Last month, Charlie Hebdo launched a competition to produce caricatures of the Islamic Republic of Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. It was one way of showing our support for the men and women risking their lives to defend their freedom against the theocracy oppressing them since 1979. It was also a reminder of the fact that the reasons why Charlie’s cartoonists and writers were assassinated eight years ago are still, sadly, topical. Those who refuse to submit to religious diktats risk paying with their lives. What would Charb, Cabu, Bernard Maris, Wolinski, Tignous, Mustapha Ourrad, Honoré and Elsa Cayat think today on seeing what is happening? No-one can say, but we can guess. Eight years on, we’ve still not heard the last of religious intolerance. It continues its sombre work, regardless of international protests or of respect for the most elementary human rights.
