Iran's sketches of satire
Satire still thriving, Produced for the
book "Sketches of Iran: A Glimpse from the Front Lines of Human Rights",
this cartoon by Touka Neyestani is entitled "Forced Confession." Courtesy CNN.
by Sara Mojtehedzadeh, CNN
In 2003, former newspaper editor Ali Reza Eshraghi made a mistake that cost him his freedom: he published a cartoon.
The sketch in question, a
drawing from 1937 depicting U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's
pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court, seemed an innocuous choice for the
Iranian newspaper, Hayat No.
But Iran's Special Court
for the Clergy disagreed. According to Reporters Without Borders it
ruled that that the cartoon's depiction of Roosevelt looked suspiciously
like the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Khomeini and was
insulting to his memory.
The court shut down Hayat No, and Eshraghi spent nearly two months in prison.
A decade later,
Eshraghi's friend and former colleague, journalist Omid Memarian,
decided to honor the pressures placed on satirists in a book entitled,
"Sketches of Iran: A Glimpse from the Front Lines of Human Rights."
The book, published in January by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, was informed by Memarian's conviction that political cartoons played a unique role in his country's struggle for democracy.
"Over the past ten years
I've been working as a journalist both in Iran and out of Iran, and I've
seen political cartoons have a very strong impact on political
discussions and social discussions," he explained.
"Cartoons communicate
with a much wider audience, with different layers of society, with
people from different social economic class, with different levels of
education."
Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel
Peace Prize-winning lawyer, notes in her forward to the book that
decades of censorship have also meant that the subtle, tongue-in-cheek
wit of cartoonists takes on special power, writing that "a society
stricken by years of authoritarian rule cannot express itself and its
pains in a straightforward manner."
Satire has long been
used as a powerful medium for veiled political commentary and political
cartoons became a favorite medium for poking fun at authorities. The
satirical magazine "Molla Nasreddin," an Azeri language periodical
published between 1906 and 1930 enjoyed a wide readership across the
Middle East.
Its main character, a
bumbling and backwards cleric often depicted in compromising scenarios,
resonated with countries grappling with the thorny issue of
modernization -- particularly Iran, where Molla Nasreddin's first year
of publication coincided with the Constitutional Revolution, an attempt
to reform Iran's monarchy.
The country's first
experiment with liberal democracy was ended in 1907, but Molla
Nasreddin's jokes lived on inspiring future generations of artists who
have used political cartoons to offer subtle social commentary for
decades.
"The reasons cartoons...
have a very strong presence in Iranian culture is that in some of these
cycles of oppression journalists or authors could not write. But
cartoonists might find ways to express an idea or in a very delicate
way," said Memarian.
Memarian believes
cartoons have a unique ability to capture complex political problems in a
succinct and visually powerful way, making them universally appealing.
Now, the dynamics of the
Arab Spring have bred a new cartoon culture that has moved away from
understated critique to direct assaults on authoritarnism.
"The scope for public
expression has become much wider" said Lina Khatib, director of the Arab
Reform and Democracy Program at Stanford University. "People feel much
more empowered in being able to express how they feel about autocracy
without the fear which used to force them to opt for subtlety."
Tarek Shahin, author of the graphic novel "Rise: the Story of the Egyptian Revolution as Told Shortly Before It Began," agrees.
"As recently as three
years ago just the fact that I wrote about politics and other social
taboos had many of my friends and family worried about my safety and
theirs by association," said Shahin. "Today you can't keep up with all
the political jokes, be they cartoons, internet memes or street
graffiti."
Self-expression is
finding new forms, too. Dean Obeidallah, founder of the New York
Arab-American Comedy Festival and a stand-up comedian who conducts
workshops in the Middle East, said he has witnessed an explosion in the
number of local comics in the region.
But in Iran, according to Omid Memarian, many humorists have been forced to leave the country.
"Over the past seven to
eight years, particularly over the past four years, many cartoonists --
like journalists -- have fled the country and live abroad," he said.
"They are under constant
pressure to make sure their cartoons do not become a reason to harm the
newspaper...There have been newspaper that have been shut down just for
having a controversial cartoon."
Nonetheless, cartoonists
in Iran are drawing on their creativity to evade censorship, which
Memarian insists makes their work even more powerful.
"We're seeing actions become more ambiguous, more general, more interpretative," he said.
"(But) the process of decoding a message is more attractive. It's more appealing, more beautiful."
'Iranian Election', by Iranian political cartoonist Mana Neyestani. "Cartoonists might find ways to express an idea or in a very delicate way," says the book's editor Omid Memarian. Courtesy CNN.
'Freedom', by Touka Neyestani. "Cartoons communicate with a much wider audience, with different layers of society," says Memarian. Courtesy CNN.
'Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh', by Afshin Sabouki. Courtesy CNN.
'Iran Penal Code', by Ahmad Sakhavarz. Courtesy CNN.
'Iranian Cinema', by Kianoush Ramezani. Courtesy CNN.
'Love Letters from Prison', by Nikahang Kowsar. Courtesy CNN.
Via CNN
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