TEHRAN: After “insulting” cartoons depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Iran issued a warning to France on Wednesday that it would respond.
On the same day, dozens of cartoons mocking Iran’s highest political and religious figure were published in the weekly.
The cartoons, according to the magazine, were part of a competition it launched last month to support protests in response to the September 16 death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women in the country.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted, “The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response.”
We won’t let the French government go above and beyond its authority. They have unquestionably taken the wrong route. The contest’s objective, according to the French publication, was “to support the struggle of Iranians who are fighting for their freedom.”
The caricatures were included in a special issue of Charlie Hebdo to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the fatal attack on its Paris office.
Source: AFP
