Qatar’s Supreme Education Council recently ordered a private school to remove a picture-book adaptation of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from its library collection due to illustrations that one parent said were “inappropriate” and “indecent.” The principal at…
Tag: middle east/north africa
Five Years Later, Cartoonists Have Faith in Arab Spring
This month marks five years since the regional wave of uprisings known as the Arab Spring began in Tunisia. Both before and after the regime changes in that country, Egypt, and Libya, as well as ongoing civil wars in Syria…
Egyptian Novelist Acquitted of “Harming Public Morality”
Last week, Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji and Tarek el-Taher, a newspaper editor who printed an excerpt from Naji’s book Use of Life, were acquitted on charges of “harming public morality.” The charges had been brought on behalf of a reader…
Lebanese Editors Use Government Censorship to Make More Comics
Earlier this year, three editors/artists for the independent Lebanese magazine Samandal were found guilty of belittling Christianity, “inciting sectarian strife,” and propagating “defamation and slander” leading to a total of $60,000 in fines. In a recent interview with The Comics…
Syrian Cartoonists Inspired by Late Colleague’s Bravery
When Syria’s civil war began in 2011 as an outgrowth of the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region, many citizens were initially optimistic about the outcome, seeing a chance to overthrow the brutal Assad regime. Instead, the instability in…
Algeria’s Tahar Djehiche Sentenced to Prison for Cartoon
In yet another chilling development for cartoonists’ freedom of expression worldwide, an Algerian appeals court this week convicted cartoonist Tahar Djehiche of insulting the country’s president and inciting mob violence via cartoon. He has appealed the verdict to the Supreme…
Another Cartoonist Arrested in Iran
Iranian authorities arrested another cartoonist this week, allegedly to make him serve out a previous sentence imposed two years ago because the state “had a different interpretation of his cartoons than he had,” according to his lawyer. Hadi Heidari previously…
Palestinian Cartoonist Under Fire for Controversial Conflict Cartoons
Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh has quickly garnered domestic and international attention for his unabashed depictions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite accusations of inciting hatred with negative portrayals of Israelis and a five month sentence in an Israeli prison on charges…
World Cartoonists Respond to Paris Attacks
Since Friday night’s coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people and injured 352, the international community has joined with France and its capital in demonstrations of mourning and solidarity. With much of the memorialization taking place on social…
Lebanese Comics Collective Counters Government Censure with Crowdfunding Campaign
The Lebanese indie comics collective Samandal, financially crippled after three of its editors were fined a total of $60,000 for charges that include “inciting sectarian strife” and “denigrating religion” through comics, this week turned to crowdfunding in a last-ditch effort…