The cartoonist behind one of the symbolic images following the attacks in Paris has been arrested and is currently imprisoned in Iran. Hadi Heidari, a well known cartoonist who created the image of the Eiffel Tower set against a face with tears streaming from closed eyes. The image was uploaded to Heidari’s Instagram account just two days prior to the cartoonist’s arrest on Monday, November 16. The day before his arrest, Heidari uploaded another cartoon to his Instagram and Facebook accounts over the November 12th bombings in Beirut that portrays blood running down the flag of Lebanon with a flock of red doves flying away from a cedar tree.
Heidari has reportedly been sent to Tehran’s Evin prison to complete a suspended sentence for previously published cartoons. He had served approximately one month of a one year sentence related to his conviction from two years ago.
Hadi Heidari’s arrest coincides with a crackdown on journalists, artists and foreign nationals in Iran, with reports of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) having arrested the administrators of more than 20 groups on the mobile messaging app Telegram, five Iranian journalists and a reporter from the Washington Post, and others. Long term prison sentences are being handed down in some of the cases and this past month, two Iranian poets were sentenced to flogging and lengthy prison sentences.
Hardline conservatives who control the Iranian press, the state police, and the judicial system have accused recently arrested journalists of being part of an “infiltration network” linked to hostile foreign powers. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reemphasized his warnings against Western influences being allowed to corrupt Iranian culture.
Heidari was taken into custody from his office at the Shahrvand Daily in Tehran, a reform minded newspaper. Officials entered the offices, presented an arrest warrant to Heidari and led him away.
In 2009 Hadi Heidari had been arrested for “assembly and collusion against national security” resulting in nearly three weeks of incarceration. He was arrested again on charges of “propaganda against the state” in 2010, and after spending two months in jail he was released on bail. More recently in 2012, he gained notoriety for his cartoon “The Blindfolded Men,” with its commentary on the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq (1980-88). State authorities viewed the cartoon as offensive to Iranian veterans of that war. Heidari was brought to court and the newspaper he was working at, Shargh, was forced to close. Eventually the paper was allowed to reopen and the charges against Heidari were dropped.
The recent wave of arrests comes just a few months ahead of a national election in February and may also be part of an effort by hardliners to purge Western influences from Iranian culture following the nuclear deal was signed in July. It seems clear that the state of Human Rights in Iran is in sharp decline.
Collaborating with the West is an allegation frequently aimed at artists by hardline Iranian conservatives. Hadi Heidari is 38 and graduated with a degree in painting from Tehran’s Arts and Architecture University.
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