Who Is The Cartoonist?

It was heart wrenching taking leave of Zunar at the airport in December following the Amnesty street action. Fadi Abou Hassan/FadiToOn and I saw him walk away. We were both silent. Zunar is as courageous as his struggle is dangerous and seeing him in the crowds underlined the magnitude of what he does in spite of his human, exhausted frame. He looked so tiny in the buzz of the airport.

His court case in which he is risking 43 years of imprisonment for nine tweets "violating the Sedition Act" was postponed to March 9 and we shall see of what carat the legal system proves to be. The carat of the prime minister's wife's ring is invariably to be found in every one of Zunar's cartoons, as are the tweeting police officer neglecting the actual criminals to investigate those criticizing the criminals.

Zunar, Ban the Truth, February 26, 2016.
Please help share this drawing as widely as possible
in support of Zunar.

Zunar's audience expects and demands the ring and the tweeting officer in every cartoon; every time telling that very story on centralized corrupted power and yet every time a new tale. Such as The Maharaja, or rather Najib as the Marahajib, where a new symbol is added in: The press licking the power, proving how charged with energy symbols are in the words of Christiane Taubira in Murmures a la jeunesse. Symbols unite and thus their function is a social one just as they possess an ethical dimension, in her words.

In fact a definition, which just as well could be used to describe the cartoonist, a creator of unifying symbols, making them come alive, whereby a critical sense is nurtured. Below is a manifest on the cartoonist by Fadi Abou Hassan/FadiToOn in his words on Zunar: "I shall never forget his sweet smile":

Zunar, Maharajib, February 23, 2016.
Please help share this drawing as widely as possible
in support of Zunar.

Who Is The Cartoonist?

BY FADI ABOU HASSAN/FadiToOn

The cartoonist is a human who registers the political and social inconsistency of life in the world.

The cartoonist is a biased person in defending human suffering. Her/his pen is the voice of voiceless people, who suffer in our world. (S)he is a person, who draws to defend life and love.

The cartoonist is a human, who believe in freedom and social justice. (S)he is a human, who has broken the scissors of censorship inside her/himself to break all taboos and restrictions by her/his pen.

The cartoonist is a person, who has nothing but her/his heart and her/his pen in this life.

(S)he is a person, who sacrifices her/his life to freedom, equity, justice of all people in the world. (S)he could be the Palestinian cartoonist, Naji Al Ali, who was killed in London in 1987 or (S)he could be Ali Ferzat, the Syrian cartoonist whose fingers were broken in 2011. And last but not least, the five French cartoonists of CHARLIE HEBDO, who were killed in the Paris attack – Charb, Cabu, Wolinski, Tignous and Honoré last January 2015.

The cartoonist is a person, who always says "to be or not to be" in his war against dictatorship, terrorism and extremism.