Dozens of people gathered in front of the French embassy in Tehran on Sunday to condemn the cartoons published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which Iran considered “insulting” to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Wednesday, the magazine published caricatures of Khamenei, the highest political and religious figure in Iran, as part of a contest it held in support of the protests taking place in Iran since September 16, following the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, following she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to strict dress codes.
The cartoons drew harsh criticism from Tehran, which considered it an “insulting and indecent act”.
On Sunday followingnoon, dozens of protesters, most of them religious seminary students, gathered outside the Paris embassy in the center of the Iranian capital, and some of them set fire to French flags and chanted slogans critical of the French government, according to AFP journalists.
The participants in the sit-in raised the Iranian flag and pictures of Khamenei and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in addition to slogans including “My life is a sacrifice for the leader” and “Shame on Charlie Hebdo.”