Iran protests cartoons of Khamenei in French satirical weekly

Iran warned France on Wednesday it would respond after "insulting" cartoons depicting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Article in French daily Le Monde describing how Charlie Hebdo "ridicules the mullahs". 4 January 2023. © Screengrab Le Monde

The weekly had published dozens of cartoons on the same day ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic republic.

The magazine said the cartoons were part of a competition it launched in December in support of the protests triggered by the  16 September death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd who was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

"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," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Mehr news agency. 

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has severely criticized the French authorities for the disgraceful caricatures recently published by the magazine Charlie Hebdo. pic.twitter.com/9UaqT838Jj

— Mahdi Rizvi (@MehdiRizvi123) January 4, 2023

"We will not allow the French government to go beyond its bounds. They have definitely chosen the wrong path".

A press release issued by Iran's embassy in Paris called upon French authorities to "take the necessary and immediate measures [regarding] this magazine in order to prevent the continuation of this campaign of insults and hatred."

But Charlie Hebdo said the contest aimed "to support the struggle of Iranians who are fighting for their freedom".

Iranian authorities say hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed and thousands arrested in what they generally describe as "riots", and have accused hostile foreign powers and opposition groups of stoking the unrest.

Charlie Hebdo published the caricatures in an special edition to mark the anniversary of a deadly attack on its Paris office on January 7, 2015 by assailants who said they were acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda to avenge the magazine's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

(With AFP)