Hardliners in Iran burn French flag in protest to Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Iranian hardliners on January 8 burnt France’s flag outside of its embassy in Tehran where they were protesting cartoons published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that lampoon Iran’s ruling clerics.

The Charlie Hebdo caricatures largely aligned the Paris-based magazine with the demands of anti-government protests that have swept Iran calling for the downfall of its Islamic Republic and challenging its hardline establishment, AP writes.

The demonstrations outside of the French embassy follow previous attempts by Iran’s rulers to mobilize their supporters in counter-demonstrations.

Hundreds of protesters including students from seminary schools shouted “Death to France” and accused French President Emmanuel Macron of insulting Iran while urging Paris to stop “animosity” toward Tehran. Police, some of whom appeared holding images of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, kept the demonstrators at a distance from the embassy building.

Supporters of Iran’s hardline leaders usually aim their protests and flag burning against the US and its Stars and Stripes, but targeting France’s Tricolor is rare.

State television said some clerics held similar protests in the shrine city of Qom, the centre of religious learning in Iran.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on January 8 linked the French magazine’s cartoons with what officials have repeatedly alleged is the West’s plot to spread “riots” in Iran.

Later in the day, President Ebrahim Raisi offered his first reaction to the French cartoons and echoed similar claims.

“Resorting to insults on the pretext of freedom is a clear indication of their frustration in concluding plot for chaos and insecurity” in Iran, he said.

Anti-government protests erupted across Iran in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating its strict Islamic dress code.

The unrest has grown into one of the severest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power. Human rights groups say that at least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested amid a violent crackdown by security forces. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.

On January 8, authorities executed two men convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer in the demonstrations.