Iran closes French research institute in response to Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Iran has shuttered a French research institute in response to vulgar political cartoons in the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The French Institute for Research in Iran, based in Tehran, was shut down Thursday. The institute is part of France’s foreign ministry.

Charlie Hebdo, famous for its ruthless, politically incorrect content, published several user-submitted cartoons meant to support protesters in Iran. One cartoon showed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei clinging to a throne above protesters with raised fists.

Other cartoons were sexually explicit, including one that showed Iranian clerics walking into a woman’s vagina that was captioned, “Mullahs, go back to where you came from.”

Iran’s foreign affairs office said the closure was its “first step” in response to the cartoons. It called on France to sanction Charlie Hebdo. French politicians found the idea laughable.

“In France, not only does freedom of the press exist — unlike what happens in Iran — it is also exercised under the control of judges and an independent justice system, which is something that Iran undoubtedly knows little about,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in a TV interview.

“Also in French law, we do not have the notion of blasphemy.”

The French Institute for Research in Iran was founded in 1983 but closed for many years. It reopened in 2013 when the relatively moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected as Iran’s president.

Charlie Hebdo became internationally famous in 2015, when two al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the magazine’s office in Paris. Twelve people were killed, including eight Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and journalists.

The attacks came after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

With News Wire Services