Touka Neyestani’s Yearbook Nowroz 1393 taught me to protest in silence. He did not grow up A Conversation With Touka Neyestani in the Neyestani family, but he shared my father’s Ala Mohseni dark view of the world. In those heated days of our As a cartoonist, you have achieved revolution, I became eager to follow the footsteps a style that is truly your own. I of Goya and had this childish dream that perhaps, imagine your father, Manouchehr, someday, I would publish a collection of my work, was a big influence. With his art with the same power and punch as Goya’s work, one encounters the same Los Caprichos and the Disasters of War. Once I bitter irony, the same allegorical reached mental maturity, of course, I realized that black and white atmosphere. Can somebody like me could never reach the level of an you tell us about other influences artist like Goya. Nevertheless, I still wish to have and how your work took shape? work as good as his. This motivates me to continue I owe my interest in media and my dark and ironic working. worldview to my father. Whatever talent I have for Your brother Mana’s work is more explicitly social and drawing comes from him as well. He was a poet, political, while yours almost always retains a poetic but sometimes he sketched something quickly on ambiguity. In your own view, what distinguishes the the margins of his notebook. He breathed the air of art of Touka Neyestani from that of Mana Neyestani? the same allegorical black and white world that you Maybe the biggest difference is that Mana started mentioned – and we had to breathe it too. I grew work a few years after the revolution. Our father up in that environment, and just as I was about to died very early on, so Mana does not have many lay a foundation for my career, I was confronted by memories of him and did not get to know much a revolution. I decided to sit at home and browse about the way he thought. As a result, he found other through magazines. I came to know the work inspirations. I think Hergé and his Adventures of of Ardeshir Mohasses and Irandokht Mohasses. Tintin series has had the most influence on Mana. Ardeshir represented a bridge between the two I am scared of drawing something simple that worlds of caricature and painting, while Irandokht can be grasped too quickly. I have this unjustified showed me the modern cartoon. fear, and a need to distance myself from the art of It was, however, the painter Francisco Goya who painting – and from Francisco Goya. Yet I am still Nowroz 1393 Touka's Yearbook 3 very attached to the world of painting. When my sure that I have lived through all those years. or break traffic regulations – even if my choice you to present all aspects of your work to a wider long-time wish to produce a good book is fulfilled, Your reasons for leaving Iran and emigrating to leads me to hell and eternal damnation. audience. Have you ever thought of writing short I plan to start working with color. Maybe I can Canada and comments that you had grown “tired Many of us who have thrown caution to the wind stories or novels? Do you write poetry? If so, can we create two paintings as beautiful as Goya’s “The of living like a criminal” met with considerable used to work in Iran not so long ago. We were more publish a poem here? Nude Maja” and “The Clothed Maja”. The Francisco media attention. Are you nostalgic for anything, or less aware of the restrictions imposed on us but The truth is I am not a writer and don’t have the Goya inside me does not know that he is dead and like the Iranian yogurt drink doogh, or do you had no intention of leaving. But now we are living experience to become one. Writing is very difficult that he looks over Hergé from above. still prefer Pepsi Cola? In a way, you have also gone in a different world with different requirements. for me. From the very first sentence I start to Touka's Yearbook Touka's 4 You started your professional work in 1979 with through a second emigration, from print to online In the West, if an Iranian actress wants to carry correct, change and move around words, which is the weekly publication The Book of Friday, edited publications. How has this influenced and changed on her work, she has to take off her clothes if the time-consuming and exhausting. by Ahmad Shamloo, and have worked at a number your work? situation requires her to do so. Reason dictates But if you insist, I will timidly present you with of other publications. In many ways, the history of Before leaving Iran, I made a list of things I would that if the Iranian authorities don’t want an actress a few vulgar lines, the same kind of verse sung this period can be told through your career. Can you miss and those I would not. On the very first day of to leave the country, they must ease restrictions. In proudly and loudly by famous signers: comment on this? emigration, I missed things I was supposed to miss. the same vein, if an expatriate journalist wants to What is life except to sometimes laugh loudly I don’t know if my drawings successfully tell that The yogurt drink was not one of them, but I have continue his work in the West, he must remove his Giggle, chuckle and snicker proudly story or not, but I believe they express the emotions yet to miss things I did not like in the first place. I mask just as the actress does, and exhibit his naked What is life except to munch grass of people like me who lived through those years. am very logical in this regard. I like nostalgia – it is views to the public. This is the main difference, In comfort with a friend who is an ass I have always tried to have a little optimism and an important subject for me. I love Iran. But what and it has had an impact on some of my drawings What is life except to wash dishes hope for a better future somewhere in my work, I love more is to be able to be Touka Neyestani and since emigration. Putting balm on a heart filled with broken wishes. though once in a while I have failed to do this. to know I will be able to be myself in years to come. Pushing writers into exile is an old ploy [used by [Note from Touka Neyestani: The rest of the poem For 35 years I worked with publications that were I don’t want to be forced to pretend to believe in the regime] to sever the writer from their public. was omitted to prevent further shame.] shut down one by one, or ten by ten, and this has things in which I don’t believe. I want to be able But now the internet has built a major roadblock What is next for you? Do you have any work in filled my life with a sense of foreboding that I don’t to choose which people I address as “sir”. I want to in front of those who try to use this trick. There is progress? think will go away anytime soon. Despite this read books I choose to read and go to gatherings I no doubt that, after emigrating to digital media, I hope to find the time and the patience to write a feeling of bitterness, however, each of my drawings want to go to. I like to have my say without fearing my audience has changed and become more select. book about my emigration and my life in Canada remind me of the moment I was drawing them judgment by and punishment from others. I like Our communication is alive and ongoing and I and illustrate it. And, as with every year that and the people and the events surrounding those that I can have weak points and make mistakes. I hope it will expand as time goes by. passes, I still live in hope that I will be able publish moments. Sometimes when the time passes too want to have the right to choose my own lifestyle, The Saint Touka website is extremely popular and, a book resembling those by Francisco Goya. quickly, I rummage through my archive to make as long as I do not trample on other people’s rights through it and your Facebook page, it’s easier for Nowroz 1393 Touka's Yearbook 5 My Political Platform by Dr. Bagher Lankarani (Edited Version) Dr. Bagher Lankarani was health minister under former President Ahmadinejad and a hardline candidate in the 2013 presidential election. Before he withdrew his candidacy to support former nuclear negotiator and conservative ally Saeed Jalili, he told a group of medical students in Mashhad that he had sent a draft of his political platform to the fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi for guidance and Touka's Yearbook Touka's 6 suggestions. He promised to publish a revised version of the platform following Yazdi’s advice. Presidential Election Nowroz 1393 Touka's Yearbook 7 Mostafa Pourmohammadi: 25 Years On Hassan Rouhani, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, currently justice minister under President Rouhani, has faced criticism According to Touka from human rights groups over his involvement in the execution of thousands of political prisoners Hassan Rouhani: “We in 1998.