Coffee shop chain in Tehran shut down over controversial cup design.

TEHRAN : Authorities in Tehran have closed several branches of the popular coffee shop chain ‘Lamez’, citing suspicious designs on disposable cups. Iranian judiciary and security officials claim that the image on these cups contains insulting gestures against the country’s top leadership. The coffee cup had an image of an ’empty chair’, which social media users have likened to the empty seat of the recently martyred Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And something is shown raining on the chair. Internet users also believe that the design is used as a satire on Mojtaba Khamenei’s continued absence from the public scene. The Lamiz administration denied this, saying that the design was taken from a famous 1975 artwork by Iranian artist Farshid Moshaqali. The cups were designed and printed months ago.