You’ve got to admit, despite whatever petty problems we may have in our world at the moment, you know, things like petrol prices, the dishwasher being full of clean things when you want to load it up, governments being a bit annoying – that kind of thing. At the end of the day, it could be so much worse. For instance, take Iran, they do a variety of things that give one pause. For example, only the other day Mahmoud Shokraye drew conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani as a caricature playing football. It didn’t look any different from something you might get street side in a holiday destination.
Apparently though, Mr Ashtiani took offense at being depicted as a chubby football player and he complained, as a result Mr Shokraye was given 25 lashes.
25 LASHES! They flogged a man for drawing a cartoon?! Good grief, we’ve got political cartoons in the newspapers all the time, we had Spitting Image for goodness sakes and they scourged a man for drawing this:
What kind of a world do we live in where countries are allowed to flog political satirists? That must be so terrifying, living in a place like that, being utterly terrified of expressing yourself creatively for fear of reprisal.
It certainly makes me appreciate the liberty in which we live right now, for all of our problems, at least we can draw pictures of whomever we like and take the mickey out of people if we want to without breaking the law. I’m grateful for that.
Jack Knight Graphics 