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French Town to Block Sign Showing Link to Iran’s Khomeini


FILE - A woman passes a by picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini outside Jamaran mosque in Tehran, Iran, June 3, 2005.
FILE - A woman passes a by picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini outside Jamaran mosque in Tehran, Iran, June 3, 2005.

A town in France has decided to hide from public view a sign noting its brief connection to the former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The sign, which includes a portrait of Khomeini, stands on private land in Neauphle-Le-Chateau, outside of Paris, but it is visible from the street.

Khomeini stayed there for several months in late 1978 and early 1979 before returning to Iran.

Amid the current protests in Iran sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a collection of 40 groups asked the town government to take several steps to distance itself from its links to Khomeini, including hiding the sign.

International Women's Law League posted on Facebook that its representatives met Wednesday with the town’s mayor, Elisabeth Sandjivy, to discuss their requests.

Agence France-Presse reported that Sandjivy told the news agency the sign “will be hidden,” probably by way of a large panel installed on the sidewalk to block it.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.

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