Celebrities
Evan Bartlett
Nov 17, 2015
A prominent Iranian cartoonist was reportedly arrested at work on Monday with no explanation why.
Hadi Heidari, who drew for newspapers in his homeland, was working for the Shahrvand, a national daily, when security forces detained him for "unknown reasons", according to the Tabnak newspaper.
Heidari's last drawing, which was posted on his Instagram account on Monday, was dedicated to victims of the terror attack which hit Paris last Friday:
The New York Times reports that the Iranian state is "wary of any perceived expression of friendly overtures to secular Western countries" and that the cartoonist is one of a "number of Iranian journalists have been arrested in the last few weeks".
Heidari, who was photographed by the AFP news agency in 2013 (above), was reported to have previously drawn for the "oft-banned reformist" Shargh daily newspaper.
It was reported in the run up to the presidential elections in 2013 that Iran is "a country where a satirical image can get a newspaper banned or an editor jailed".
More: Here's what a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist drew after the second Paris terror attack in a year
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