Political Satire, the Barometer of Press Freedom:
A Review of Political Satire in the Iranian Press
during the 2000s
Seyed Mahmood Farjami*
Abstract:
Political satire has played a prominent part in the social and political sphere of journalism in Iran from the first appearance of the independent press at the beginning of the twentieth century. This paper examines its problems and achievements in the Iranian press during the first decade of the twenty-first century, including their historical context over the past one hundred years. Legal and other important issues issues (e.g. Press Laws) affecting the Iranian press are reviewed in addition to non-political forms of the genre of satire, which significantly have often been used for political ends by authorities in Iran.
Keywords: Political satire, Political humour, Iranian satirists, Cartooning, Editorial cartoons, Iranian Press in 2000s, Persian satire, Freedom of the press, Censorship
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* S. M. Farjami is an Iranian satirist and journalist, and a PhD candidate in the School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia.Political Satire in the Iranian Press, the Roots
The appearance of political satire in the Iranian press came fast on the heels of Iranians becoming familiar with the modern concepts of “politics” and “the press’’ itself. Only three years after the Office of Censorship (Edareye Sansour) was established by Etemad Al-Dowleh by the order of Nasereddin Shah in February, 1885, to maintain tight control over all the presses publishing inside the country as well as publications delivered from outside, the first newspaper wholly devoted to satiric content was registered with the government. Shahsavan, a Persian magazine, was published overseas in 1888 and sent to subscribers in Iran by private post.1
In fact political satire had officially appeared in the Iranian press during Mozaffareddin Shah’s reign (1896-1907) when the first non-state papers were permitted to publish. However, as Aryanpour points out, effective political satires in the Iranian press were only published from the beginning of the 20th century, particularly under the influence of Molla Nasreddin, a satiric political and social weekly which was written in Azeri Turkish, published from 1906 until 1917 in Tblisi, in 1921 in Tabriz, and from 1922 to 1931 in Baku.2 By then, although political satire had been a very modern phenomenon along with the whole idea of “politics”, political satirists had played an important role in creating political awareness and promoting the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1907. Some of the most prominent and effective journalists and activists of that era, like Seyed Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, Seyed Ashrafeddin Gilani (also known as Ghazvini), Adib-ol Mamalek-e Farahani (Amiri), Mirza Agha Khan Kermani, and Mirza Malkom Khan, chose satire to convey their political messages to audiences, in prose and in verse. Furthermore, by this time, there were several Persian newspapers with wholly satiric content (both text and caricature) such as Tolue Mosavvar, Azarbayjan,
1 Edward G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, (Cambridge, 1983). 2 Yahya Aryanpour, Az Saba Ta Nima2 [From Saba to Nima2] (Tehran, 2008) 39 -105. Kasravi also points out how Molla Naṣreddin, was particularly influential, for in it editorial opinion was cloaked in verse and easily understood humorous anecdotes (Ahmad Kasravi, Mashrouteh3, (Tehran, 2007) 194).
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Shabnameh, Hasharat-ol Arz, Estebdad, Bohloul, Jangal-e Mowla, Jarchi-e Mellat, Sheida, and Nasim-e Shomal which critiqued political and social issues.3
Judging by its print runs, Ṣour-e Esrafil, a serious newspaper that included some satiric content was one of the most popular, perhaps the most popular, newspaper of the time. Its success was due chiefly to Dehḵhoda’s caustic and satirical column “Charand-o Parand” (Balderdash). Without indulging in the invective and personal attacks characteristic of some other columnists, Dehkhoda was able to deflate the Court and the conservative clergy with his lively wit. Of the purely satiric newspapers Nisme-e Shomal (Breeze of the North) was one of the most influential, publishing political satiric verses almost always written by its own publisher, Seyed Ashrafeddin Ghazvini. Both Dehkhoda and Ghazvini were particularly influenced by Jalil Mohammad Gholizadeh and Ali Akbar Saber, two prominent satirists writing for Molla Nasreddin.4 Most of these newspapers, except Nasim-e Shomal, disappeared before the beginning of the First World War (1914).
From this time until beginning of the reign of Reza Shah in 1925, political satire persisted in the press, though the quantity of satirical newspapers was not like earlier. After the coup in 1921 that elevated Reza Khan first to the position of Sardar Sepah (Minister of War) and then as Prime Minister, criticism became increasingly difficult and dangerous, although some of the most influential political critiques were still published in the form of satire. The most controversial subject was the Reza Khan’s idea for changing the system of monarchy to a republic, which had both strong advocates and strong opponents. Two of the best-known pieces of punditry battling this via satire were Nasim- e Saba by Kouhi-e Kermani supporting the monarchy and Nahid by Mirza Ebrahim Nahid, supporting the republic.
Some believe the piece that fostered the most negative public opinion about Reza Kahn’s “republic” was a satiric long-form poem, Jonhouri Nameh (Letter of the Republic), published under the name of a well-known liberal poet, Mirzadeh Eshghi, in
3 Hassan Javadi, Satire in Persian Literature, Toronto: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988. 4 See Yahya Aryanpour, Az Saba Ta Nima2 [From Saba to Nima2] (Tehran, 2008) 39 -105 for a comparison between some Turkish prose and verse in Molla Nasreddin and similar prose and verses in Persian in Sur-e Esrafil and Nasim-e Shomal that show the deep influence of Molla Nasreddin on Iranian newspapers.
3 the spring of 1924, few months after Reza Khan had discarded the idea of the republic.5 Eshghi harshly satirized him and the republic in prose, verse and caricature in his newspaper, Gharn-e Bistom (Twentieth Century), and a few days later, on July 3, 1924, he was found murdered. Thereafter, political satire or criticism was rarely published in the Iranian press during the reign of Reza Shah (1925-1941), and the few publications remaining in print -- like Arjang, Nasim-e Shomal, Gol-e Zard and Nahid -- avoided opposition political journalism.6
With the occupation of Iran by the Allies in the summer of 1941, Reza Shah fell and his young son became the next Shah. In the political turmoil of the young king’s rule, freedom of the press flourished and continued in differing degrees for more than a decade. Elwell-Sutton’s study of the Iranian press in the years after the occupation (1941- 1947) shows that the number of press outlets suddenly rose from around 50 to 464 and that 9 of these were fully or partly satiric.7 Among them were new publications like Hardanbil, Baba Shemel, Ghalandar and Yoyo while others published previously continued with interruptions. In addition, Chelengar, Haji Baba, Louti, Shab Charagh, Noushkhand and Dad o Bidad were published from 1948-1953. Chelengar, established by Mohammad Ali Afrashteh in 1949, was the most prominent political journal of the era. Banned in June 1953, it published 11 issues under other names.
Iran’s press freedom was severely curtailed after the coup against Prime Minister Masaddeq in August 1953, and did not recover until the end of the Shah’s reign at the start of 1979. Despite this, political satire still maintained a presence in the Iranian press and with even better quality, especially in the Towfigh newspaper. Published from the spring of 1959 in a new incarnation by members of the founder’s family known as the Towfigh Brothers (Hassan, Hossein, and Abbas), the newspaper soon became popular again and attracted a roster of the best and brightest satirists and cartoonists including Abolghasem Halat, Abbas Forat, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Parviz Khatibi, and young writers who
5 See: Mohammad Ghaed, Eshghi: Simaye Najib-e Yek Anarchist [Eshghi: The Portrait of A Decent Anarchist] (Tehran, 2001). Ghaed believes this prominent poem cannot have been written by Eshghi alone, and that probably Mohammad Taqi-e Bahar, the then well-known poet and MP, helped him or maybe wrote the whole of Jomhouri Nameh, but had it published under the name of Eshghi with his agreement. 6 Satire in Persian Literature, P. 199 7 L.P. Elwell-Sutton, “The Iranian Press, 1941-1947”, Iran 6 (1968) 65-104.
4 later became famous like Manouchehr Mahjoubi, Hadi Khorsandi, Omran Salahi, Manouchehr Ehterami, and Kiumars Saberi Foumani, as well as cartoonists Derambakhsh and Naser Pakshir (along with Hassan Towfigh who drew most of the cartoons for Towfigh). In 1971, when Towfigh was banned without trial - most probably by the order of Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, who was the most common target of Towfigh’s political satires - Towfigh was certainly the most famous and important satiric newspaper in Iran. Its few competitors, like Kashkiyat (satiric attachment of newspaper Tehran Mosvvar) and Caricature, could never attain its circulation and popularity.
Following the victorious 1979 Revolution in Iran, a rare but brief opportunity for freedom of the press was born, namely the Bahar-e Azadi (Spring of Freedom) in which the satiric press also flourished. Roya Sadr lists more than 30 satiric journals beginning publication between March and September of 1979, when the first wave of press closures occurred.8 Among them were reinvigorated journals from the past, such as Haji Baba, Bohloul and Chelengar, now being published again. Chelengar (renamed Ahangar after few issues9), became the most famous satiric magazine of the era, reaching a circulation of 150,000 copies.10
Individual satirical columns in serious newspapers were also popular, particularly Hadi Khorsandi’s in Kayhan newspaper which was also the first post-victory column to appear on March 10, 1979, less than one month after the Revolution. It was also one of the first political satires to be shut down as a result of protests and attacks, with Hadi soon being run out of Iran in 1980.11
Ahangar was the first journal to be a casualty of the new press laws after the Revolution; it was closed down just one day after Prime Minister Bazargan’s interim government announced the first press law on August 7, 1979. After that, the free press
8 Roya Sadr, Bardasht-E Akher: Negahi Be Tanz-E Emruz-e Iran [Last Shot: A Review of Recent Satire of Iran] (Tehran, 2006). She had listed and described them from page 30 to page163. 9 Both names mean “blacksmith”, Ahangar in literary Persian and Chelengar in Gilaki, a local language spoken by some people in Gilan, a northern state of Iran. The reason for changing the name was protests from Afrashteh’s family, claiming that Chelengar and Afrashteh’s name had been abused. Mohammad Ali Afrashteh, the publisher of Chelengar, had died in 1959 in exile in Sofia and Manouchehr Mahjoubi was the editor in chief of Ahangar. 10 Ibid. 11 Hadi Khorsandi, The Ayatollah and I (London, 1987).
5 was continually under attack and finally all satiric presses were closed until 1981, one year after the outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq (1980-1988). From the beginning of 1980 onwards, some of Iran’s most prominent political satirists were exiled, causing some Persian political satire journals to be published overseas such as Asgharagha by Khorsandi and Ahangar by Mahjoubi in London, and Haji Baba by Khatibi in New York. Most published irregularly and stopped after only few years, except for Asgharagha.
Towfighiyoun (Towfighians) monthly, renamed Fokahiyoun (Humorists) after a few issues,12 was the first satiric journal to surface after the big press closures at the beginning of the 1980s. It published from the winter of 1983 until 1990, keeping away from political satire particularly about internal issues during the Wartime. Khorjin (Carpetbag) was a satiric monthly first published in January 1986 as an attachment to Keshavarz (Farmer) monthly, becoming a separate magazine from issue 27. Around this time, political satire also appeared in the (official, internal) Iranian press – in Ettela’at daily, one of the most popular state newspapers. It was entitled “Do Kalameh Harf-e Hesab” (A Couple of Sensible Words), a satiric social political column written by Gol Agha beginning on 13 January 1985. Gol Agha was the pseudonym of Kiumars Saberi and his satires soon became popular. He later chose the same pseudonym for his satirical weekly when he got the license for it in 1990. With these few exceptions, political satire in the Iranian press was very limited and rare until the end of 1980s.
Thus by the start of the 1990s, one year since the end of the war and only a few months after the death of the first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, very few licenses for the satiric press were being issued. The satiric weekly Gol Agha and the periodical Tanz Va Caricature published from 1991, followed by Javaldouz, Derang, Kayhan Caricature, Tanz-e Farsi, Donyaye Tanz and Molavvan with licenses to publish during the 1990s -- although in 1991, after 12 issues, Javaldouz Derang after 2 issues,I were closed down and Molavvan after 40 issues followed in 1994. Of all of these,
12 In an interview with the author in winter 2008, Abolghasem Sadeghi, publisher and editor in chief of Fokahiyoun claimed he had to change the name of Tofighiyoun to Fokahiyuon after a few issues under pressure from Kiumars Saberi, then Cultural Consultant of the President, and from Mostafa Tajzadeh, then General Manager of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. See: Mahmud Farjami, “Sotoun-e Panjom! Tanz-e Matbouati Ba’d Az Enghelab-e Eslami” [Fifth Column! Satire in the Press after the Islamic Revolution], Kheradnameh 20 (Nov. 2007), 36-37.
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Gol Agha not only was the most prominent and popular satiric newspaper of the entire decade but also an institute for training an entire younger generation in satire, some of whom became the best satirists and cartoonists in the ensuing years.
When the reformers won the Presidential election in 1997, and within a year of President Khatami holding that office, came Bahar-e Matbouat (Press Spring). This was one of the best ever eras for a free press in Iran but it ended at the turn of the century with vast closures of presses in the spring of 2000. In these years (to be discussed in more detail below), political satire flourished, becoming more radical and reckless, whether in form or content, particularly in satiric columns in the reformist newspapers. Indeed, the future for journalism in Iran during the 2000s was rooted in what happened in these three short years, leading to mass closures of press outlets, pressure on the free press to conform and ending with bloody mass protests against the state in response to the worst attacks against the free press and journalists. This quick review of the history of political satire in the Iranian Press provides the cultural, social, political and historical background for the following more detailed account of the first decade of 2000s. , Addressing the essential relationship between satire and criticism13 and the primary role that criticism has in the freedom of press, its thesis is that what happened to political satire and its satirical authors in Iran can be seen as a barometer of the freedom of the press and journalistic expression for an era.
This survey includes examples of political satire published in the legally printed media of Iran under state license during the 2000s, along with an examination of alternative media such as cyber media. Any analytical survey of political satire
13 The Encyclopedia Britannica definessatire as “artistic form in which human or individual vices, folly, abuses or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, diversion, burlesque, irony, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to bring about improvement” (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/524958/satire, accessed 10 February 2012). Dr Johnson in his Dictionary defined satire as “a poem in which wickedness or folly is censured” and Dryden went further than this, claiming that “the true end of satire is the amendment of vices.” (quoted in Arthur Pollard, Satire (Methuen, 1977), 2). Also Roeckelein believes that satire usually implies the use of sarcasm or irony for critical purposes or censure, often directed at institutions, public figures, conventional behavior or political situations. Jonson believed that “the one ingredient common to… all… satire… is criticism.” Highet writes similarly that: “The purpose of satire is, through laughter and invective, to cure folly and to punish evil….” Swabey agrees: “Closely related to irony is another variety of the comic involving adverse criticism known as satire. To ridicule the vices and follies on mankind is the business of satire… satire by its imaginative eloquence excites anger at human misdeeds and cruelties” (quoted in Charles R. Gruner, “Satire as Persuasion”, in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, 1992) .
7 necessitates discussion of the legal issues surrounding journalism in Iran. In this way the study of political satire in the Iranian press can be seen as an integral part of a larger history of the press itself.
Freedom of the Press in the 2000s: A Short Overview
Over one night in April 2000, official letters from the Iranian judiciary were delivered to publishers of popular newspapers and magazines informing them that their publications had been banned. By the end of the week sixteen publications had been banned ‘until further notice’ by Judge Saeed Mortazavi (Shahidi). Although there was no lack of law actually pertaining to the press, given 90 years of history of legislation on the subject in Iran, Mr. Mortazavi chose to apply a 1960 law aimed at crime prevention (Ghanoun-e Eghdamat-e Tamini) for his orders.
The first Press Laws were passed by the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) on 8 February 1908 in an attempt to define the boundaries of acceptability. According to this set of laws, the “fabrication of news and subversive articles was banned (Article 32); the publication of articles that were [considered] harmful and damaging to religion and religious beliefs was subject to the payment of fines (Article 33). Insulting the kings of friendly nations was completely prohibited and in such a case, the culprit would be prosecuted with the punishment ranging from a fine to an imprisonment of up to one year” (Article 41).14 Also three press laws were passed after the 1979 Revolution, the first in 1979 by Prime Minister Bazargan’s government; the next one in 1986; and a new one in July 1999 by the conservative-dominated Fifth Majlis which voted to amend the 1986 Press Law, in spite of strong criticism inside and outside the chamber.15 Furthermore, Article 168 of the Islamic Republics of Iran Constitution, re-instituting the prosecution of
14 Goʿel Kohan Kohan, Tatikh-e Sansour Dar Matbuate Iran [A History of Censorship in Iranian Press] (Tehran, 1984): 350-51. 15 Hossein Shahidi, “From Mission to Profession: Journalism in Iran, 1979-2004,” Iranian Studies 39, no 1, March 2006, 1-28. Idem, Journalism in Iran: From Mission to Profession (London, 2007).
8 press offenses before a jury, provided that investigation of political and press offenses will be held in open session of the Courts of Justice in the presence of a jury.16
A few days before the widespread April 2000 closures, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said publically that some newspapers had become “enemy bases,” and that “10 or 15 newspapers” appeared “to be directed from the same centre,” with the aim of “making the people pessimistic about the system.” He described this as “journalistic charlatanism,” which did not exist even in the West.17 Indeed, this was just one of several of Ayatollah Khamenei’s threatening proclamations against the reformist press which had been publishing increasingly since 1997 when Mohammad Khatami won the presidential election as a reformist candidate. President Khatami’s first year in office saw the number of publications in Iran rise to more than 850, with total circulation exceeding two million copies a day.18 By May of 1999, the number of newspapers in the country had reached 930 with a total circulation of 2.7 million copies.19
During this period, Ayatollah Khamenei had repeatedly warned against a “cultural offensive by the West”. Meanwhile, the judiciary, whose head had been appointed by the Supreme Leader, had closed down popular reformist presses like Jameah, Bonyad, Tous, Neshat and Salam and imprisoned some famous reformist journalists including Mohammad Reza Jalaeepour, Mashallah Shams-ol Vaezin, and satirist Seyed Ebrahim Nabavi (most were released on bail after a while). Nevertheless, this was the first time since the 1979 Revolution that the press had had any freedom to “not only criticize the President frequently, but also the Supreme Leader”.20 These three years (1977-1979) have been called the “Press Spring” (Bahar-e Matbu’at), but this reprieve was cut short
16 The full text of the Constitution in English can be retrieved from: http://www.iranonline.com/iran/iran-info/government/constitution.html 17 Matn-e Kamel-e Bayanat-e Magham-e Moazzam-e Rahbari Dar Didar Ba Javanan Dar Mosallaye Bozorg-e Tehran [The Full Text of The Supreme Leader's Speech in Meeting with Youth in the Great Musalla of Tehran] (2000). http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php?p=bayanat&id=1897, accessed 14 April 2012 18 Kazem Mo’tamednejad, “Barresi-Ye Sharayete Pishraft-E Nashriyat-E Mostaqel Va Kesrat-Gera [a Review of the Conditions for the Development of Independent and Pluralistic Publications].” In Majmou’eh Maqalat-E Dovomin Seminar-E Barresi-Ye Masa’el-E Matbou’at-E Iran [Collection of Articles Presented at the Second Seminar to Review the Problems of the Iranian Press] (Tehran, 1998). 19 Ketab-e Jashnvareh-ye Sheshom-e Matbou’at [The Book of the Sixth Press Festival], 60, quoted in Hossein Shahidi, “From Mission to Profession: Journalism in Iran, 1979-2004,” Iranian Studies 39, no 1, March 2006, 1-28. 20 Mehdi Mohsenian-Rad, Rasaneh Quarterly 12, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 136–139.
9 by the Supreme Leader’s censure of the press in the spring of 2000 and by increasing repression in the following years.
Although the reformists were dominant in the government and held a majority in Majlis (until early 2004), by the second term of the Khatami presidency in 2001 more than 100 publications had been closed down (usually with no trials) and several hundreds of journalists became jobless through judiciary edicts based on repeated warnings from Ayatollah Khamenei. According to official reports, between the 5th and the 7th Press Festivals a total of thirty-two newspapers had been closed down, and 1,450 journalists and other members of staff had lost their jobs; by the 8th Press Festival in May 2001,, twenty-three more newspapers had been closed down. Seventeen journalists had also been imprisoned, although some were later released.21 The annual reports of Reporters Without Borders on their website22 show that from April 2000 to April 2001 more than 50 presses (including 24 newspapers) were closed down in Iran by the authorities. The situation even became worse when Mahmud Ahmadinejad became President in the 2005 election and appointed Hossein Saffar Harandi, a former officer of Sepah Pasdaran (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Vazir-e Farhang va Ershad-e Eslami), the organization which issues licenses to publishers and supervises the media.
The decade ended with the greatest national political upheaval since the 1979 Revolution when numerous bloody protests and huge demonstrations were staged against the state in 2009. A few days after the June 12 elections that year, the worst media repression was launched with increased press closures and rampant journalist arrests. On 7 July 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described Iran as the world’s top jailer of journalists with at least 30 journalists currently in prison.23 Freedom House (an NGO that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights), in its annual report of 2009 named Iran as one of the worst places for journalists
21 For more details and statistics until 2004 see: Hossein Shahidi, “From Mission to Profession: Journalism in Iran, 1979-2004,” Iranian Studies 39, no 1, March 2006, 1-28. 22 For a list sorted by year, see: http://en.rsf.org. 23 Committee to Protect Journalists’ website, “Iran Is World's Top Jailer of Journalists”, retrieved from http://www.cpj.org/2009/07/iran-is-worlds-top-jailer-of-journalists.php, accessed 5 May 2012.
10 and press freedom with a rank of 181 among 195 countries24 and in the Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index 2009, Iran ranked only above Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan.25
Between June 2009 and the end of year, dozens of papers were closed, dozens of journalists arrested, and the Association of Iranian Journalists (AOIJ) was banned on the day of Ahmadinejad’s inauguration in the Majlis.26 In February 2010, CPJ reported that “Iranian authorities are now holding at least 47 journalists in prison, more than any single country has imprisoned since 1996.”27
The Poor Lucky License Holders: Political Satire in the Satiric Press
With the exception of a few brief periods, newspaper publication in Iran has always required a license from the state. For 70 years since 1837, when the first authoritarian official government Iranian newspaper was published until the Constitutional Revolution, the only press in Iran was government-owned and/or government-supervised. Throughout this era a license was required to publish any newspaper legally, and usually that required the Shah’s personal signature.28 Early in 1907, the Ministry of Publications was abolished and that part of its duties that concerned the supervision of printing-houses and issuing of licenses for newspapers was passed to the Ministry of Sciences.29
The first Iranian press law approved by the Majlis in February 1908 was based on the French Press Law of July 29 1881 that stressed general press freedom, the prohibition of
24 Freedom of the Press 2009 Survey, http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop/2009/FreedomofthePress2009_tables.pdf, Accessed 5 May 2012. 25 World Press Freedom Index 2009 - The rankings, http://en.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/classement_en.pdf, accessed 17 April 2012. 26 “Polomb-e Anjoman-e Senfi-e Rooznameh Negaran Dar Rooz-e Tahlif-e Ahmadinejad” [Journalists Association was sealed off on the day of Ahmadinejad's inauguration], Persian Deutsche Welle website, 6 August 2009, http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,4546152,00.html. 27 Committee to Protect Journalists’ website, “With 47 Journalists in Jail, Iran Sets Notorious Records”, http://cpj.org/2010/02/with-47-journalists-in-jail-iran-sets-notorious-re.php, accessed 5 May 2012from, Freedom of the Press 2009 Survey, http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop/2009/FreedomofthePress2009_tables.pdf, accessed 5 May 2012. 28 Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani, “Constitutional Revolution VI. The press,” Encyclopedia Iranica, VI, Fasc. 2, 202-212. 29 Seyed Farid Ghasemi , Rahnamaye Matbuat-e Iran: Asr-e Ghajar [A Guideline to the Press in Iran: Ghajar Era] (Tehran, 1993) 28
11 press censorship and curtailed the need to obtain permission for the publication of newspapers. Nevertheless, 10 years after the Constitutional Revolution, and in accordance with a decree approved in 1918 by the Council of Ministers, the principle of free press publication had become limited and contingent upon permission obtained from the Council; during the reign of Reza Shah (1925 – 1941) it was even tougher.30
The fall of Reza Shah brought a more appropriate climate for freedom of the press and newspapers could be published without permission from the government. This openness was short-lived however and following a public revolt in Tehran in the autumn of 1942, all newspapers were banned and in accordance with the revision of the 1908 Press Law via the Revision of Part of the Press Law provisions approved on 24 December 1942, publishers were required once again to obtain permission for the publication of newspapers.31 Later laws, approved in February 1952 and August 1955, preserved this obligation. Therefore, during the 37-year reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (“the Shah”), with the exception of a few brief periods, Iranians needed to have a license or permission to print newspapers.
With the fall of the Shah’s regime, no government permission was needed and as already mentioned numerous newspapers were published in the brief period of Bahar-e Azadi. But on 12 February 12 1979, less than 6 months after the victorious Revolution, Prime Minister Bazargan’s interim government (4 February 1979 – 6 November 1979) announced that from 7 August 1979 a government license (from the Ministry of National Guidance) would be required to print any press publications. This requirement was preserved in the bot later press laws approved in 1986 and 2000 in Majlis.32 From hereon to the present in the Islamic Republic of Iran, anyone wishing to publish print media (newspapers, magazines or even scientific journals) must apply for a license from The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
30 K. Moatamed-Nejad & N. Badii, “The problems of Press Freedom in Iran: From the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution” In Religion, Law, And Freedom: A Global Perspective (Connecticut,2000) 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid.
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One requirement for a license is that the field or topic area in which a publication is classified must be clear. Some examples are: politics, sports, social, and tanz (humor/satire). This is a significant term which requires some explanation. Tanz in modern Persian includes the concepts of both humor and satire. Over almost four decades, the word “fokahi” which means “humor” has been replaced by “tanz” which has a meaning in Persian literature closer to “satire”. The last Persian magazine that used “fokahi” in its name was Fokahiyoun (Humorists) published in the 1980s. Others have preferred tanz (satire) for any kind of humor, even for TV comedy series; probably because a positive meaning of tanz in Persian invokes literary values, as well as an intention for improvement and social commitment. Although one of the best political satire magazines in the history of the Persian press, Towfigh, has always described itself as a “humorous paper” (Rouzname-ye Fokahi), none of the humorous press published after 1990 has described themselves as “humorous” (fokahi), often preferring “satiric” (tanz/tanz-amiz) in naming themselves. Therefore, although this article translates tanz as “satire”,, it must be kept in mind that there is a conceptual confusion between satire and humor in recent Persian usage. As an adjective, tanz is also used to mean both humorous and satiric.
During the 2000s, whether under reformist President Khatami (until 2005) or anti- reformist President Ahmadinejad (from 2005), the Ministry rarely issued a license for a tanz (satiric/humorous) publication. Therefore, just a small number of publishers were lucky enough to be able to print a satirical publication. Of these, one of the lucky few, Gol Agha, the most prominent satirical paper after the 1979 Revolution, announced its closure on its twelfth anniversary in October 2002. Until the end of his life, its editor, Saberi, had always had influential friends among the authorities, including the new Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to ensure the safety of the satirists at Gol Agha. Saberi’s position even improved when Khatami was elected President because they had had a friendly relationship for a long time. Tt was very shocking therefore when Saberi announced that the Gol Agha weekly, the main magazine of Gol Agha group of publications,33 would cease publication on 24 October 2002. Saberi died of cancer in
33 The Institute also published a monthly, a yearbook, and “Bachcheha… Gol Agha” (Kids… Gol Agha)..
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2004 without explaining the reason for his decision to close down Gol Agha. However after his death, Ebrahim Nabavi, the well known political satirist and first executive director of Gol Agha, wrote in an essay for the BBC Persian that Saberi “on one hand was disappointed by the reformists’ way and on the other hand, he was sure The Leader expected him to do a role that he didn’t want. There was a long time when he would get messages from security services that made him worried. For it, he closed down.”34 After Saberi’s death, his only child, Poupak Saberi, inherited the business and re-published the weekly, as well as a new comic magazine by the name Gol Agha Comic; but the venture was unsuccessful. Finally Poupak announced in January 2008 that the Gol Agha Institute would not publish any further print media and would only be semi-active on the Gol Agha website (www.Gol Agha.ir).
Kayhan Caricature (Cartoon Kayhan) was a monthly publication that would often publish professional cartoons and caricatures from both Iranian and non-Iranian cartoonists, accompanied with specialist essays and articles about cartooning and caricature. Although Kayhan Caricature was one of the journals published and funded by the state owned Kayhan Institute, Mohammad Hossein Niroomand, the then chief editor, cited financial issues and lack of government support as the main reasons for its closure in 2003.35 Furthermore, in an apparently self- imposed action, Khorjin, Tanz-e Farsi, and Donyaye Tanz were all closed down in 2000.36 Accordingly, Tanz Va Caricature (Satire and Cartoon) was the only humorous magazine published on a national scale the whole of this decade. This monthly was published by the cartoonist, Javad Alizadeh, from 1990, the same year Gol Agha was published for the first time, but never reached Gol Agha’s popularity. Critical political satires were rarely published in Tanz Va Caricature and,
34 Ebrahim Nabavi, “Kiumars Saberi (Gol Agha) Be Revayat-E Ebrahim Nabavi [Kiumars Saberi (Gol Agha) in Ebrahim Nabavi’s words].” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2004/04/040430_pm- nabavi_saberi.shtml. Also Nabavi wrote, in response to being asked why you want close down Gol Agha, Saberi had answered “No son, it cannot be continued. They want me to do some things that I don’t want”. (Ebrahim Nabavi, “Khandidan Posht-E Cheragh-E Ghermez [Laughing Behind Red Light].” From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2004/05/040522_pm-en-satire76.shtml) 35 “Sardabir-E Nashriye-Ye Kayhan Caricature Elale Tavaghghof-E Enteshar-E in Nashriye Ra Tashrih Kard [Editor-in-Chief of Kayhan Caricature Explained the Reasons of Closure]”, ISNA, 4 November 2003, accessed 19 February 2012 from: http://www.magiran.com/article.asp?AID=194. 36 Roya Sadr, Bardasht-E Akher: Negahi Be Tanz-E Emruz [Last Shot: A Review of Recent Satire of Iran] (Tehran, 2006), 34
14 although he did not ban politics completely, Alizadeh preferred pieces in fields such as cinema and football.
Some satiric journals were also published on a smaller scale with limited success, like Sotoone Azad (Free Column), published by students at the University of Ferdowsi, Mashhad. This satirical monthly began as a black and white photocopied student journal in 2003 and slowly became a color newspaper with high quality paper, print, and content. It consisted of political subjects as well youth matters, and was distributed to many universities across the country. Sotoone Azad claimed a readership of more than 20,000 in the late 2009s, a record for a student journal in Iran.37
Fiery Columns: Political Satire in non-Tanz Press
As previously noted, satirical columns have existed as a venue for political writers from the earliest history of the serious free press in Iran. In fact, the best Persian satire of the modern era -- particularly during the Constitutional Revolution – was printed in mainstream newspapers and magazines in a section titled “Sotoon-e Tanz” (Satire column). Indeed, many of prominent Iranian satirists like Dehkhoda, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Omran, Manouchehr Mahjoubi, Hadi Khorsandi, Kiumars Saberi, Ebrahim Nabavi, and Abolfazl Zaruee Nasrabad have written famous satiric columns in serious press.
Between Khatami’s election as a reformist president in 1997 and the crackdownon the media in 2000 the most prominent and effective political satirist was Ebrahim Nabavi, who wrote political satire columns in popular reformist newspapers like Jame’e, Toos, Arya, Hayat-e Now, Neshat, Asr-e Azadegan and many others, sometimes simultaneously. Nabavi wrote in various styles and forms applying a wide range of techniques. Some of his most impressive works were parodies of the ideological and revolutionary discourse of the ruling regime, including the Supreme Leader himself, albeit indirectly. For instance, Ayatollah Khamenei and his supporters were well known for dire warnings about an “Enemy” and numerous “enemy conspiracies” which Nabavi courageously parodied using the Ayatollah’s own words in articles on topics apparently
37 Although it is a student paper, the archives of Sotoon Azad is available as pdf files on its website: http://sotooneazad.ir/main/
15
“unrelated” to the Leader. He rapidly became an important columnist whose satires were not only popular but also influenced the political sphere. His fame and influence in the first year after Khatami came to office encouraged other newspapers to establish satire columns, most notably Kayhan, the radical anti-reformist state newspaper.38
Although the then Press Law of the late 1990s stated that only the license-holder of a newspaper was legally responsible and could be punished for published content, Nabavi himself was twice arrested for his satirical writing. The second time was soon after the annual Press Festival on 7 August 2000 at which he was named as best satirist in the Iranian press. After 7 months of imprisonment on a charge of insulting the “state authorities and Islamic regime”, Nabavi was released in 2001 and apologized in court in front of TV cameras, albeit in a humorous tone.39 Thereafter, t he wrote social satires for moderate conservative newspapers like Jam-e Jam and Mehr biweekly before leaving the country in April 2003.40
After the new Press Law of 2000, a new dilemma was presented not just to satirists, but to all whose work was published in the press. The new press law passed on 26 April 2000 by the mostly conservative dominated Majlis during the last days of its term, included holding responsible not only the publishers, but also individual writers, for any offences caused by their work (Article 9, Note 7).41 Hence, after the spring of 2000, there was no repeat of the relative freedom of the press experienced from 1997-1999, nor was
38 There are three state-owned dailies in Iran, whose publishers are appointed by the Supreme Leader directly and which use state finance and facilities widely: Kayhan, Ettela‘at,and Jomhouri-ye Eslami. 39 He defended himself sometimes by half joking words, particularly about one of his accusers, Hamid Reza Taraqqi, a former MP. He also cracked a few jokes which raised several laughs from the judge, Saeed Mortazavi ,and others in the court. See a report of the trial in Nabavi’s book, Salon Shomareye 6 [Corridor No 6] (Tehran, 2005) , 290-302. 40 According to Nabavi’s autobiography on his website: http://www.doomdam.com/archives/000126.php, Accessed 20 March 2012. 41 The new law also added the head of the Islamic Publicity Organization and the representative of the Friday Prayer Leaders’ National Policy Making Council to the panel in charge of selecting the press jury, which until then had consisted of a senior official from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, a senior judiciary official and the chair of the City Council (Article 36). The new law also allowed judicial authorities to appoint members of the press jury directly, should their selection by the panel not have been completed by the due date (Article 36, Note 1); and provided for the press jury’s secretariat to be funded by and use the resources of the judiciary (Article 38, Note 30). See: K. Moatamed-Nejad & N. Badii, “The problems of Press Freedom in Iran: From the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution,” in Religion, Law, And Freedom: A Global Perspective (Connecticut,2000), 125-126
16 that sort of regime-challenging political satire seen again in the official press. This does not however mean however that political satire disappeared completely from Iran.
Abolfazl Zaruee, a well-known creative political satirist, wrote several columns for several newspapers, the most popular being his satiric verse column, 42 “Asl-e Matlab” (The Crux of the Matter), in Tehran municipality’s daily, Hamshahri.43Zaruee sometimes chose political subjects for his satiric poems but usually preferred social subjects to criticism. Once he read one of his poems published in Hamshahri criticizing administrative bureaucracy before the Supreme Leader himself, Ayatollah Khamenei, who smiled and praised it.44
Abolfazl Zaruee, Ali Mirfattah and Reza Rafi’e also wrote (sometimes political) satires in Jam-e Jam for a while. Rafi’e sometimes wrote in the state owned newspaper Ettela’at as well. None of these satiric columns became as popular as Nabavi’s, maybe because these were conservative newspapers and the satirists had to observe their policies and practices. . Ali Mirfattah wrote social and political satire in a popular column called “Ghalandaran-e Pijameh Poosh” (Pyjama Wearing Mendicants) in the Shargh daily (2004 – 2006). He states in the introduction to a published collection of his work that he got the idea from a humorous short story by Iraj Pezashkzad, entitled Angoor (The Grape), concerning a few old men talking about their memories while smoking opium. Similarly, in Mirfattah’s column, some old men smoking opium discuss various apparently irrelevant topics that in fact mask hidden political and social critique. The Shargh daily was banned several times, and although the column was not the cause, it was finally removed.
Roya Sadr was the most prominent among the rare female satirists active at the time. In addition to publishing several research books and articles about satire in contemporary history of Iran and Persian journalism, she wrote political satire periodically in some reformist publications like Etemad Melli. Ebrahim Raha (Ali Mirmirani’s pseudo name)
42 Writing political and social satirical verses in the Persian press was a dominant tradition in the Constitution Revolution era, around a century ago. Some writers like Seyed Ashrafeddin Ghazvini, Mirzadeh Eshghi, Mohammad Taghi Bahar, and Abolghasem Lahooti ,are well-known in Persian literature for this genre, but in recent decades no-one could regularly publish notable, popular, satiric verse. 43 It was published later as a collection in Rofuzeha (Tehran, 2010). 44 The video shown by National TV (IRIB) can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFXIo0ZtGk
17 tended to write fairly explicit short political satirical pieces also in the Etemad daily, which made problems for the newspaper several times and finally his column was closed down.
In May 2009, as is usual before a presidential election, the state gave the press a bit more freedom so as to encourage voting. The reformist newspaper Etemad Melli announced that it would publish a whole page of satire on a daily basis. Two young satirists, the cartoonist Hadi Heidari, and a columnist Pouria Alami, organized the page with the help of other satirists. Named “Shabnameh” (Night letters), it was duly printed until 17 August 2009, when the newspaper was closed down by the judiciary – the same day the head of the judiciary was humorously criticized on the satire page. “Shabnameh” was one of the decade’s most prominent pieces of political satire in a newspaper .
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the Supreme Leader. The same day Etemad Melli was closed down by the judiciary.
During these years when onlya few reformist papers existed to publish political satire, some satirists tried to work in a new way by publishing in the conservative press, hoping to protect both their views and themselves from bureaucratic repression. Shahram Shakiba and Mahmud Farjami (the present author) were two who wrote critical satires in two moderate conservative newspapers. Shakiba wrote for Khabar, a newspaper supported by Ali Larijani, the head of Majlis, and Farjami wrote for Tehran-e Emrouz, supported by Bagher Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran. Both Larijani and Ghalibaf were Ahmadinejad’s rivals in the 2005 presidential election and, although conservative, they proved powerful opponents to him in the following years. Farjami write in Tehran Emrouz from 2009 to 2010, and then left the country. Shakiba wrote for Khabar until its closing down in November 2009.
The political satiric column of the Kayhan daily, “Goft-o Shenoud” (Dialogue), established in 1977, was the only column published throughout the decade. Most believe that this column was written by Hossein Shariatmadari, publisher and editor-in-chief of Kayhan and appointed by the Supreme Leader. The satirical pieces, always in the form of a dialogue between two people, were short (mostly 100-150 words), harsh and lacking any elegance, directly attacking persons labeled enemies of the Revolution and of Islam; they usually ended with a joke or anecdote. The press was strictly forbidden to print insults in Iran and the judiciary warned or even banned the independent and reformist press numerous times on charges of “being insulting”.45 However it was not unusual, to see words like stupid (ahmagh), traitor (khaen), spy (jasoos), dissolute (fased), rude (porroo), ugly (ikbiri), mercenary (khod foroukhteh), hack (ghalam be mozd) etc. used to describe and humiliate individuals, groups, and politicians (sometimes using their real names) in Goft-o Shenoud. Nevertheless, while the process of closing a newspaper for a wrongdoing is as quick and simple as a letter from the judiciary, Shariatmadari has never
45 One of the accusations against Ebrahim Nabavi, for which he had to apologize in court, was labeling a former conservative MP, Hamid Taraqqi, “shameless” (bi haya). A report of the trial court proceedings is published in Nabavi’s memoirof his time in jail, Salon Shomareye 6 [Corridor No 6] (Tehran, 2005).
20 been in serious trouble for these irreverent remarks.46 Clearly it depends which side is the subject of the satire.
Political Cartoons: Little Crime and Huge Punishment
Throughout this decade, political cartoonists worked hand in hand with political satire writers. Indeed, newspapers were more interested in cartoons than satirical columns; probably because cartoons are potentially moreindirect and equivocal than satirical texts, and in an atmosphere of oppression what is seriously needed being are the qualities of discretion and flexibility. That is why most political cartoons published in this decade tended to be symbolic, abstract and surrealistic rather than blatant, realistic and literal, sending a critical message with greater safety. For instance after the elections of July 2009, at the height of clashes between protesters and state police, while thousands of dissidents were arrested and numerous newspapers shut down on suspicion of supporting the unrest, Hadi Heidari successfully published a cartoon to reflect the current events in a conservative tone: it depicted a would-be song-bird entangled in lines and notes of music, unable to sing. This was published in Etemad Melli, the newspaper with ties to Mehdi Karoubi, one of the strongest critics of the election results.
46 He was only obliged to apologize on a few occasions, such as on 1 June 2005 when the sixth reformist MP was described as “cow”.
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In fact, unlike in sthe Press Spring (1997-1999), most of the cartoons published during the 2000s were non-political and concerned social subjects, sports, arts, etc.
Even so, despite all precautions and use of discretion, the greatest trouble over humor and satire during the 2000s arose from cartoons. In February 2000, a cartoon was published in the Azad daily, drawn by Nikahang Kowsar, who was the best-known political cartoonist of that time, and who worked hand in hand with Nabavi. The cartoon
22 showed a crocodile labeled as “Master Crocodile” (Ostad Temsah) strangling a man and simultaneously weeping and crying, “Isn’t there anyone to save me from this open- minded hack writer?!”, while his victim (standing for all journalists) shouts for help.
The cartoon sarcastically referenced Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, whose name (Mesbah) rhymes with the Persian word for crocodile (Temsah). For the Reformists, he was the most important of the clergy in Qom whose religious/political decrees, or “fatwas”, encouraged state officials and pressure groups to violently attack Reformists. A few days earlier, Mesbah Yazdi had claimed that the former head of the CIA head had
23 secretly come to Iran with “a suitcase full of dollars” to share with certain newspapers and cultural organizations. The cartoon caused an uproar among Mesbah’s students and followers in Tehran, Qom and elsewhere. Azad was banned and Kowsar arrested, though he was released on bail six days later. He later fled to Canada, but was tried in 2005 in absentia and sentenced to four months in prison.47
Cartoon-based tensions were not always caused by the cartoonists. In early 2003, Alireza Eshraghi, the editor of Hayat-e Now, was arrested and spent fifty-three days in solitary confinement for printing a cartoon with a character claimed to have some passing ressemblance to Ayatollah Khomeini.
47 A detailed report from the story can be retrieved from: "Majaraye Ostad Temsah [the Story of Professor Crocodile]." http://www.roozonline.com/persian/opinion/opinion- article/archive/2006/november/22/article/-3807acb111.html
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text is an interview with Dr Tavassoli ofTehran University about the concept of “social capital”.
Hayat-e Now and the cartoonist denied having any intention or knowledge about the claimed similarity and were able to prove that the model used in the cartoon had itself been drawn about sixty-five years earlier by an American cartoonist and represented Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite this, several demonstrations against it were held by conservative supporters of the regime and the newspaper was quickly banned.
Three years later, on Jan. 2006, Elham Afrootan, a nineteen years old amateur journalist, was arrested in a very similar case of misinterpretation. She had published a satiric essay in Tamaddon-e Hormozgan (Civilization of Hormozgan), a local low-circulation newspaper for Hormozgan , the southern state of Iran. The article was entitled “Let’s make public the campaign against AIDS: How to be immune to state AIDS?’’. It was a reprint of a satire of political satirist F. M. Sokhan (pseudonym name)48. At first sight it looked like an essay about AIDS, but in fact was a political satire ridiculing highly pplaced state officials. The manager in charge, Ali Dirbaz, a conservative Iranian MP, claimed the journalist was to blame, although Afrootan emphasized that she had not read the essay and just copied and pasted the essay in hurry as an essay on health before sending the newspaper file to the printer office. She was imprisoned and after about five months released on bail, but finally sentenced to a suspended sentence, a fine, and five years deprivation of social rights49. Ignorance is no excuse, it seems, when it comes to satire in Iran.
However the most severe reaction came in response to a cartoon with no obvious political content at all. On 12 May 2006, in a special section for children in the Iran Friday paper, a humorous essay about cockroaches was published, accompanied by a few small cartoons by Mana Neyestani. In one of them, “cockroach grammar” was discussed, showing a cockroach saying “Namana?”, Turkish for “What?”.
48 “Mobarezeh Ba Aids Ra Alani Konim: Chegooneh Dar Moghabel-E Aids-E Hokumati Masoon Shavim? [Let’s Make the Campaign against Aids Public: How Do be Immune to State Aids?]”in. Gooya News, http://mag.gooya.com/politics/archives/040405.php, accessed 9 May 2012.
49 BBC Persian, “Panj Sal Mahroumiat Az Hoghough-E Ejtemaee Baraye Rooznameh Negar-E Tamaddon- E Hormozgan [Five Years Deprivation of Social Rights for the Journalist of Tamaddon-E Hormozgan].” 4 July 2006, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/07/060704_mf_afroutan.shtml, accessed 8 May 2012.
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The cartoon series was titled “What should we do so that the cockroaches don’t turn us into cockroaches?” and this frame simply showed the boy using Persian to saying “cockroach” in different ways to acockroach, while the latter replies uncomprehendingly in Turkish but written in in Roman not Persian lettering.
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Very soon some Iranian Azeris from the North who speak Turkish protested against this publication, claiming the purpose of the cartoon was to insult Turks by making them appear like stupid beetles with doltish language. They further claimed this was not just a simple mistake by one cartoonist but represented general policies. Mana Neyestani vigorously denied the accusation but it was useless. The Iran daily was temporarily banned and the then Prosecutor General, Saeed Mortazavi, had the cartoonist and the paper’s editor, Mehrdad Ghasemfar, incarcerated in Evin Prison. Riots were sparked over this incident with some deaths and injureies during violent demonstrations in Azeri cities like Tabriz, Uroumieh, Abhar and Zanjan.50
While it might appear that this was exclusively a social and cultural issue concerning one ethnic group, there is evidence to show that the event was also deeply rooted in politics. First, by this time the state had demonstrated its discrimination against Azeris and protests were already taking place at some universities, particularly the University of Tabriz. Thus as Neyestani himself mentioned in interview, the cartoon did not provoke but only added fuel to the riots.51 Secondly, it was used by the security forces as a pretext for suppressing Azeri activists, allowing the forces to appear to bebattling against chaos. Also some evidences reinforce the speculation that some state forces stimulated demonstrations and chaos. Gholamhossein Eslamifar, the then manager of Iran, claimed in court that while the normal circulation of Iran Friday is at most 30,000 of which only 3,000 are sent to the Azeri regions, 300,000 copies of the issue were printed in a short period and then sent there. . Eslamifar was acquitted. 52 The printer(s) who were able to print this amount of paper have never been found by Iranian security forces, despite the fact that they control all printing offices in Iran. Thirdly, it served the purposes of political vengeance and political exploitation of the events, such as permitting the denunciation of the
50 BBC Persian, “Bazdasht-E Tarrah-E Karikator-E Janjali Va Toghif-E Rouzname-Ye Iran [Detaining the Drawer of Controversial Caricature and the Banning of Iran Newspaper].” 23 May 2006, accessed 1 May 2012 from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/05/060523_mf_cartoon.shtml. 51 Interviewing with Alex Rühle, Sueddeutsche.de, “Mit Glück: Gefängnis”, 12 January 2010, accessed 5 May 2012, from: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/im-gespraech-mana-neyestani-mit-glueck- gefaengnis-1.1030613. 52 BBC Persian, “Modir-E Mas'ool-E Rozname-Ye Iran Bigonah Shenakhteh Shod [Manager-in-Charge of Iran Newspaper Was Acquitted]”, 27 August 2006, accessed 5 May 2012, from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/08/060827_mf_iran_jury.shtml.
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Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance by some MPs and allowing the Leader to warn once again of “enemy” actions.53
The event can be seen as a dramatic example of how unpredictable and dangerous it is to work as a satirist in a country like Iran.As a professional humorist, one must always be careful not to cross “red lines” and to tread very lightly on sensitive social, regional, ethnic, cultural and political matters. However, while reformist and independent press cartoonists and writers have faced numerous pressures and threats, especially by the judiciary, a cartoonist like Maziar Bijani of the Kayhan newspaper is the only political cartoonist who has worked with almost no limitations over two decades publishing political cartoons against the reformists. Others, mostly reformists, such as Nikahang Kowsar, Touka Neyestani, Mana Neyestani, Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour, Hadi Heidari, Hassan Karim Zadeh, Ali Derakhshi, Jamal Rahmati, Firoozeh Mozaffari, and Keyvan Zargari, were not so lucky. The best Iranian political cartoonists worked for many banned publications including: Aftab-e Emruz, Tavana, Sobh-e Emrooz, Bonyan, Doran-e Emrooz, Hayat-e Now, Mosharekat, Nowrouz, Azad, Vaghaye’e Ettefaghiyeh, Eghabl, Yas-e Now, Etemed Melli and Bahar. Many of their publishers received warnings not to publish particular political writers and cartoonists.
Satire and New Media, Amusing From a Distance
From 2000 onwards, with the closure of various publications, there was a continuous wave of emigration by journalists from Iran, reaching its climax in 2009. Reporters Without Borders reported on 22 April 2010 that in the face of arrest and unable to do their job, more than fifty Iranian journalists had to flee the country since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election on 12 June 2009.54 In addition to opposition satirists like Hadi Khorsandi (in exile since 1980), at this time some of the
53 BBC Persian, “Doshmanan Amel-E Taharrokat-E Ghomi-E Akhir-E Manategh-E Tork Neshin-E Iran ['Enemies’ Directed Recent Ethnic-Inhabited Turk Regions of Iran].” 28 May 2006, accessed 9 May 2012, from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/05/060528_v-khamen-ethnic-issues.shtml. 54 Reporters Without Borders, “Overview of Reporters Without Borders financial aid to journalists and media in danger in 2009”, 22 April 2010, accessed 9 May 2012, from: http://en.rsf.org/overview-of- reporters-without-22-04-2010,37122.html.
28 best satirists who were not part of the opposition but were willing towork within a regime regulated framework, had to leave the country. Sadl deaths of some of the best Persian political satirists also had a negative impact on political satire in the era. Among them, Saberi55, Salahi56 and Ehterami57are most notable. All had a huge influence on younger satirists, specifically those who wanted to write political satire with Persian literary values; and along with the other social and political factors already mentioned, their deaths had a chilling effect on political satire in the Persian press in the new century.
In spite of all these negative factors, new media and the fast growth of access to the internet in the last decade have provided a much wider and far freer domain for Persian satire. In 2000, it was estimated there were 250,000 internet users, but by 2005, seven and a half million Iranians had access to the internet and as many as thirty-two million by 2009.58 Although internet access has never been as cheap, fast or safe for Iranian users,as for much of the rest of the world,59 this extent of access to new media has affected Iranian journalism deeply.
55 Kiumars Saberi, the most prominent political satirist during the Islamic regime, who could as mentioned resurrect political satire at the middle of war with his “Do Kalameh Harf-e Hessab” (A Couple of Sensible Words) and who trained satirists and cartoonists at the Gol Agha institute over two decades, died in 2004, aged sixty-three. 56 Omran Salahi, a well-known satirist, poet, caricaturist and humor scholar, died from a heart attack in 2006 when he was sixty. Though he was Saberi’s friend and wrote in Gol Agha, he had numerous problems with the state. The main reason was his satires published in intellectual magazines like Donyaye Sokhan, Adineh, Karnameh and Bokhara, where he apparently wrote satires about literature but usually managed to mock the cultural policy and ideology of the Islamic regime as well. Once, Dehnamaki, a leader of Ansar Hezbollah pro-leader pressure group, even accused him of “insulting theProphet Adam” in a satire. 57 Manuchehr Ehterami, another prominent satirist, poet and satire scholar, died in 2009 at sixty-seven. He wrote both prose and verse satires in Towfigh from the age of severteen, wrote humorous scripts for Radio Iran in the 1970’s, and was always one of best satirists of Gol Agha until its last issue. Through his fluency in Persian literature, he created several satiric styles over half a century. For instance, in a series of poems under the name “Jame-ol Hekayat” (Comprehensive Anecdotes), Ehterami applied the style of Persian mystical poetry and seemingly wise anecdotes to the criticism of recent political and social issues. He was also a famous children’s poet and his Hasani Nagoo Ye Daste Gol, published in the early 1980s, is a classic. 58 Internet World Stats, accessed 25 January 2012, from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/me/ir.htm. 59 According to authoritative sources, Iran is highly ranked for the number of internet users in the Middle East but has one of the worst rankings in the world for quality of connection (price, speed, freedom of access).. An online status report of speed of internet access can be seen on: http://netindex.com/download/allcountries/ . This gives 1.24 Mbps for Iran, ranking it 158 out of 172 countries, at time of writing ( 27 January 2012). Some in fficial reports in Iran reported the same(see a report in Persian, Afta. “Iran Az Nazar-E Sorat-E Internet Dar Radif-E Kam Sorattarin Keshvarhaye Jahan Gharar Darad [Iran in One of the Worst Countries Regarding Speed on Access to Internet].” At: http://aftabnews.ir/vdcc1sqss2bq1e8.ala2.html.)
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The potential to be outside the country but connected with audiences inside is perhaps the most important facility provided by the internet to those who address an Iranian audience. Of the famous political satirists, Ebrahim Nabavi (http://nabavionline.com60) and Hadi Khorsandi (http://hadi2000.com61) were the first to establish their own humorous websites early in the 2000s to connect directly with their audiences. Settling in Belgium in 2003, Nabavi continued his political satire on Persian websites including Gooya news, BBC Persian, Deutsche Welle, Entekhab, and Radio Zamaneh, with the most reliable since 2005 being his daily satirical column on Roozonline.com.. He also made political satirical TV and radio programs for Persian Voice of America (VOA) TV and for Radio Zamaneh.
Nikahang Kowsar left Iran a few months after Nabavi. He emigrated to Canada and published political cartoons on Iranian and occasionally non-Iranian websites. Like Nabavi, Kowsar has worked for Roozonline.com, and since June 2004 has run a Persian- language weblog (http://nikahang.blogspot.com/). From 2006 to 2009, he wrote and performed a political humorous radio program named “Kalaghestoon” (Crowland) for Radio Zamaneh three times a week. Later he too launched a political website, khodnevis.org, featuring political satire and cartooning.
Mana Neyestani fled to Malaysia where he began publishing his cartoons on the Radio Zamaneh website. His works, mostly black and white with a specially aesthetic take on political issues, soon drew attention.62 He also created a series of cartoons about a characteristically Iranian family named “Khanevade-ye Dargir ( The Involved Family)”. This series has appeared on the Mardomak news website since 2009.63 Numerous other political satirists living both in Iran and outside have sought greater freedom for publishling their works by establishing weblogs or personal websites. These include Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour, Abolfazl Zaruee, Afshin Sabooki, Roya Sadr, Jalal Samiee, Touka Neyestani, Mahmud Farjami, Vahid Nikgoo, Ebrahim Raha, Ali Mirfattah, and Alireza Rezaee.
60 No longer available, replaced by: http://enabavi.com 61 No longer available, replaced by: http://asgharagha.com 62 Acollection of Mana’s cartoons on Radio Zamaneh is at: http://www.radiozamaneh.com/zamtoon. 63 A collection of Mana’s cartoons on Madomak in at: http://www.mardomak.org/cartoons.
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Laughing within the Trojan Horse: Injecting Satire into the Serious Press
Another notable development was the injection of humor into the serious press. According to the Iranian Press Law, papers may cover one or a few more fields but must announce their specific field/s on the front page of every issue.64 Satire is one such field. Therefore, a paper with a license that does not mention “satire” cannot feature satire or humor. On the other hand, given the restrictions humor and satire, hardly any licenses for this field have been issued. Accordingly, some innovative ways have been tried to apply satirical content in papers with a license in fields other than satire. Chief examples of this approach are Tavana and Chelcheragh.
Tavana, a serious weekly, changed its form and content after 1998-1999, and by the time its closing-down in 2000, it was a popular social and political comic strip weekly that also published some serious essays. By then, cartoonist Jamal Rahmati had gathered some younger pioneering cartoonists by along with prominent cartoonists like Kiarash Zandi, Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour, Nikahang Kowsar, Ali Derakhshi and Mana Neyestani, who worked both as cartoonists and as journalists and editors for the weekly.
Tavana was closed by the judiciary in late 2000 after it published a front page cartoon of then President Khatami by Hosseinpour. Though this was a supportive image, and neither Khatami nor any other reformist complained about it, Tavana was banned by the judiciary on charges of “insulting the clergy”. The cartoon showed President Khatami, who was preparing for his election for a second term, without his usual clerical habit (robe and turban), seated on a chair supported by the people, repeating a verse from the famous Persian poet Rumi: “I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way”. Hosseinpour’s signature appeared under the picture.65
64 In chapter 4, article 7, note B of the Press Law, specifies that to publish contents in fields different from the field for which the publisher has a license is a crime (a full version of the Law (Ghanun-e Mat’buat) is available at: http://www.magiran.com/article.asp?AID=34). See also a critical review of this part of the Press Law in: Mohsen Esmaili, “Hoghough va Vazayef-e Darandeye Mozavvez [Rights and Duties of a License Holder]”, Rasaneh Quarterly 7, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 53-60.
65 In July 2003, two years after the closing of Tavana, the publisher Iraj Rastgar, was imprisoned after being summonsed to court (“Modir Masoole Hafteh-nameye Tavana Bazdasht Shod [Editor-in-Chief of Banned Weekly Tavana Arrested],"”2003).
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In June 2002, Chelcheragh, a new magazine for Iranian youth, was published under the management of the reformist Fereydoon Amoozadeh Khalili.. It called its audience
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“Nasle Sevvom (Third Generation)”, those born after the 1979 revolution, generally in the 1980s. Amoozadeh and his young colleagues injected humor into almost all content instead of having a traditional separate section for humor. They intended it still to be a serious magazine with content in subjects like technology, history, literature, politics, and youth culture, but almost all accompanied by playfulness and humor. For example, not only did Hosseinpour draw cartoons for the final page every week, but Akbarpour also wrote his scientific essays about computers and technology with a humorous tone. The experiment was successful and soon Chercheragh became one of the most widely- circulated magazines in Iran. The “mixed” style became popular and was imitated by other publications. A few years later, Hamshahri Javan (Hamshahri for Youth), one of the papers funded by the municipality of Tehran, after trying unsuccessfully to become more popular, applied precisely this style and quickly flourished Although Chelcheragh was banned in November 2010, it later re-opened.
Conclusion: Satires, Horrors and Hopes in the 2000s
Political satire is often one of the first targets of a press crackdown attempting to limit political freedom, due to its critical examination of power and authority. From this point of view, political satire can be seen as a barometer of freedom of speech in Iran. In the Iranian press,it suffered great setbacks during the decade reviewed here. Of the very few license holders, none were able to publish a humorous or satirical paper for long, and only one humorous monthly, Tanz Va Caricature, was published continuously. Gol Agha, the most prominent satirical publication of the time, was closed by its own publisher. Very few the satiric political columns survived. The new Press Law, passed in the spring of 2000, facilitated the arrest and punishment of satirists as well other journalists and press related writers. Many of the best political satirists and cartoonists left Iran for other countries and many became jobless. At least four satirists (Kowsar in 2000, Nabavi in 2001, Neyestani in 2006, and Heidari in 2009) were detained and some of the most influential Persian satirists died druing these years.
In cyber space, by contrast, political satire boomed. It was the only segment of the Iranian media where independent journalism had an opportunity to develop.. Almost all
33 the satirists who left the country continued publishing their works in various electronic media, taking advantage of increased freedom to be explicit in their criticism. In particular, Nabavi and Kowsar began to take Khomeini and Khamenei, the two Supreme Leaders of the Islamic Regime of Iran, as their subjects, thus breaking a taboo of more than 30 years standing.
Given severe political repression in this decade, some kinds of non-political satire in the Iranian media matured, particularly the work of a young generation of satirists that deserves separate study. Further studies are also needed of Iranian political satire in alternative media (online, visual, etc.), as well as more background on the history of Iranian journalism, cultural studies and Persian literature. The prominent role of satire in the literature, journalism, politics, folklore and culture of Iran makes such a project worthwhile.
Acknowledgment:
I am grateful to all academic colleagues and satirists especially Mana Neyestani and Hadi Heidari whose comments on an earlier draft helped improve the quality of this article, as well as to professors Dr Jessica Milner Davis and Dr Hossein Shihidi for their valuable comments and careful editing assistance.
Note:
For a sample of Persian political satire in English in late 2009, see Letter to Hussein, by Ebrahim Nabavi at Tehranbureau website, accessible on: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/11/letters-to-hussein-iran- has-changed.html#ixzz1keUNhjFp
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