A series of offensive cartoons depicting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked outrage in Tehran.
The latest issue of the magazine features the winners of a recent cartoon contest in which participants were asked to draw the most offensive caricatures of Khamenei, who has held Iran’s highest office for more than 30 years.
FILE – In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s Office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with a group of the Basij paramilitary force in Tehran, Iran, on November 26, 2022.
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
The contest was announced as a show of support for the anti-government protests that rocked Iran in response to the death of a woman in the custody of Iran’s moral police in September.
One finalist shows a turbaned cleric reaching for an executioner’s noose as he drowns in blood, while another shows Khamenei clinging to a giant throne above the raised fists of protesters. Others depict more vulgar and sexually explicit scenes.
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On Wednesday, Iran summoned the French ambassador to condemn the cartoons. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian promised a “decisive and effective response” to the publication of the cartoons, which he said had insulted Iran’s religious and political authorities.
Charlie Hebdo has a long history of publishing vulgar cartoons mocking Islamists. On January 7, 2015, two French-born al Qaeda extremists attacked the newspaper’s office, killing 12 cartoonists, and it has been the target of other attacks over the years.
The magazine presents itself as a champion of democracy and free speech, but routinely pushes the boundaries of French hate speech laws with often sexually explicit cartoons aimed at almost everyone.
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The French government, while defending free speech, has rebuked the private magazine in the past for stoking tensions.
Protesters in Iran shout in the streets.
(Credit: NCRI)
Iran has been gripped by nationwide protests for nearly four months following the mid-September death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the strict Islamic dress code. from the country.
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Women have taken the lead in the protests, with many removing their mandatory Islamic headscarves in public. Protesters have called for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics in one of the biggest challenges to their rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought them to power.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
