A display panel on private land commemorating a stay by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in France has been badly damaged, police said Wednesday.
Khomeini stayed for several months in exile in the village of Neauphle-le-Chateau, west of Paris, before returning in triumph to Iran to found the Islamic republic.
The display panel has a picture of the ayatollah and some words in French and Farsi about his stay.
Controversy about the panel has grown as nationwide protests shake Iran.
The panel was damaged over Tuesday night, a source in the gendarmerie of the Yvelines region told AFP.
"The glass was broken and the panel with the image of Ayatollah Khomeini was taken out of its wooden frame and was lying on the ground," the source said.
Ayatollah Khomeini: Iran 25 years later - in pictures
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Goats seek out grazing material at sunset near the village of Nasrabad. -
An employee walks up a grand staircase in the lobby of the Abbasi Hotel in Isfahan. -
A pair of Arab clerics speak in a hotel coffee shop before prayers at an Islamic shrine in Qom. -
A father and son spend dusk together in the Unesco-listed Naqsh-eJanan Square Isfahan. -
A couple argues in the new Isfahan City Center shopping mall in Isfahan. -
A cleric stokes the coals the ‘sacred eternal flame’ at the Zoroastrian Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran. -
A woman smokes a hookah while visiting a poetry calligraphy workshop in Shiraz. -
A girl runs past a horse trailer in the old city in the desert town of Yazd. -
A donkey stands amongst traditional mud brick homes on in the ancient mountain village of Abyaneh. -
A cutout of a woman in Iranian dress stands in front of the Karim Khani Palace, also a former prison, in Shiraz. -
A shepherd herds goats at sunset near the village of Nasrabad. -
People change foreign currency for Iranian Rials at an exchange shop in the new Isfahan City Center shopping mall in Isfahan. -
Tilework master Abbas Kazemi draws patterns for intricate pieces to be used for the dome of the new Imam Hasan Asgari Mosque at a holy shrine complex in Qom. -
A woman fills her gas tank at a service station in Shahinshahr. -
Portraits of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei hang over shoppers in the historic Bazar-e Bozorg in Isfahan. -
Farmer Abbas Hamamian works his wheat field in Meymeh, Iran. -
The panel is erected on private land and is clearly visible from the street.
Khomeini stayed in Neauphle-le-Chateau from October 1978 until January 1979, when he returned to Iran after the shah's departure into exile.
He died in 1989. His successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, still rules the country.
After pressure from several charities, the town hall announced in mid-January that the panel would be hidden from public view "probably by a large billboard installed on the sidewalk".
This has not yet happened.
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Actress Marion Cotillard cuts her hair as a part of the protests. Reuters -
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An Iranian woman living in Turkey takes part in a protest near the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters -
A demonstrator holds cut hair during a protest near the Iranian consulate in Istanbul. Reuters -
Protesters hold up placards in Rome during a demonstration in solidarity with Iranian women. AFP
The International Women's Law League, representing a collective of 40 NGOs, and the association Femme Azadi had "in the light of the tragic events currently unfolding" in Iran demanded the mayor grant "the authorisation without delay to conceal the panel".
Iranian authorities have cracked down on more than four months of anti-regime protests sparked by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested for wearing her hijab "inappropriately".
At least 481 people have been killed in the authorities' crackdown on the protest movement, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights.
Banners and billboards of Khomeini have been defaced and damaged in Iran during the protests, according to images posted on social media.
