A hardline Iranian newspaper has called the French first lady a "prostitute" and recommended she be put to death for supporting a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery.
Under the headline "French prostitutes enter the human rights uproar," the Kayhan daily newspaper referred Saturday to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as a "prostitute" after she released an open letter in support of Sakineh Ashtiani, 43, a mother of two whose case has drawn international attention, CNN reported.
Kayhan, a newspaper headed by a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated those statements Tuesday, writing that, "this woman with a bad history supports an Iranian woman who has committed adultery during marriage and is an accomplice to the murder of her husband who is sentenced to death, and in fact she [Bruni-Sarkozy] also deserves death."
Iranian officials, however, did not side with the newspaper. "Insulting the authorities in other countries and using inappropriate words is not approved by the Islamic Republic," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters Tuesday in response to a question during his weekly briefing, according to the ministry's website. "The media can criticise the policies, attitudes and comments of other countries' officials, they can object to them, we call for them to review their deeds, but we do not think applying insulting and degrading words is the right thing to do."
Bruni-Sarkozy recently published an open letter on her website in support of Sakineh Ashtiani. Ashtiani is awaiting execution, but according to a statement by the Iranian Embassy in London, she will be hanged instead of stoned.
