Paris sought to foster cultural ties with Iran. Tehran responded with kicks and punches

Paris. In recent years, France has expanded its programmes aimed at promoting mobility and cultural exchanges with Iranian society, modelled on the Villa Medici in Rome’s programme with Italian society. Through the ‘passeport talent’ – a multi-year residence permit issued to individuals with a professional background or project that offers added value to French culture and innovation – the French government has offered numerous Iranian artists and researchers the opportunity to travel to France as part of a residency programme. Villa Zadig, which for the time being is not a physical location like Villa Medici, is the latest programme of this kind. The name pays homage to the protagonist of Voltaire’s novel "Zadig, or The Book of Fate", a symbol of free thought in the face of fanaticism. Promoted by the French Embassy in Tehran, the programme aimed to identify opportunities for mobility, residence and training for Iranian artists and researchers. In recent weeks, however, something has happened that could cast a shadow over Paris’s willingness to cooperate with the Iranian regime.

Two Iranian graphic designers, Elahe (Elly) Naghilou, aged 36, and Aria Kasaei, aged 46, were working on the visual identity of Villa Zadig when they were arrested on 19 July by the authorities in Tehran in the presence of two officials from the cultural cooperation and action department of the French Embassy in Iran. According to details pieced together by Le Monde, the arrest is said to have taken place at Kasaei’s flat in Tehran. During the raid, six agents from the Iranian secret services subjected the two French diplomats to a five-hour interrogation, accompanied by death threats and insults. One of the two, who was handcuffed, was reportedly beaten in an attempt to extract information from him. The two diplomats then returned to the embassy during the night, whilst the two Iranian graphic designers were taken by the police to a location that remains unknown. Since their arrest, according to Le Monde, Kasaei has only been able to call his family on three occasions. Last Saturday, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence issued a statement accusing France of “infiltration” and “blatant interference in Iran’s internal affairs”. The statement asserts that, following the arrest of “two individuals under investigation” in a “major case of infiltration and foreign interference”, the authorities in Tehran discovered “the illegal presence of two French diplomats at the scene of a meeting”.

Yet the work produced by the two Iranian graphic designers for Villa Zadig was by no means ‘clandestine’. Several graphic elements had already been published on Aria Kasaei’s public Instagram account – which was closed following her arrest – as well as on Villa Zadig’s Instagram page, whose first post dates back to 22 May. Almost a month after the night of the raid and the beatings and threats against the two French diplomats, Tehran announced the permanent expulsion of the two Paris-based ministry employees (who had in the meantime returned to France). In response, on 18 August, the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced that France would declare two officials from the Iranian embassy in Paris persona non grata.

When contacted by Il Foglio, the French Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter, confirming the sensitivity of the issue. In Paris, which has always relied on cultural diplomacy as a tool of soft power, the belief persists that culture can foster dialogue and improve relations with the Iranian authorities. Yet an increasing number of observers are criticising the French government’s naivety, as it believes it can speak to the mullahs’ regime using the same language it uses with its Western partners. The interrogation of the two French diplomats and the arbitrary detention of the two graphic designers send a message to Iranian citizens: any contact with a foreign mission can put one at risk. It is also a call to Paris to drastically reduce its contacts with civil society in Iran and to cease cultural initiatives now deemed hostile. In a statement sent to Le Monde, the families of the two Iranian artists have called on “the French authorities to shed full light on the circumstances of the arrest, to obtain precise information on the situation of Aria and Elly, and to do everything in their power to guarantee their rights, their safety and their release”.