Iran closes a French institute after the publication by "Charlie Hebdo" of caricatures
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, January 4, 2023. via REUTERS - WANA NEWS AGENCY
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Tehran had promised retaliatory measures after the publication of cartoons mocking the leaders of the Islamic Republic in the French satirical newspaper
Charlie Hebdo
.
This Thursday morning, the Iranian authorities order the closure of the French Research Institute in Iran.
Publicity
Read more
“
It is the last Western research center that was still operating in Iran
,” laments a French researcher whom RFI was able to reach this Thursday morning and who worked for several years in this institute.
The French Research Institute in Tehran has existed for 40 years and has already suffered the consequences of the peaks of tension between France and Iran.
A French student at this center, Clotilde Reiss, was imprisoned for several months in 2009. More recently, the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah worked with the Institute before being arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.
She is still behind bars in Tehran.
"
A first step
"
Before the closure ordered this Thursday morning, the French Institute for Research in Iran was operating in slow motion, against a backdrop of international tensions, but Iranian students could work in the center's library, located in the heart of Tehran.
The Iranian authorities present this measure as “
a first step
”.
The French ambassador to Tehran was also summoned, following
the publication of the
Charlie Hebdo
cartoons .
Franco-Iranian relations are very tense: seven French nationals are currently detained in Iran and Paris is demanding their release.
►Also read
: France: an Iranian commits suicide in Lyon to draw attention to the situation in his country
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Iran
France
Human rights
Freedom of press
Media