Iranian authorities reportedly shut down a popular cafe chain on Saturday because of a coffee cup design that supposedly mocked the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Lamiz, often referred to as the Starbucks of Tehran, designed a coffee cup featuring a 1975 painting by Iranian artist Farshid Mesghali, which depicts an empty chair with purple and red rain drops falling down from above, according to Iran International.
All of its locations were shuttered by the goverment, the outlet reported.
The painting was originally the artwork for the 10th Tehran International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults in 1975.
The phrase “spring is coming,” is written on the back of the cup in Farsi.
Hardliners of the Iranian regime and its supporters believed the empty chair was evocative of the seat that Khamenei — who was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28 that launched the Iran war — was known to use and believed it was mocking the supposed “martyrdom” of the former leader of the Islamic Republic.
The Islamic Republic came to power during the 1979 Iranian Revolution ushering out the prior monarchy rule.
Lamiz cafes are known as social gathering places for young people in the conservative Islamic country where alcohol is prohibited, according to a 2016 profile on the franchise.
A March 16 video shared on social media showed an AI-generated branch of a Lamiz cafe bombed out, on fire and smoldering. A caption shared to Instagram read, “All the attachments to Trump were a mirage!”
Cafe Lamiz has more than 40 branches across Iran with many located in Tehran and is known for its hipster vibe, according to online reviews.
