Iran has publicly threatened artists who drew cartoons mocking the country’s supreme leader after they were published in French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Iran’s Foreign Minister took to social media on Wednesday to threaten those who drew cartoons mocking the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promising that a “firm response” from Tehran was forthcoming. Some solid action followed as the Iranian government shut down a French institute in Tehran as a punishment, Politico reports.
The cartoons were published by the famed satirist magazine, Charlie Hebdo, after it ran a competition last month asking artists around the world to send in works mocking the Iranian leader in a show of support for ongoing protests for women’s rights in the country.
Like many cartoons published before them by the magazine, the various images — which range from depicting a bunch of little Khameneis crawling into a naked woman’s vagina to a little girl setting the Islamist dictator’s beard on fire — have sparked serious anger amongst some in the Muslim world.
Charlie Hebdo is well known — to put it mildly — for publishing cartoons and articles which make giving offence a work of art in itself, and so is broadly seen as being in the vanguard of defending freedom of speech. Past cartoons have insulted all world religions, notable political figures, royals, and the general public. Most of the magazine’s editorial staff were murdered by Islamist radicals in 2015.
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👉 Les gagnants de notre concours international de caricatures #MullahsGetOut
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👉 La révolution iranienne va-t-elle inspirer le Moyen-Orient ?En vente mercredi ! pic.twitter.com/HFmo9GGyzK
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) January 3, 2023
Among the offended over the latest publication includes Iran’s own Foreign Minister, Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who took to Twitter to promise that the Tehran government would retaliate against the publication of the various artworks.
“The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against religious and political authority will not go without an effective and firm response,” the minister wrote online.
He went on to attack the French government, saying that the country has “chosen the wrong path” before vowing that Iran will not allow the country to “overstep its mark”.
Indignant: Turkey on Warpath over New Charlie Hebdo Erdogan Cartoon https://t.co/UJ9eryKHPH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 28, 2020
Such a threat against the cartoonists involved in the competition is not exactly unexpected for Iran, with the Islamist nation having frequently threatened artists who are seen to have mocked or insulted the country or its religion in the past.
For instance, Tehran has been at the centre of the violent threats against the life of award-winning author Salman Rushdie, with the country’s then-Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declaring a fatwah against him in 1989 after the publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses.
Seen as penning a work that insults Islam, Rushdie lived under police protection for years and was eventually violently assaulted in New York last year, leaving him badly injured with no sight in one eye.
However, this is far from the first time that Charlie Hebdo has been threatened by Islamic extremists, with the publication infamously having its Paris headquarters attacked by terrorists in 2015.
Perpetrated by two French-Algerian brothers armed with rifles, the assault resulted in the deaths of 11 journalists and security personnel, with the extremists also murdering a police officer during their escape.
The pair were killed two days later after a shootout with the police.
Despite the paper’s grim history in this regard, Charlie Hebdo continues to openly satirise Islam within its publication, with many artists still willing to see their work printed in the controversial outlet.
Such a history does not appear to have dissuaded many netizens from backing the publication either, with many Twitter users responding to this recent threat from the Iranian foreign minister by posting images of some of the cartoons under his original post.
‘Talking and Joking’ – Salman Rushdie Said to Be Off Ventilator After Brutal Stabbing https://t.co/2aJ6odmEf6
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 14, 2022
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