Art exhibition highlights Molla Nasreddin heritage

by Aynur Jafarova,  AzerNews

Azerbaijan's capital Baku will host the opening of an art exhibition devoted to the heritage of the Molla Nasreddin literary character inspired by 13th century Muslim cleric who was remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes, on June 21.

The exhibition, titled "The value of Molla Nasreddin heritage in the modern world", is being organized by Miras Social Organization in Support of Studying Cultural Heritage and takes place in Baku Art Gallery.

The exhibits at the show, which aims to show the value of Molla Nasreddin heritage in the present-day world, are devoted to the topics of the Molla Nasreddin satirical magazine, which was one of the most remarkable projects in the history of the Azerbaijani press.

The Baku exhibition features works by young painters such as Yaylagul Ramazanova, Emin Elishov, Shahin Guliyev, Matanat Aghazade, Aydan Aghazade, Kanan Mammadov, Anar Shamsiyev, Gurban Orujly, Vugar Gurbanov, Konul Mammadova, Vusala Talibova and others.

The eight-page Molla Nasreddin magazine, which was published in Azerbaijani and occasionally in the Russian language, represented a new stage in the development of national satire and cartoon art. The features and columns of the magazine were discussions, short witty pieces of writing, humorous poems, advertisement and telegrams, satirical stories, anecdotes, cartoons, caricatures, illustrations, etc.

The magazine gathered the most advanced team of Azerbaijani intelligentsia, who published their stories on the magazine's pages under various pen-names. Pictures and caricatures were supplied by artists Oskar Schmerling, Azim Azimzade and Josif Rotter.

The first issue of the magazine was published in Tiflis on April 7, 1906. The picture on the cover of the first publication was a group of Muslims in deep sleep with Molla Nasreddin trying to awake them. "I came for you" is the most popular article of the first publication of the magazine.

The main purpose of the magazine was the struggle with the old world and the fight against colonialism of the imperialist countries, tsarist autocracy and in the East with the despotic regimes in Iran and Turkey as well as satirical depiction of inequality, cultural assimilation, corruption, backward lifestyles and values of the clergy and religious fanatics.

The magazine achieved great popularity not only in the South Caucasus and Russia but across countries of the Near and Middle East as well. It was distributed widely in Iran and Turkey. Molla Nasreddin continued to appear under the Soviet regime. It was published regularly in Baku from late 1922 until early 1931.

The magazine had 748 publications over the period of 25 years.

The significance of the Molla Nasreddin magazine is its role in the development of the critical realist genre in Azerbaijani literature. It influenced similar processes in other literary traditions, primarily in Iran. Iranian cartoon art emerged as a result of publishing Molla Nasreddin in Tabriz in 1921.

Via AzerNews

Drawing Fire

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

The Crossroads of Art and Human Rights: Sketches of Iran

by Omid Memarian , The Huffington Post

The following is excerpted from the introduction to Omid Memarian's new book Sketches of Iran: A Glimpse from the Front Lines of Human Rights:


One day in January 2003, my friend and colleague Ali Reza Eshraghi republished an old American cartoon in the Hayat No newspaper -- a cartoon the Special Court for the Clergy deemed insulting to the Islamic Republic's founding cleric Ayatollah Khomeini because they thought its character looked like him. The cartoon was actually an American satire of Franklin Roosevelt, drawn in the 1930s long before Iran was even an Islamic Republic, but that made no difference. Ali Reza was sent to Evin Prison where he spent two months behind bars; the Hayat No was banned and dozens of journalists lost their jobs.

Three years earlier, in January 2000, another cartoonist friend of mine, Nikahang Kowsar, drew a cartoon depicting a crocodile whose name rhymed with Mesbah Yazdi, an extremist cleric in Qom. The cartoon angered the powerful cleric's supporters to the point where they took to the streets. Mesbah supporters gathered for three days in Qom and other cities and did not end their protest until Nikahang was arrested and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a statement ordering the end of the gatherings.

Ministry of Culture authorities, Iran's security apparatus, and extremist conservative media could not tolerate even the vague similarity of cartoon characters to the country's officials, much less an attempt to actively caricature them. Both of my friends received death threats, though thankfully both escaped that fate.

For me, these two incidents illuminated the power of political cartoons: the depth of their penetration, the breadth of their reach, and their capacity to cause a cartoonist or editor to face the prospect of death.

Ali Reza and Nikahang were not the only ones persecuted for cartoons: prominent Iranian cartoonists Ali Divandari, Hassan Karimzadeh, Hadi Heidari, and brothers Mana and Touka Neyestani also faced political harassment for their art. Following the government's steady imposition of widespread limitations on free expression over the last decade, apprehension about cartoons has been running high and the government's tolerance has all but disappeared. Just last May, a young cartoonist, Mahmoud Shokrayeh, was sentenced to 25 lashes when he drew a cartoon about a Member of Parliament, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani, who then filed a lawsuit against him.

The power of the cartoonist lies in his or her ability to take the most complex social, political, and cultural subjects and illustrate them in such a concise and powerful way that thereafter the cartoon and its message are indelibly tied to the topic in the mind of the public. Cartoons are a strong medium; they can transfer a message instantly, reaching beyond linguistic and cultural barriers to illustrate a country's current state of affairs both for its citizens and for the world.

It is because of this power that the consequences are so harsh for cartoonists who refuse to ignore the daily struggles of their society. This is especially the case when a cartoon deals with deeply human issues, such as individual, social, and political freedoms, or when it somehow challenges those in power.

In recent years, the inevitable difficulties of working in such an environment of intimidation, threats, and interrupted artistic creation have forced some Iranian cartoonists, much like Iranian journalists and civil society activists, to leave Iran for other countries. Some who still work inside Iran, in order to remain out of prison, have had to either communicate through a language of multi-layered metaphors or altogether give up drawing cartoons that remotely challenge the rulers' narrative about different issues in Iranian society. Even so, many still create brilliant works that reflect the bitter realities of Iranian society.

Many cartoonists have fled Iran's oppressive atmosphere. Both Nikahang and Ali Reza left the country after the death threats ebbed. Over the last decade many others, including Touka and Mana Neyestani and Afshin Sabouki, whose works are represented in this book, have left Iran as well.
These individuals, like those who had to deal with the Iranian security apparatus, courthouse corridors, and prison cells, were never able to return their lives to how they were before. Never. On his personal blog, Touka Neyestani wrote a few sentences illustrating how repression and limited personal freedom make a good case for emigration:

I was tired of my life of crime.... I was teaching drawing to several boys and girls, which wasn't allowed. I used live models in my sketches, which wasn't allowed. In my classes I said things that weren't allowed. Instead of watching our own TV series, I watched channels that weren't allowed. I listened to music that wasn't allowed. On my computer, I had lots of photographs of delightful and beautiful people that I wasn't allowed to have. I saw films and kept some at home that weren't allowed. Sometimes I would secretly visit Facebook, which wasn't allowed. In parties, I socialized with strangers I wasn't allowed to know. I laughed out loud everywhere, which wasn't allowed. There were times when I was happy when I was supposed to be sad, which wasn't allowed. I liked eating some foods that weren't allowed. I preferred drinking Pepsi to doogh [a yogurt drink], which wasn't allowed. None of the books and authors I liked were allowed. I had worked in magazines and newspapers that were not allowed. I thought about things that weren't allowed. I had wishes that weren't allowed, and ... it's true, I was never punished for all this criminal conduct, but there were no guarantees that I wouldn't be questioned someday for every single one of them. Worse yet, the very thought of always being involved in a crime and escaping the law disturbed me.

The cartoonists whose illustrations appear in this collection delve into issues that affect many lives in Iran every day. Accompanying each cartoon is an essay by an individual offering his or her personal experience with the subjects illustrated. The contributing writers in this book include journalists, civil society activists, and academics, most of whom have themselves faced violations of their rights and personal, social, and political liberties.

Additionally, some family members of political prisoners have sent personal notes for this book or have taken part in interviews that we then put into essay form. In these essays, they share personal perspectives beyond the legal issues related to their kin, who are now political prisoners. These families share their sorrows and joys, their fears and hopes with all of us.

These short, intimate, and at times deeply personal essays take us through situations we may have never thought about and introduce us to individuals whose life choices inspire us all. The wide variety of experiences sheds light on the pain and suffering so many Iranians endure every day.

These stories barely scratch the surface of the reality of Iran today, of people enduring wanton violations of their basic human rights, and many dedicating their lives to fighting for them. This book offers only a snapshot of the daily struggles of Iranian society, a glimpse from the front lines of human rights.

 
Omid Memarian: Award Winning Journalist, writes for the IPS News Agency. 

Via  The Huffington Post

The Kafkaesque World Of An Iranian Cartoonist

Iranian Mana Neyestani, shown here in one of his works, now lives in exile in France. Image courtesy RFE/RL

by Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

A cockroach landed Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani in jail and turned his life upside down.

In 2006, a cartoon by Neyestani that showed the pest speaking Azeri sparked riots among Iran's minority Azeris. The cartoon, which ran in the children's section of the state newspaper, "Iran," showed a cockroach asking, "What?" in Azeri. It was deemed insulting by many members of Iran's Azeri minority, who took to the streets to show their anger.

The government responded with force. Nineteen people reportedly died in the clashes and many others were arrested.

Neyestani and the editor of the paper ended up in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison under conditions the cartoonist described as "Kafkaesque." Three months later, Neyestani used a temporary prison leave to flee the country with his wife. He finally ended up in exile in France after spending time in several other countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, and China.

Now, the 39-year-old cartoonist has recounted his time in prison in a graphic novel titled "An Iranian Metamorphosis," which was recently published in France. The book, whose title is a reference to Franz Kafka's famous story about a man who turns into a giant insect and is ostracized by his family, is also due to be published in other European countries and possibly in the United States.
 

In the novel, Neyestani's time in jail -- including the psychological torture he faced and numerous interrogations where he was purportedly asked to confess to having received money from foreigners and other fabricated charges -- is depicted in powerful black-and-white illustrations with his signature dark humor and, of course, many cockroaches.


In one scene, he tells his interrogator he decided to use the word "Namana" -- which is "what" in Azeri -- because many Iranians use it while speaking Farsi.

"I didn't have its Azeri origins in mind," he says.

The interrogator tells Neyestani that he's unconvincing and asks him to think of better motives, as well as to provide "all the information he has about his fellow cartoonists."

An architect by training, the real-life Neyestani says he decided to produce the book to illustrate the difficult and often absurd, tragicomic situation intellectuals in Iran face.

Running Commentary

To many Iranians, Neyestani is known as the creator of a comic strip called "The Engaged Family," which for the last two years has documented the life of a middle-class Iranian family. The family supports the opposition Green Movement and Neyestani chronicles their interactions with "the dictator."

The strip, which is published on a Persian news website based abroad, has gained enormous popularity for the way it shows how humor can help people cope with the painful realities of life in Iran.

A recent installment of "The Engaged Family" reflected the anger many members of the opposition felt after they heard the news that former President Mohammad Khatami had voted in the March parliamentary elections, which other reformists boycotted.

In the cartoon, the grandfather of the family has broken a mirror over a dazed-looking Khatami, who is standing next to a ballot box covered with bloody handprints.

Photo Gallery: Some of Neyestani's works:

​​
Neyestani's cartoons pulse with feelings of hope, lack of freedom, and frustration with the absurd social and political rules that Iranians face in their day-to-day lives. His drawings depict Iranian leaders as obsessed with nuclear power, show how sanctions hurt ordinary people, evoke the specter of war with Israel, highlight the plight of political prisoners, and, in general, draw attention to vexing issues on the minds of many Iranians.

Portraying Peace

Another recent cartoon was inspired by the "Israel Loves Iran" antiwar campaign. It went viral in late March after Neyestani posted it on his Facebook page.

The drawing shows two podiums facing each other, one with the flag of Iran and the other with the flag of Israel. Two men -- appearing to represent the leaders of the two countries -- are yelling at each other with words depicted in the shape of bombs. Underneath the men, outstretched hands are rising out of the podiums and exchanging red roses with each other.

The powerful imagery reflects how Neyestani feels about the idea of military conflict over Iran's nuclear activities.

"I think the majority of Iranians share this concern," he tells RFE/RL. "It's a serious threat and worry. We hear about it on a daily basis in the news. For me, it is a constant nightmare because I believe it might have very bad consequences."

'Iran's Modern History'

Columbia University professor and author Hamid Dabashi says Neyestani's work is so powerful because of the artist's "organic relation" to his homeland.

"I consider [Neyestani's] work as the illustrated memory of our time, the wide-awake conscience of our time," Dabashi says. "[Neyestani] is watching Iran's history closely with his creative imagination -- he's [producing] the illustrated satire of our time. When you look at his work, it is as if you were listing Iran's modern history day by day."

Such high praise is not uncommon. But the accolades and acclaim don't appear to have gone to Neyestani's head.

"The only thing I've done is to try to remain faithful to my beliefs and to be honest to myself," Neyestani says.

While Iran's leadership continues its negotiating dance with the international community, ... Neyestani plans to continue drawing cartoons. It's the best way he says he's found to express his views and make a living at the same time. 

Via Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 

Iranian Comic-Book Artists Seek a Unique, Local Identity

by Marc Bennetts, The New York Times

From the grinning Statue of Liberty skull on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy to bloody scenes from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that cover entire sides of residential buildings, graphic art is everywhere in central Tehran.

But graphic arts, like most forms of expression in the Islamic Republic, are tightly controlled by the authorities, whose watchful eye extends even to Iran’s tiny but growing domestic comic book scene. Iranian graphic artists have won international acclaim but are still struggling for acceptance at home. 

A rare exhibition of comic book art was held in Tehran this spring. Amin Tavakoli, an illustrator in his 20s, participated. “We haven’t published much,” he said. “But we have great potential.” 

Many young Iranian artists admit to a passion for comic books from the United States and Europe. They can be purchased in Tehran, though they are expensive and often covered with the censors’ black ink. But local artists say they are trying to stamp their work with an Iranian identity. 

Life for them, though, is not easy because their creative aspirations are kept firmly in check by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, responsible for approving all publications in the country. 

“All our art has to conform to Islamic law,” said Mr. Tavakoli. “So our published art differs a lot from Western graphic novels. For example, women’s hair should not be visible, and all female characters have to be dressed in accordance with Islamic tradition.” 

And even then, their work can run into trouble.

One recent domestic release, “The Story of Ashura,” a graphic novel, tells the story of the slaying and decapitation of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D. It depicts the defining moment of Shiite Islam in 60 brightly colored pages complete with speech bubbles, one of which read, “By the holy name of God, seeking his grace, I leave this world, loyal to the creed of His messenger.” 

Hussein’s death at the hands of his enemies deepened the rift between Islam’s two major sects, Sunni and Shiite. It is commemorated annually by believers in 10 days of mourning known as Ashura, an outpouring of grief that features self-flagellation. 

But the book caused a minor scandal after its release earlier this year because Islamic law forbids the pictorial representation of holy figures. The authorities only allowed its publication after the book’s illustrator, Parviz Eghbali, convinced them that the depictions were “unique in their kind and cannot be assumed to resemble anyone.” 

An English-language version of “The Story of Ashura” was on show at the comic book art exhibition at Tehran’s House of the Artist, a popular gathering place for local intellectuals. The walls of the gallery were covered with blown-up pages of comic art covering subjects as diverse as environmentalism and Iran’s triumphant 1998 soccer World Cup play-off against Australia. But most of the art on show remains unpublished and was from private collections. 

The approach taken by the authorities means that most comic books published in Iran are either about religious themes or the Iran-Iraq War, Mr. Tavakoli said. 

The apocalyptic 1980-1988 conflict with Iraq led to about one million deaths on the Iranian side alone, decimating an entire generation. The war also saw graphic artists pressganged into the service of the state, producing dozens of cartoon-style posters urging the youth of the Islamic Republic to follow in the footsteps of Hussein and sacrifice themselves for Shiite Islam and Iran. 

A decade or so after the war’s end, satirical cartoon art began to flourish in the Islamic Republic under a reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, but a crackdown followed the 2005 election victory of his successor, the hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

“A number of comic books published in Iran were outlawed with Ahmadinejad’s coming to power,” said Farian Sabahi, a professor at the University of Turin who specializes in the history of Islamic countries and is an expert on Iranian cartoon art. “Many cartoonists are currently working abroad and publishing their work on the Internet.” 

One prominent example of Internet-based Iranian art was “Zahra’s Paradise,” a work that depicts the violent aftermath of the Islamic Republic’s disputed 2009 presidential elections. The graphic novel by anonymous artists was published on the Web earlier this year and has won acclaim in the West. 

In a review posted on the blog of The New York Review of Books, Haleh Esfandari wrote last November that the novel’s drawings “represent a distinctly Iranian style of humor, a means of puncturing pretence and power.” 

While most Iranian works are still unknown abroad, “Persepolis,” the best-selling graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, drew international attention. The book tells the story of her childhood and teenage years in pre- and post-Islamic Revolution Iran and was made into a successful animated film in 2007. 

It describes Ms. Satrapi’s struggles as she tries to balance a love for Western rock and pop with life in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic. 

“That book is the story of my childhood,” said Ali, a comic book fan, sipping green tea in a hip cafe in wealthy north Tehran. “It’s so true.” He did not want to give his family name. 

Still, the criticism of the Islamic Republic’s leaders in “Zahra’s Paradise” and “Persepolis” means neither are permitted in Iran, though smuggled copies are available. 

“Persepolis” has also caused controversy elsewhere in the Muslim world. Blasphemy charges were brought against the owner of a television station that aired the animated film version in Tunisia last October. The offending portion was a scene in which the young Ms. Satrapi imagines herself scolding God. 

Another area that Mr. Tavakoli and his colleagues try to avoid is politics. “It’s not a good topic to work on,” he said. 

Despite the challenges, local artists hope for domestic success. Unlike in the West, where graphic novels are accepted, the Iranian comic book is struggling to make headway. 

Even so, Mr. Tavakoli stressed that Iranian comic books are about more than simply adopting American or European styles. “We try not to copy Western comic books,” he said. “We are creating a unique Iranian identity.” 

Via The New York Times