Mogherini’s Twitter Background Image Sparks Controversy in Iran

Iranian netizens have been outraged by a controversial world map used by EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini as the background image of her Twitter account, which portrays a distorted and disintegrated map of Iran.

The map, which depicts a confused picture of the world, has divided Iran into several parts and annexed several corners of the country to neighbouring states.

The distorted map has sparked harsh criticisms on the social media from Persian-speaking users.

In response to the Iran Front Page’s story, Mogherini’s spokeswoman Maja Kocijančič said “the twitter header is a painting, not a map, and it doesn’t represent reality.”

“Many countries are not portrayed with their real borders. The painting has been chosen without any political meaning and displayed on the twitter account for many many years,” she added in response to the Iran Front Page.

A close review of the map reveals that the division of Iran in the map has been carried out along with ethnic and religious lines, a report by Fars news agency said.

A Google search shows that the map has been used repeatedly by Western think thanks to discuss the ethnic divisions in the world.

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