and editors of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ killed eight years ago are unfortunately still relevant today: “Those who refuse to submit to the precepts of religions risk paying with their lives,” Riss laments. author of the cover cartoon, in a signed editorial.
Source: La Verdad
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