France‘s first lady Carla Bruni is known as a model, actress, and singer, but Iranian media just slapped her with one more label: “prostitute.”
Iranian newspaper Kayhan, a state-run publication, slammed Bruni in an editorial titled “French prostitutes join the human rights protest,” the BBC reports.
The editorial attacked Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for her public support of the movement to save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery.
Ashtiani, 43, was sentenced to death by stoning for conducting so-called “illicit relationships” after the death of husband.
Her case captured the world’s attention this summer when her lawyer publicized it on his blog, drawing support from numerous politicians and celebrities.
France has called on the E.U. to pressure Iran with new sanctions over the case, and Bruni wrote an open letter to the mother of two to express her support.
“Why shed your blood and deprive your children of their mother?” she wrote. “Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you’re a woman, and because you’re an Iranian? Everything within me refuses to accept it.”
Kayhan’s editorial calls Bruni a hypocrite, and Iranian state television also atatcked the first lady, calling her defense of Ashtiani an effort to justify her own “immorality.”
“Although Bruni, the morally corrupt singer and actress of Italian (origin), was able to break the Sarkozy family and marry the French president, lately new reports have emerged about her affair with a singer,” read the article in Kayhan, according to The Associated Press.
The paper seems to be referencing a short-lived rumor of Bruni’s infidelity that the couple laughed off in April as being “insignificant.”
The French president’s office declined to comment on the editorial, the AP reports, but Bruni’s letter to Ashtiani speaks volumes about her dedication to the case.
“Deep within your jail cell,” Bruni wrote, “know that my husband will plead your cause tirelessly and that France will not abandon you.”
