Cartooning: The Art of Danger

Kianoush Ramezani: Cartooning; The Art of Danger in IRAN, March 16, 2014.

Last night Kianoush Ramezani gave a TEDx Talk in The Hague unfolding his definition of the cartoonist as an activist. The cartoonist is an observer of society, who explains and expresses his or her opinions freely. Kianoush knows only too well from his own life when that is not the case, which he tells of here - adding the need to guarantee the safety of the cartoonist after the fact too, after his or her having spoken out:






Kianoush is himself the very example of an activist. He is an organizer, personally taking initiatives and seeing each of them through. There are the direct means to secure his colleagues, giving them a voice through curating exhibitions and creating organizations, which overlook their safety, while he on the other hand has warned about the dangers of islamists in Tunisia and Egypt and their involvement in the social media. All of it on the two sides of his being forced into exile.

The very definition of a cartoonist.

- The delicacy of the only just sprouted against the rope of silence.
While Kianoush did not take part in the green revolution of the young Iranians in 2009,
it was fighting for their right to speak up, which forced him to leave his country.

The social media are the crucial sources to interact as Kianoush underlines with the conclusion: Secure society needs activists and activists need to be promoted in their social networks. The plan to do so is being drawn up...


The cartoons shown are courtesy of Kianoush and must not be reproduced without his permission.