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Political Satire as an Index of Press

Freedom: A Review of Political Satire in
the Iranian Press during the 2000s
Mahmud Farjami
Published online: 02 Jan 2014.

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To cite this article: Mahmud Farjami (2014) Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom: A
Review of Political Satire in the Iranian Press during the 2000s, Iranian Studies, 47:2, 217-239, DOI:
10.1080/00210862.2013.860325

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 Iranian Studies, 2014
Vol. 47, No. 2, 217–239, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2013.860325

Mahmud Farjami

Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom: A Review of Political Satire

in the Iranian Press during the 2000s

Political satire has had a prominent part to play in the social and political sphere of
journalism in Iran since the appearance of an independent press in the country at the
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beginning of the twentieth century. This paper examines the problems of political satire
in the Iranian press during the 2000s with respect to their historical context during
the past century. The paper argues that, addressing the essential relationship between
satire and criticism, and the primary role that criticism has in the freedom of press,
what happened to political satire and satirists in Iran can be seen as an index of the
freedom of the press and journalistic expression for an era.

The appearance of political satire in the Iranian press came fast on the heels of Ira-
nians becoming familiar with modern concepts of “politics” and the concept of
“the press” itself. In just three years after the Department of Censorship (Edareye
Sansour) was established by Etemad Al-Saltaneh (1843–96) by the order of Nasered-
din Shah in February of 1885 to maintain tight control over all publications inside the
country as well as those delivered from outside, one newspaper with a wholly satirical
content was registered with the government. Shahsavan, a Persian magazine, was pub-
lished in Istanbul in 1306/1888 and secretly posted to subscribers in Iran.1
But political satire first officially appeared in the Iranian press during Mozafareddin
Shah Qajar’s reign (1896–1907) when the first non-state papers were permitted to be
published. However, as Aryanpour points out, effective political satire in the Iranian
press was only published after the early twentieth century, particularly under the influ-
ence of Molla Nasreddin, a satirical political and social weekly written in Azeri
Turkish, published from 1906 until 1917 in Tiblisi, in 1921 in Tabriz, and from

Mahmud Farjami is an Iranian satirist, journalist, and PhD candidate in the School of Communi-
cation, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Farjami is grateful to all academic colleagues and satirists, especially
Mana Neyestani and Hadi Heidari, and the anonymous reviewer whose comments have helped
improve the quality of this article, as well as Dr Hossein Shahidi of Iranian Studies for his valuable com-
ments and careful assistance with editing.
1
Edward G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, (Cambridge, 1983), 106.
© 2013 The International Society for Iranian Studies
 218 Farjami

1922 to 1931 in Baku.2 Although political satire was a very modern phenomenon
along with the modern concept of “politics” itself, very soon political satirists took
on an important role in creating political awareness and promoting the Constitutional
Revolution of 1905–7. Some of the most prominent and effective journalists and acti-
vists of that era, like Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, Seyed Ashrafeddin Hosseini Qazvini (also
known as Ashraf Gilani), Adib-ol Mamalek-e Farahani (Amiri), Mirza Aqa Khan
Kermani, and Mirza Malkam Khan chose satire to convey their political messages
to audiences, in prose and verse. Furthermore, by this time there were several
Persian newspapers with wholly satirical content (text and caricature) such as Tolu-
e Mosavar, Azarbayjan, Shabnameh, Hasharat-ol Arz, Estebdad, Bohloul, Jangal-e
Mowla, Jarchi-ye Mellat, and Sheida, and Nasim-e Shomal which critiqued political
and social issues.3
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S ̣our-e Esrafil, a serious newspaper with some satirical content, was one of the most
popular, perhaps the most popular, newspaper of the time.4 Its success was due chiefly
to Dehkhoda’s caustic and satirical column “Charand-o Parand” (Balderdash).
Without indulging in the invective and personal attacks characteristic of other colum-
nists, Dehkhoda was able to deflate the court and the conservative clergy with his lively
wit. Nasim-e Shomal (Northern Breeze) was one of the most influential satirical news-
papers, publishing political verses almost always written by its publisher, Seyed Ashra-
feddin Qazvini.
Both Dehkhoda and Qazvini were influenced particularly by Jalil Mohammad
Qolizadeh and Ali Akbar Saber, two prominent satirists of Molla Nasreddin.5 Most
of these newspapers, except Nasim-e Shomal, disappeared before the beginning of
the First World War (1914).
From this time until the beginning of Reza Shah’s reign in 1925, political satire
existed in the press, though there were fewer satirical newspapers than before. Particu-
larly after the coup in 1921 that elevated Reza Khan to Sardar Sepah (commander of
army) and then prime minister, criticism became increasingly difficult and dangerous,
but still some of the most influential political critique was published in the form of
satire. The most controversial subject was Reza Khan’s idea for replacing the monar-
chy with a republic, which had both strong advocates and opponents. Nasim-e Saba,
published by Hossein Kuhi-ye Kermani, which supported the monarchy, and Nahid,

2
Yahya Aryanpour, Az Saba Ta Nima [From Saba to Nima] (Tehran, 2008) 2: 39–105. Kasravi also
̣
points out how Molla Nasreddin was particularly influential, for its editorial opinion was cloaked in verse
and easily understood humorous anecdotes (Ahmad Kasravi, Mashruteh (Tehran, 2007) 3: 194).
3
Hassan Javadi, Tarikh-e Tanz Dar Adabiyat-e Farsi [Satire in Persian literature] (Tehran, 2005),
195–9.
4
“It [Sur-e Esrafil] is reckoned one of the best of the Persian papers, old and new, and in particular the
comic or satirical portion, entitled Charand Parand (‘Charivari’), is the best specimen of literary satire in
Persian.” Edward G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (Cambridge, 1983), 116.
5
See Aryanpour, Az Saba Ta Nima, 2: 39–105, for a comparison between some Turkish prose and
verse in Molla Nasreddin and similar prose and verse in Persian in Sur-e Esrafil and Nasim-e Shomal
that show the deep influence of Molla Nasreddin on Iranian newspapers.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 219

published by Mirza Ebrahim Nahid, which supported the republic, were two of the
most famous papers battling via satire.
Some believe the piece that fostered the most negative public opinion about Reza
Kahn’s “republic” was a satirical long-form poem, Jomhuri Nameh (Letter of Repub-
lic), published under the name of a well-known liberal poet, Mirzadeh Eshqi, in the
spring of 1924, a few months before Reza Khan left the idea of the republic
behind.6 Eshqi harshly satirized him and the republic in prose, verse and caricature
in his newspaper, Qarn-e Bistom (Twentieth Century) and was found murdered a
few days later, on 3 July 1924.
Political satire or criticism was rarely published in the Iranian press during the reign
of Reza Shah (1925–41) and the few publications in print like Arjang, Nasim-e
Shomal, Gol-e Zard, and Nahid kept away from oppositional political journalism.7
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With the occupation of Iran by the Allies in the summer of 1941, Reza Shah was
replaced by his young son, Mohammad Reza. In the political chaos 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,
1941–47, shows that the number of press outlets suddenly rose from around fifty to
464 and that nine of these were fully or partly satirical.8 Among them were new pub-
lications like Hardambil, Baba Shamal, Qalandar, and Yoyo, while others had pub-
lished previously with interruptions. In addition Chelengar, Haji Baba, Luti, Shab
Cheragh, Nushkhand, and Dad-o-Bidad were published from 1948 to 1953. Chelen-
gar, established by Mohammad Ali Afrashteh in 1951, was the most prominent pol-
itical journal of the era. Being banned after twelve issues, it was continued under other
names (Jajrud, Shabcheragh, Rangin Kaman, Arzesh-e Kar) until the coup in June
1953.
Iran’s freedom of the press was severely curtailed after the coup against Prime Min-
ister Masaddeq in August 1953, and did not recover until the end of the shah’s reign at
the start of 1979. But political satire was still a presence in the Iranian press, with even
better quality, especially in the weekly, Towfiq, which was banned after the 1953
coup.9 Published in a new incarnation in the spring of 1958 by members of the foun-

6
See Mohammad Ghaed, Eshqi: Simaye Najib-e Yek Anarshist [Eshqi: the portrait of a noble anar-
chist] (Tehran, 2001). Ghaed believes this prominent poem cannot have been written by Eshqi alone,
and probably Mohammad Taqi Bahar, the then well-known poet and MP, helped him or maybe
wrote the whole of Jomhouri Nameh, but it was published under the name of Eshqi with his agreement.
7
Hassan Javadi, Tarikh-e Tanz Dar Adabiyat-e Farsi [Satire in Persian literature] (Tehran, 2005),
204–5.
8
L.P. Elwell-Sutton, “The Iranian Press, 1941–1947,” Iran 6 (1968): 65–104.
9
Towfiq was published for the first time in Tehran by Hossein Towfiq, in 1922. In 1933, Towfiq cele-
brated twelfth anniversary of its publication. Towfiq appeared without any interruption until the death of
its manager, in February 1940. The license of the newspaper was then transferred to Hossein Towfiq’s
son, Mohammad Ali (Mohammad Sadr Hashemi, Tarikh-e Jarayed va Majallat-e Iran [The history of
the press in Iran] (Esfahan, 1949), 2: 144–7). Following the coup in 1953, Mohammad Ali Towfiq
was arrested and the newspaper was closed down. After a while, the license of Towfiq was transferred
to Mohammad Ali’s three nephews, Hassan, Hossein, and Abbas Towfiq (the Towfiq brothers), who
published it in 1959.
 220 Farjami

der’s family known as the Towfiq Brothers (Hassan, Hossein, and Abbas), the news-
paper soon again became popular and attracted a roster of the best and brightest satir-
ists and cartoonists, including Abolqasem Halat, Abbas Forat, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Parviz
Khatibi, and young writers who became famous later like Manouchehr Mahjoubi,
Hadi Khorsandi, Omran Salahi, Manouchehr Ehterami, and Kiumars Saberi
Foumani, as well as cartoonists Kambiz Derambakhsh and Naser Pakshir (along
with Hassan Towfiq who drew most of the cartoons for Towfiq). In 1971, when
Towfiq was banned—probably by the order of Prime Minister Amir Abbas
Hoveyda,10 who was the most common target of Towfiq’s political satire—Towfiq
was the most famous and important satirical newspaper in Iran, and its few competi-
tors, such as Kashkiyat (the satirical supplement of the weekly Tehran Mosavar) and
Caricature, never could attain its circulation and popularity.
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Following the 1979 Revolution in Iran, a rare opportunity for freedom of the press
was provided, commonly referred to as Bahar-e Azadi (The Spring of Freedom),
during which the satirical press flourished, too. Roya Sadr lists more than thirty sati-
rical journals which began publication between March and September of 1979, when
the first wave of press closures occurred.11 Among them were revived journals from the
past such as Haji Baba, Bohlul, and Chelengar, which were now being published again.
Chelengar, which was renamed Ahangar after a few issues,12 edited by Manuchehr
Mahjubi, became the most famous satirical magazine of the time, reaching a circula-
tion of 150,000 copies.13
Satirical columns in serious newspapers were also popular, particularly Hadi Khor-
sandi’s column in the daily, Kayhan, which appeared on 10 March 1979, less than a
month after the Revolution. Faced with protests and attacks, the column soon stopped
and Khorsandi left Iran.14
Ahangar was the first casualty of the new press law after the Revolution, and was
closed down just one day after Prime Minister Bazargan’s interim government
announced a press law on 7 August 1979. There were then several attacks on the inde-
pendent publications and finally all satirical papers were closed down by 1981, one
year after beginning of the Iran–Iraq war (1980–88). From the beginning of 1980
some of Iran’s most prominent political satirists went into exile, publishing Persian
political satire overseas, such as Asghar Agha by Hadi Khorsandi and Ahangar by
Manuchehr Mahjoubi in London, and Haji Baba by Parviz Khatibi in New York.
Most published irregularly and stopped after only a few years, except for Asghar Agha.

10
Hossein and Abbas Towfiq, interviews with the author in 2009, and Farideh Towfiq, Ruznameh-ye
Towfiq va Kaka Towfiq [Towfiq newspaper and Kaka Towfiq] (Tehran, 2005), 191–6.
11
Roya Sadr, Bardasht-e Akhar: Negahi Beh Tanz-e Emruz-e Iran [The last take: a review of recent
satire of Iran] (Tehran, 2006), 30–163.
12
Both names mean blacksmith. The reason for changing the name was protests by Afrashteh’s family,
against what they regarded as “abuse” of Chelengar and Afrashteh’s name. Mohammad Ali Afrashteh, the
publisher of Chelengar had died in 1959 in exile in Sofia, Bulgaria.
13
Roya Sadr, Bardasht-e Akhar: Negahi Beh Tanz-e Emruz-e Iran [The last take: a review of recent
satire of Iran] (Tehran, 2006), 48.
14
Hadi Khorsandi, The Ayatollah and I (London, 1987), ii.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 221

The monthly Towfiqiyun (the Towfiqians), renamed Fokahiyun (Humorists) after a

few issues,15 was the first satirical journal to appear after the big press closures of the early
1980s. It published from the winter of 1983 until 1990 and avoided political satire,
particularly internal issues during the wartime. Another satirical monthly, Khorjin
(Carpetbag), was first published as a supplement of the monthly Keshavarz (Farmer)
in January 1986 and became a separate magazine from issue 27, after nearly two years.
Around the same time, political satire also appeared in the daily Ettela’at, one of the state
newspapers. It was “Do Kalameh Harf-e Hesab” (A Couple of Sensible Words), a satirical
social political column written by “Gol Agha” that began on 13 January 1985. Gol Agha
was the pseudonym of Kiumars Saberi, and his satire soon became popular. Saberi later
used the pseudonym for a satirical weekly for which he got the license in 1990. In
general, however, political satire in the Iranian press was very limited until the end of 1980s.
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By the start of the 1990s; marking one year since the end of the war and a few
months after the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini,
few licenses for satirical publications were being issued. The weekly Gol Agha and the
periodical Tanz Va Caricature were launched in 1991, and then the satirical papers
Javald uz, Derang, Kayhan Caricature, Tanz-e Farsi, Donya-ye Tanz, and Molavvan
got licenses to publish in the 1990s, though Javalduz was closed down after twelve
issues, Derang after two issues in 1991 and Molavvan after forty issues in 1994.
Gol Agha not only was the most prominent and popular satirical newspaper of the
entire decade but also an institute for training a younger generation in satire, some of
whom became the best satirists and cartoonists in the coming years.
Mohammad Khatami’s victory in the 1997 presidential election marked the begin-
ning of what came to be known as Bahar-e Matbou’at (the Press Spring), one of the
best eras for a free press in Iran that ended with the vast closure of publications in the
spring of 2000. In these years, discussed in more detail below, political satire flourished
and became more reckless and radical whether in form or content, particularly in sati-
rical columns in reformist newspapers.
This survey includes examples of political satire published in the legal print media of
Iran under license from the state during the 2000s along with additional examination
of alternatives such as cyber media. Also any analytical survey of political satire necessi-
tates discussion of the legal issues surrounding journalism in Iran.

Freedom of the Press in the 2000s

On one night of April 2000, similar official letters from the judiciary were delivered to
more than ten publishers of popular newspapers and magazines informing them that

15
In an interview with the author, the publisher and editor in chief of Fokahiyoun, Abolqasem Sadeqi,
said he had to change the name of the journal from Tofiqiyoun to Fokahiyuon under pressure of some
officials. See Mahmud Farjami, “Sotoun-e Panjom! Tanz-e Matbou’ati Ba’d Az Enqelab-e Eslami”
[Fifth column! Satire in the press after the Islamic Revolution], Kheradnameh no. 20 (November
2007): 36–7.
 222 Farjami

their publications had been banned. Within two weeks, sixteen publications had been
banned “until further notice” by Judge Saeed Mortazavi.16
A few days prior to this big closure in April 2000, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, had said that some newspapers had become “enemy bases,” and “10 or
15 newspapers” appeared “to be directed from the same centre,” with the aim of
“making the people pessimistic about the system.” He had described this as “journal-
istic charlatanism,” which did not exist even in the West.17
This was one of several threatening proclamations by Ayatollah Khamenei
against the reformist press which had proliferated since 1997. President Khatami’s
first year in office saw the number of publications in Iran rise to more than 850,
with total circulation exceeding 2 million copies a day.18 By May 1999, the number
of newspapers in the country had reached 930 with a total circulation of 2.7
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million copies.19
During this period, Ayatollah Khamenei himself repeatedly warned against a “cul-
tural offensive by the West.” Meanwhile, the judiciary, whose head had been
appointed by the supreme leader, closed down reformist popular presses like
Jameah, Bonyad, Tous, Neshat, and Salam and imprisoned some famous reformist
journalists like the publisher Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, the editor Mashallah Sham-
solvaezin, and the 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
the freedom to “not only criticize the President frequently, but also the Supreme
Leader.”20
By the second term of the Khatami presidency in 2001, although the reformists
were dominant in the government and held a majority in Majles (until early 2004),
more than a hundred publications were closed down through judiciary’s edict follow-
ing repeated warnings by Ayatollah Khamenei, usually with no trials, and several
hundred journalists became jobless. According to official reports, while between the
fifth and the seventh Press Festivals (April 1998–August 2000), a total of thirty-
two newspapers had been closed down, and 1,450 journalists and other members of
staff had lost their jobs, by May 2001, the eighth Press Festival, twenty-three more

16
Association of Iranian Journalists, Daqdaqeh-ye Azadi [Angst for freedom] (Tehran, 2003), 201–2.
17
Matn-e Kamel-e Bayanat-e Maqam-e Moazzam-e Rahbari Dar Didar Ba Javanan Dar Mosalla-ye
Bozorg-e Tehran [The full text of the Supreme Leader’ speech in meeting with youth in the Great
Musalla of Tehran], April 20, 2000, http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php?p=bayanat&id=1897
(accessed October 29, 2012). Hossein Shahidi, “From Mission to Profession: Journalism in Iran,
1979–2004,” Iranian Studies 39, no. 1 (2006): 1–28.
18
Kazem Mo’tamednezhad, “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 Maj-
mou’eh Maqalat-e Dovomin Seminar-e Barresi-ye Masa’el-e Matbou’at-e Iran [Collection of articles pre-
sented 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 (2006): 1–28.
20
Mehdi Mohsenian-Rad, Rasaneh Quarterly 12, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 136–9.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 223

newspapers had been closed down. Seventeen journalists had also been imprisoned,
although some of them were later released.21 Also annual reports of Reporters Without
Borders on their website shows from April 2000 to April 2001 more than fifty pub-
lications (including twenty-four daily newspapers) were closed down in Iran.22 This situ-
ation even became worse when Mahmud Ahmadinejad became the next president in
2005 and appointed Hossein Saffar Harandi, the deputy editor of Kayhan, and also a
former officer of Sepah Pasdaran (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps), as minister of
culture and Islamic guidance, the organization which issues licenses to publishers
and supervises the press.
The decade ended with the presidential election on 12 June 2009, when Mr Ahma-
dinezhad was officially declared the winner, followed by huge protests against the
result and their bloody suppression, the greatest national political upheaval since
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the 1979 Revolution. A few days after the election, a new repression of the media
was underway through increased press closures and rampant arrests of journalist.
On 7 July 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described Iran as the
world’s top jailer of journalists, with at least thirty journalists in prison.23 Freedom
House, in its annual report of 2009, named Iran as one of the worst places for journal-
ists and press freedom with a rank of 181 among 195 countries,24 and in the 2009
Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index Iran ranked only above Eritrea,
North Korea, and Turkmenistan.25
From June 2009 to the end of year, more than ten papers were closed down,26
tens of journalists were arrested, and the Association of Iranian Journalists
(AOIJ) was banned on the same day as Ahmadinezhad’s inauguration at the
Majles.27 On 3 February 2010, CPJ reported “Iranian authorities are now holding
at least 47 journalists in prison, more than any single country has imprisoned
since 1996.”28

21
For more details and statistics until 2004 see Hossein Shahidi, “From Mission to Profession: Jour-
nalism in Iran, 1979–2004,” Iranian Studies 39, no. 1 (2006): 1–28.
22
Reporters Without Borders, “Iran Annual Report 2002,” http://en.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=
1438 (accessed October 30, 2012).
23
Committee to Protect Journalists’ website, “Iran Is World’s Top Jailer of Journalists,” http://www.
cpj.org/2009/07/iran-is-worlds-top-jailer-of-journalists.php (accessed October 5, 2012).
24
Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press 2009 Survey,” http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop/
2009/FreedomofthePress2009_tables.pdf (accessed October 5, 2012).
25
Reporters Without Borders, “World Press Freedom Index 2009—The Rankings,” http://en.rsf.org/
IMG/pdf/classement_en.pdf (accessed October 17, 2012).
26
Some Kalameh-ye Sabz, Etemad Melli, Seda-ye Edalat, Iran Dokht, Andisheh-ye Now, Hayat-e Now,
Hemmat, Sarmayeh, Etemad, Armane Ravabet-e Omumi, Farhang-e Ashti, and Hamshahri. The four
latter were allowed to be published again after some while.
27
Persian Deutsche Welle website, “Polomb-e Anjoman-e Senfi-ye Rooznameh Negaran Dar Rooz-e
Tahlif-e Ahmadinezhad” [Journalists Association was sealed off on the day of Ahmadinezhad’s inaugu-
ration], August 6, 2009, http://www.dw.de/‫ﺍﺣﻤﺪﯾﻨﮋﺍﺩ‬-‫ﺗﺤﻠﯿﻔ‬-‫ﺭﻭﺯ‬-‫ﺩﺭ‬-‫ﺭﻭﺯﻧﺎﻣﻬﻨﮕﺎﺭﺍﻧ‬-‫ﺻﻨﻔﯿ‬-‫ﺍﻧﺠﻤﻨ‬-‫ﭘﻠﻤﭙ‬//a-4546152-1
(accessed October 28, 2012).
28
Committee to Protect Journalists’ website, “With 47 Journalists in Jail, Iran Sets Notorious
Records,” February 3, 2010, http://cpj.org/2010/02/with-47-journalists-in-jail-iran-sets-notorious-re.
php (accessed October 5, 2012).
 224 Farjami

Political Satire in the Satirical Press

With the exception of a few short periods, newspaper publication in Iran has always
required a license from the state. Since 1837, when the first, official Persian language
Iranian newspaper was published until the Constitutional Revolution in 1906, for
nearly seventy years, all Persian language newspapers in Iran were owned or supervised
by the government. In this era a license to publish a newspaper usually required the
shah’s personal signature.29
In early 1907, the Ministry of Publications, which had been established by the order
of Nasereddin Shah in 1871, was abolished and part of its duties which concerned the
supervision of printing-houses and issuing of licenses for newspapers passed to the
Ministry of Sciences.30
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The first Iranian press law approved by the Majles in February 1908 was based on
the 29 July 1881 French Press Law that stressed general press freedom and prohibition
of press censorship and restrained the need for obtaining permission for the publi-
cation of newspapers. Nevertheless, ten 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 was limited and made contingent upon permission
obtained from the council. The restrictions were tightened during the reign of Reza
Shah (1925–41).31
After Reza Shah’s fall, an appropriate climate for freedom of the press arose and
newspapers could be published without permission from the government. This open-
ness 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 Part
of the Press Law, approved on 24 December 1942, in which the 1908 Press Law was
revised, publishers were required to obtain permission for the publication of newspa-
pers.32
In later laws, approved in February 1952 and August 1955, this obligation was pre-
served. Therefore, during the thirty-seven-year reign of Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, with the exception of a few years in the 1940s, Iranians needed to have a
license or permission to print newspapers.
At the fall of the shah’s regime in 1979, though there had been no new law saying
no license was needed, numerous newspapers were published without any permission
or license in the brief period of Bahar-e Azadi. But in August 1979, six months after
the victory of the Revolution, Prime Minister Bazargan’s interim government (12 Feb-
ruary 1979–6 November 1979) announced the requirement of a license from the
29
Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani, “Constitutional Revolution vi. The press,” Encyclopedia Iranica, VI, Fasc. 2:
202–12.
30
Seyed Farid Qasemi, Rahnamaye Matbou’at-e Iran: Asr-e Qajar [A glossary of the press in Iran: the
Qajar era] (Tehran, 1993), 28.
31
K. Mo’tamednezhad and N. Badii, “The Problems of Press Freedom in Iran: From the Consti-
tutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution,” in Religion, Law, and Freedom: A Global Perspective
(Westport, CT, 2000), 49.
32
Ibid., 56.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 225

Ministry of National Guidance to print press publications. This obligation was pre-
served in the two later press laws approved by the Majles in 1986 and 2000.33
Hence, since August 1979, in the Islamic Republic of Iran anyone wishing to
publish print media (newspapers, magazines or even scientific journals) has to apply
for a license from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
The field/topic area in which a publication is classified must be clear. Some are:
politics, sports, social, and satire, or tanz, although in recent times the term tanz
has been used to refer also to the concept of humor, or fokahi. The last Persian maga-
zine that used fokahi in its name was Fokahiyoun (Humorists), which was published in
the 1980s. Elsewhere, tanz has been to describe any kind of humor, even TV comedy
series, probably because the word has a positive implication, referring to literary values,
an intention of improvement, and social commitment. While one of the best political
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satirical magazines in the history of the Persian press, Towfiq, always described itself as
a “humorous paper” (Rouznameh-ye Fokahi), none of the satirical papers published
after 1990 in Iran has described itself as “humorous” (fokahi), instead using the
description “Satirical” (Tanz/Tanz-amiz). Therefore, although in this article satire
will be used for tanz as understood in English, it must be kept in mind there is
now a conceptual confusion between satire and humor in Persian.
During the 2000s, whether under the reformist President Khatami (1997–2005) or
the anti-reformist President Ahmadinezhad (since 2005), the Ministry of Culture and
Islamic Guidance rarely issued a license for a tanz (satiric/humorous) publication.
Instead, 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. Gol Agha’s publisher, Kioumars Saberi, always had influential friends among
the authorities, including the leader, Ali Khamenei. Saberi’s position even improved
when Khatami was elected president because of their long-term friendly relationship.
Therefore, Saberi’s announcement in 2002 that the Gol Agha weekly, the main maga-
zine of the Gol Agha group of publications,34 would cease publication on 24 October
came as a shock. Saberi died of cancer in 2004 and never did explain the reason for his
decision to close down Gol Agha. However, after his death Ebrahim Nabavi, the well-
known political satirist and the first executive director of Gol Agha, wrote that Saberi
“on the one hand was disappointed by the reformists’ way and on the other hand, he
was sure the Leader expected him to play a role that he didn’t want. For a long time, he
would get messages from security services that made him worried. For that, he closed
the paper down.”35

33
Ibid., 57–8.
34
The institute also published Monthly, Yearbook, and Bachcheha … Gol Agha (Kids … Gol Agha).
35
Ebrahim Nabavi, “Kiumars Saberi (Gol Aqa) Be Revayat-e Ebrahim Nabavi” [Kiumars Saberi (Gol
Aqa) in Ebrahim Nabavi’s words], BBC Persian, April 30, 2004, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/
story/2004/04/040430_pm-nabavi_saberi.shtml (accessed October 14, 2012). After Saberi’s death, his
only offspring, Poupak Saberi, who inherited the title, published the weekly as well as a new comic maga-
zine with the name Gol Agha Comic but was unsuccessful. Finally Poupak officially announced in January
2008 that Gol Agha institute would not publish any print media and would only be present on the Gol
Agha website (http://www.Golagha.ir).
 226 Farjami

Kayhan-e Caricature (Cartoon Kayhan), was a monthly publication that would

often publish professional cartoons by Iranians and non-Iranians accompanied by
essays and articles about the cartoons. Although Kayhan-e Caricature was one of
the journals published and funded by the state-owned Kayhan institute, Mohammad
Hossein Niroomand, the then chief editor of Kayhan-e Caricature, explained financial
issues and lack of government support as main reasons for its closure in 2003.36
In an apparently self-imposed action, Khorjin, Tanz-e Farsi, and Donyaye Tanz had
already closed down in 2000.37
Tanz Va Caricature (Satire and Cartoon) was the only humorous magazine pub-
lished on a national scale the whole of the first decade of the twenty-first century.
This monthly was published by the cartoonist, Hossein Alizadeh, from 1990, the
same year Gol Agha was published for the first time, but never achieved Gol Agha’s
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popularity. Critical political satire was rarely published in Tanz Va Caricature and
though he did not ban politics, Alizadeh preferred pieces from fields such as
cinema and football.
On a smaller scale, some satirical journals were published with limited success, like
Sotun-e Azad (Free Column), published by students at the University of Ferdowsi,
Mashhad. The monthly began as a black and white photocopied student journal in
2003, but gradually turned into a color newspaper with high-quality paper, print,
and content. It covered political subjects as well youth matters and was distributed
to many universities across the country. Sotun-e Azad claimed a readership of more
than 20,000 in the late 2000s, a record for a student journal in Iran.38

Political Satire in the Non-Satirical Press

As previously stated, satirical columns have existed as a venue for political writers in
the serious Iranian newspapers since the very early days of the free press in the
country. In fact, much of the best Persian satire in the modern era, particularly
during the Constitutional Revolution, was printed in mainstream newspapers.
Indeed, many prominent Iranian satirists like Dehkhoda, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Omran
Salahi, Manouchehr Mahjoubi, Hadi Khorsandi, Kiumars Saberi, Ebrahim Nabavi,
and Abolfazl Zaruee Nasrabad have written famous satirical columns in the serious
press.
From President Khatami’s election in 1997 until the crackdown on the media
in 2000, some of the best political satire was published in Persian newspapers and
magazines in a section titled sotun-e tanz (Satire Column). No doubt, the most pro-
minent and effective political satirist in those years was Ebrahim Nabavi, who wrote

36
ISNA, “Sardabir-e Nashriye-ye Kayhan-e Caricature Elale Tavaqqof-e Enteshar-e in Nashriye Ra
Tashrih Kard” [Editor-in-chief of Kayhan Caricature explained the reasons for closure], November 4,
2003, http://www.magiran.com/article.asp?AID=194 (accessed October 19, 2012).
37
Sadr, Bardasht-e Akher, 34.
38
The archives of Sotun-e Azad are available on its website: http://sotooneazad.ir/main/.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 227

political satire columns in popular reformist newspapers including Jameah, Toos,

Arya, Hayat-e Now, Neshat, Asr-e Azadegan, among many other publications, some-
times simultaneously. Nabavi wrote in various styles and forms applying a wide
range of techniques. Some of his most impressive works were parodies of the ideologi-
cal 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 “unrelated” to the leader. Soon Nabavi became an important colum-
nist whose satire was not only popular but also influenced the political sphere. His
fame and influence in the first year after Khatami’s election encouraged other news-
papers to establish satirical columns, though the radical anti-reformist state newspaper
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Kayhan had established a satirical column by May 1997. Though the then Press Law,
in the late 1990s, stated that only the license holder of a newspaper could be held
legally responsible and punished for the published content, Nabavi was arrested
twice for his satirical writings. The second arrest came soon after the Press Festival
on 7 August 2000, where he was named by the jury as the best satirist in the
Iranian press.
Nabavi was released after seven months of imprisonment on the charge of “insult-
ing the state authorities and the Islamic regime.” He apologized in court in front of
TV cameras in 2001, albeit in a humorous tone.39 After that he would write social
satire for moderate conservative newspapers such as the daily Jam-e Jam and the
biweekly Mehr, before leaving the country in April 2003.40
After 2000, a new dilemma was presented by the new Press Law, not just for satir-
ists, but for all whose work was published in the press. The new press law that was
passed by the conservative-dominated Majles during the last days of its term, on 26
April 2000, included holding responsible not only the publishers, but also individual
writers, for any offences caused by their work (Article 9, Note 7).41
Hence, following the spring of 2000, the relative freedom of the press experienced
from 1997 to 1999 was not repeated, nor was regime-challenging political satire seen
again in the official press. This does not, however, mean that political satire completely
disappeared in Iran.
Abolfazl Zaruee, a well-known creative political satirist wrote several columns for
various newspapers, the most popular being his satirical column in verse, Asl-e
Matlab (The Crux of the Matter), in Tehran Municipality’s daily, Hamshahri.42

39
Nabavi defended himself sometimes by sarcastic comments, particularly about one of his plaintiffs,
Hamid Reza Taraqqi, a former MP. He also told a few jokes which drew laughter from the judge, Saeed
Mortazavi, and others in the court. Defending himself, once he said “Mr. Taraqqi has sued me for naming
him ‘shameless’ (bi haya), I ask you, what can we call a man who sues people for just for a word?” See a
report of the trial in Nabavi’s book Salon-e Shomareye 6 [Hall No. 6] (Tehran, 2005), 290–302.
40
Nabavi’s autobiography is on his website: http://www.doomdam.com/archives/000126.php
(accessed October 29, 2012).
41
Mo’tamednezhad and Badii, “The Problems of Press Freedom in Iran,” 125–6.
42
It was published later as a collection in Rofuzeha (Tehran, 2010).
 228 Farjami

Zaruee sometimes chose political subjects for his satirical poems but usually preferred
social subjects to criticize. Once he read one of his poems published in Hamshahri
criticizing the administrative bureaucracy in front of Ayatollah Khamenei. The Aya-
tollah smiled and praised the poet.43
Abolfazl Zaruee, Ali Mirfattah, and Reza Rafi’e wrote (sometimes political) satire
in Jam-e Jam for a while. Rafi’e also wrote sometimes in Ettela’at. None of these
satirical columns became as popular as Nabavi’s, maybe because these newspapers
were conservative in practice and the satirists had to observe the policy of the
papers.
Ebrahim Raha (Ali Mirmirani’s pseudonym) would write fairly explicit short pol-
itical satirical pieces in the daily Etemad, which several times caused problems for the
newspaper and finally his column was closed down.
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Ali Mirfattah wrote social and political satire in a popular column called Qalan-
daran-e Pijameh Poosh (Pyjama Wearing Mendicants) in the daily Sharq (2004–6).
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 Angur (Grape),
which was about a few old men smoking opium and talking about their memories.
In Mirfattah’s column some old men, smoking opium, discuss various apparently
irrelevant topics, masking hidden political and social critique. Sharq was banned
several times and, though this was not caused by the column, the column was
finally removed.
Roya Sadr was the most prominent among the rare female satirists active at the
time. In addition to publishing several books and articles about satire in the contem-
porary history of Iran and Persian journalism, she wrote political satire periodically in
some reformist publications like Etemad-e Melli.
In May 2009, as usual before a presidential election, the state gave the press a little
more freedom to encourage voting. The reformist newspaper Etemad-e Melli
announced that it would publish a whole page of satire on a daily basis. Two young
satirists, the cartoonist Hadi Heidari and the columnist Pouria Alami, organized
the page with the help of other satirists. The page, named Shabnameh (Night
Letter), was printed until 17 August 2009 when the newspaper was closed down by
the judiciary. On the same day, the head of the judiciary was humorously criticized
on the satirical page of Shabnameh, one of the most prominent works in a newspaper
concerned with political satire during the decade.
During these years when barely a few reformist papers could publish political satire
some satirists tried to work in a new way by publishing in the conservative press,
hoping to protect their views and themselves from bureaucratic repression. Shahram
Shakiba and Mahmud Farjami wrote critical satire in two moderate conservative
newspapers. Shakiba wrote for Khabar, a newspaper supported by Ali Larijani, the
speaker of parliament, and Farjami wrote for Tehran-e Emrouz, supported by Baqer

43
The video showed by National TV (IRIB) can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=roFXIo0ZtGk (accessed October 29, 2012).
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 229

Figure 1. The Last Issue of Shabnameh, Political Satire Page of Etemade-Melli Daily
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(The box on top right includes a humorous remark about Ali and Sadeq Larijani, two conservative brothers, the speaker
of parliament and the head of the judiciary, respectively)
 230 Farjami

Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran. Both Larijani and Ghalibaf were Ahmadinezhad’s rivals
in the 2005 presidential election and, though conservatives, they have been powerful
opponents of his in the subsequent years. Farjami wrote in Tehran Emrouz from
2009 to 2010, and then left the country. Shakiba wrote for Khabar until its closure in
November 2009.
The political satire column of the Kayhan daily, Goft-o Shenud (Dialogue), which
was established in 1997, was the only column which was published for the entire
decade. Most believe this column was written by Hossein Shariatmadari, manager
and editor-in-chief of Kayhan, 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, with a lack of elegance, directly attacking persons who
were labeled enemies of the revolution and Islam, usually ending with a joke or anec-
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dote. The press was strictly forbidden to print insults in Iran and the judiciary warned
or banned the reformist and independent press numerous times on charges of “insult-
ing.”44 However, it was not unusual to see words like stupid (ahmaq), traitor (khaen),
spy (jasus), corrupt ( fassed), brazen (por-ru), hideous (ikbiri), mercenary (khod forukh-
teh), hack (qalam be mozd), etc. in Goft-o Shenud, used to describe and humiliate indi-
viduals, groups, and politicians (sometimes using their real names). And, while the
process of closing a newspaper for wrongdoing is very quick and simple, requiring
only a letter from the judiciary, Shariatmadari has never been in serious trouble for
these irreverent remarks.45

Political Cartoons: Little Crime and Huge Punishment

For the whole decade, political cartoonists worked hand in hand with writers of pol-
itical satire. Indeed, newspapers were more interested in cartoons than satirical
columns, probably because cartoons have more potential to be indirect and equivocal
than satirical texts, and what is seriously needed in an atmosphere of oppression is dis-
cretion and flexibility. Most political cartoons published in this decade were symbolic,
abstract, and surreal rather than blatant, realistic, and literal to send a critical message
more safely. For instance, in July 2009, at the height of clashes between the protesters
and the police, while thousands of dissidents were arrested and numerous newspapers
suspected of supporting the unrest were shut down, Hadi Heidari depicted a singing
bird, being bound by musical notes and unable to sing, in a cartoon to reflect the
current events in a conservative tone. This was published in Etemad-e Melli, the news-
paper with ties to Mehdi Karoubi, a defeated candidate and one of the harshest critics
of the election results.

44
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 is published in
Nabavi’s memoirs of jail, Salon-e Shomareh-ye 6.
45
He only had to apologize on a few occasions once when some of the sixth Majles’ reformist MPs
were described as “cows” in a Goft-o Shenud published on 1 June 2003.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 231

Figure 2. Applying Symbols to show Crisis Conditions in an “Editorial Cartoon

Box,” where Political Cartoons with a High Level of Criticism, Humor, and Perspi-
cuity are Usually Expected
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Source: Hadi Heidari, Etemad-e Melli Daily, July 4, 2009.

In spite of the “Spring of the Press” (1997–99), most of the cartoons published in
the press during the 2000s were non-political and about social subjects, sports, arts, etc.
But, despite all the precautions and discretion, during the 2000s, most trouble regard-
ing humor and satire were caused by cartoons. In February 2000, a cartoon was pub-
lished 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 showed a crocodile labeled as “Master Crocodile” (Ostad Temsah) stifling
a man and crying out for help simultaneously.
The cartoon sarcastically mentioned Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, whose name,
Mesbah, rhymes with the Persian word for crocodile, Temsah. Reformists believed
he was the most important cleric 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 CIA head came to
Iran secretly with “a suitcase full of dollars” to share with some newspapers and cul-
tural organizations. The cartoon caused uproar among Mesbah’s students and fol-
lowers in Tehran, Qom, and elsewhere.
 232 Farjami

Figure 3. Master Crocodile: “Isn’t there anybody to save me from this mercenary
alternative writer?!” The Man (Icon of Journalists in Kowsar’s Cartoons): “Help!”
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Source: Nikahang Kowsar.

Azad was banned and Kowsar was arrested. Though he was released on bail six days
later and subsequently fled to Canada, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to four
months in prison in 2005.46
Tensions caused by cartoons were not always caused by the cartoonists. In early
2003 Alireza Eshraqi, a member of the editorial board of Hayat-e Now, was arrested
and spent 53 days in solitary confinement for printing a cartoon whose character was
claimed to have some similarity to Ayatollah Khomeini.
Although Hayat-e Now denied any knowledge of the alleged similarity and proved
the cartoon had been drawn around 65 years earlier by an American cartoonist to
depict Franklin D. Roosevelt, some conservative supporters of the regime held dem-
onstrations and the newspaper was soon banned.
However, the most severe reaction was to a cartoon with no obvious political
content. 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 cartoon, “cockroach grammar”
was discussed, with a cockroach saying “Namana?,” which means “what?” in
Turkish.
In fact, in the cartoon series titled “What should we do so cockroaches don’t
turn us into cockroaches?” the only thing that the cartoon was showing was a

46
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 (accessed October 28, 2012).
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 233

Figure 4. The Page of Hayat-e Now which caused Controversy

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Note: Some claimed the person drawn under the pressure in the cartoon looks like Ayatollah Khomeini. The text is an
interview about social capital with Dr Tavassoli, a professor at Tehran University.

boy saying “cockroach” in different ways in Persian to an uncomprehending

cockroach, and the latter replying, “What?” in Turkish but written in the Latin
alphabet.
Very soon some Turkish-speaking Iranian Azeris protested against the cartoon,
claiming it had been meant to insult the Turks, making them appear as stupid
beetles with a foolish language. They 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 banned temporarily and the
then prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi, had the cartoonist and the Friday sup-
plement’s editor, Mehrdad Qasemfar, incarcerated in Evin Prison. Riots were
sparked and some were killed and injured during violent demonstrations in Azeri
cities like Tabriz, Orumieh, Abhar, and Zanjan.47
Although seemingly only a social and cultural issue concerned with an ethnic group,
there is evidence that the event was deeply rooted in politics as well. First of all, by this
time the protests were already taking place at some universities, particularly the

47
BBC Persian, Bazdasht-e Tarrah-e Karikator-e Janjali Va Toqif-E Rouzname-Ye Iran [Detaining the
cartoonist who drew the controversial caricature and the banning of Iran newspaper], May 23, 2006,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/05/060523_mf_cartoon.shtml (accessed October 29,
2012).
 234 Farjami

Figure 5. Page from Iran Friday

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Note: In the top right-hand cartoon by Mana Neyestani, a boy says “cockroach” in various different ways in Persian to
an uncomprehending cockroach, and the latter replies, “What?” in Turkish, Namana. A very notable case which
showed that ethnic issues can be as dangerous as political ones, if not more so.

University of Tabriz. Secondly, it was used as a pretext by security forces for suppres-
sing Azeri activists.48 Ayatollah Khamenei blamed the unrest on the enemies of the
Islamic Republic.49
48
Also some evidence reinforces the speculation that some state forces provoked demonstrations and
chaos. Gholamhossein Eslamifar, the then manager of Iran, claimed in court that, while circulation of
Iran Friday is usually at most 30,000 and only 3,000 are sent to the Azeri regions, 300,000 copies of
the issue was printed in a short period and sent to the Azeri regions. Eslamifar was acquitted (BBC
Persian, “Modir-e Mas’ul-e Ruzname-ye Iran Bigonah Shenakhteh Shod” [Managing editor of Iran news-
paper was acquitted], August 27, 2006, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/08/060827_mf_
iran_jury.shtml (accessed October 5, 2012)). The printer(s) who could print this number of papers have
never been found by the Iranian security forces, although they control all printers’ offices in Iran.
49
BBC Persian, “‘Doshmanan’ Amel-e Taharrokat-e Qowmi-ye Akhir-e Manateq-e Tork Neshin-
e Iran” [“Enemies’ directed recent ethnic unrest in the Turkish regions of Iran], May 28, 2006, http://
www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/05/060528_v-khamen-ethnic-issues.shtml (accessed October 9, 2012).
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 235

The event can be seen as a dramatic example of how working as a satirist can be unpre-
dictable and dangerous in Iran. When one works as a humorist one must always be
careful not to cross “red lines” and tread very lightly on sensitive social, regional,
ethnic, cultural, and political matters. However, while cartoonists and writers in the
reformist or independent press era were faced with numerous pressures and threats,
especially by the judiciary, there were some like Maziar Bijani of the Kayhan newspaper,
the only political cartoonist who worked for two decades, publishing political cartoons
against reformists, facing almost no limitations. The 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 Emrouz, Azad, Bahar, Bonyan, Doran-e
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Emrouz, Eqabl, Etemad-e Melli, Hayat-e Now, Mosharekat, Nowrouz, Sobh-e

Emrouz, Tavana, Vaqaye’e Ettefaqiyeh, and Yas-e Now. Many papers were warned
not to publish particular political writers and cartoonists.

Satire and New Media, Amusing from a Distance

The decade saw a wave of emigration by journalists from Iran that began with the clo-
sures of publications in 2000 and reached its climax in 2009. According to a Reporters
Without Borders’ report published on 22 April 2010, “facing arrest and prevented
from doing their job, more than 50 Iranian journalists have had to flee the country
since President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad’s disputed reelection on 12 June 2009.”50
In addition to some opposition satirists like Hadi Khorsandi, who has been in exile
since 1980, some of the best satirists who were not known as opposition figures and
would work in a regime-regulated framework had to leave the country in the 2000s.
The deaths of some of the best Persian political satirists also had a negative impact on
political satire during this period. Among them Saberi. Omran Salahi,51 and Manu-
chehr Ehterami52 are most notable. All had a huge influence on younger satirists,
especially those who wanted to write political satire with Persian literary values;
50
Reporters Without Borders, “Overview of Reporters Without Borders Financial Aid to Journalists
and Media in Danger in 2009,” April 22, 2010, http://en.rsf.org/overview-of-reporters-without-22-04-
2010,37122.html (accessed October 9, 2012).
51
Omran Salahi, a well-known satirist, poet, cartoonist and scholar of satire died from a heart attack in
2006 when he was 60. Though he was Saberi’s friend and would write in Gol Agha, he had numerous
problems with the state, mainly because of his satire in some intellectual magazines like Donya-ye
Sokhan, Adineh, Karnameh, and Bokhara, where he apparently wrote about literature but usually
mocked the cultural policy and ideology of the Islamic regime. Once Massoud Dehnamaki, a leader of
Ansar Hezbollah pro-government pressure group, even accused Salahi of “insulting Prophet Adam.”
52
Manuchehr Ehterami, another prominent satirist, poet, and satire scholar died in 2009, aged 67. He
wrote prose and verse satire in Towfiq from the age of 17, wrote humorous scripts for Radio Iran in the
1970s, and was always one of best satirists of Gol Agha until the last issue. Through his knowledge of
Persian literature, during half a century, he created several satirical styles. For instance, in a series of
poems under the name “Jame’-ol Hekayat” (Compendium of Fables), Ehterami applied the style of
Persian mystical poetry and apparent wisdom anecdotes to the criticism of recent political and social
 236 Farjami

and their deaths along with the other social and political factors mentioned earlier had
a chilling effect on political satire in the Persian press in the 2000s.
In spite of all the negative factors regarding political satire in the Iranian press, new
media and the fast growth of access to the internet in this decade have provided a wide
and far freer domain for Persian satire. While there were at most 250,000 internet
users in 2000, it was estimated that around 8 million Iranians had access to the inter-
net by 2009.53 Although access to the internet for Iranian users has never been as
cheap, fast or safe as in much of the rest of the world,54 this access to new media
has deeply affected Iranian journalism.
One of the most important facilities of the internet for those who work for Iranian
audiences was the potential of being outside of the country but in connection with
audiences inside. Among the famous political satirists, Ebrahim Nabavi55 and Hadi
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Khorsandi56 were the first to establish their own humorous websites at the beginning
of the 2000s. Settled in Belgium since 2003, Nabavi continued his work as a Persian
political satirist on Persian websites, including Gooya news, BBC Persian, Deutsche
Welle, Entekhab, and Radio Zamaneh, the most stable being his daily satirical
column on Roozonline.com, since 2005. He also made political satirical TV and
radio programs for Voice of America (VOA) Persian TV and Radio Zamaneh.
Nikahang Kowsar left Iran a few months after Nabavi. He moved to Canada and
would publish his political cartoons on Iranian and occasionally on non-Iranian web-
sites. Like Nabavi, Kowsar has worked for Roozonline.com. He also ran his Persian-
language weblog from June 2004.57 Kowsar wrote and performed a humorous political
radio program named Kalaghestoon (Crowland) for Radio Zamaneh from 2006 to
2009, three times a week. Finally, he launched Khodnevis,58 a political website in
which political satire and cartoon have a prominent role.
Mana Neyestani, after fleeing to Malaysia, began publishing his cartoons on the
Radio Zamaneh website. Soon, his works, mostly black and white with a special aes-
thetic look at political issues, drew attention.59 He also created a series of cartoons

issues. He was also a famous children’s poet and his Hasani Nagu Yeh Dasteh Gol, published in the early
1980s, is a classic.
53
These figures are the author’s calculations based on data published by the Statistical Center of Iran,
“Natayej-e Amargiri Az Karbaran-e Internet-1389” [The results of a survey of internet users 2009–2010],
http://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/Files/abstract/1389/n_IT_89.pdf (accessed October 26, 2012).
54
According to authoritative reports, Iran is ranked well concerning the quantity of users of the inter-
net in the Middle East but has one of the worst ranks concerning the quality of connection (price, speed,
freedom) in the world. An online status of speed to access the internet can be seen on: http://netindex.
com/download/allcountries/ which shows the speed at 1.70 Mbps for Iran, and a rank of 161 out of 178
countries, at the time of revising this paper, October 30, 2012. Official media in Iran reported the same.
Also see a report in Persian in Aftab news, “Iran Az Nazar-e Sor’at-e Internet Dar Radif-e Kam Sor’attarin
Keshvarha-ye Jahan Qarar Darad” [Iran is one of the worst countries regarding speed of access to the
internet], http://aftabnews.ir/vdcc1sqss2bq1e8.ala2.html (accessed October 28, 2012).
55
http://enabavi.com.
56
http://asgharagha.com.
57
http://nikahang.blogspot.com.
58
http://khodnevis.org.
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 237

about an Iranian family with typical characteristics, named “Khanevadeh-ye Dargir”

(The Involved Family). The series has been published on Mardomak news website
since 2009.60
Numerous political satirists, living in Iran or outside, have also tried to publish their
works more freely by establishing weblogs or personal websites. They include Abolfazl
Zaruee, Afshin Sabooki, Ali Mirfattah, Alireza Rezaee, Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour,
Ebrahim Raha Jalal Samiee, Mahmud Farjami, Roya Sadr, Touka Neyestani, and
Vahid Nikgoo.

Laughing Trojan Horses: Injecting Satire into the Serious Press

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The other notable development concerning satire and humor in the Persian press in
Iran was the injection of humor into the serious press. As noted above, according to
the Iranian press law, papers can cover one or a few specific fields and have to
announce their field(s) on the front page of every issue.61 Satire is one of the fields.
Therefore, a paper with a license that does not mention “satire” cannot be wholly sati-
rical or humorous. On the other hand, being strict on humor and satire, hardly any
licenses for this field have been issued. Therefore, some tried innovative ways to
apply satirical content in papers with a license in fields other than satire, most
notable among them Tavana and Chelcheragh.
Tavana, a serious weekly, changed in form and content since 1998/99, and by the
time of its closure in 2000 was a popular social and political comic strip weekly that
published some serious essays too. By then, some young pioneering cartoonists had
been gathered by cartoonist Jamal Rahmati along with some prominent cartoonists62
who would work as cartoonists as well as journalists and editors for Tavana.
Tavana was closed down by the judiciary in late 2000, after it had published a
cartoon of President Khatami on its front page. Though it 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.” In the cartoon, President
Khatami, who was preparing for election for a second term, was drawn without his
usual clerical habit (robe and turban) on a chair supported by people, reciting a
famous Persian verse from Rumi: “I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I
can’t leave that way.” Hosseinpour’s signature was seen under the picture.63
59
To see a collection of Mana’s Cartoon on Radio Zamaneh visit http://www.radiozamaneh.com/
zamtoon.
60
To see a collection of Mana’s Cartoon on Madomak visit http://www.mardomak.org/cartoons.
61
In chapter 4, article 7, note B of the law of press, it is emphasized that it is an offence to publish
contents in the fields different from what publisher has been given a license for (a full version of the
Law of Press (Qanun-e Matbou’at) is available on http://www.magiran.com/article.asp?AID=34). See
also a related critical view of this part of the press law in Mohsen Esmaili, “Hoquq va Vazayef-e Daran-
deh-ye Mojavvez” [Rights and duties of a license holder], Rasaneh Quarterly 7, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 53–
60.
62
Among them Kiarash Zandi, Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour, Nikahang Kowsar, Ali Derakhshi, and
Mana Neyestani.
 238 Farjami

Figure 6. President Khatami, Who was Preparing for Election for a Second Term, on
the Front Page of Tavana
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Note: In the balloon there is a famous Persian verse by Rumi: “I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave
that way.”
Source: Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour.

Chelcheragh, a new magazine for Iranian youth, was published under the manage-
ment of the reformist Fereydoon Amoozadeh Khalili in June 2002. Chelcheragh called
its audience Nasl-e Sevvom (The Third Generation), the youth born after the 1979
revolution, generally in the 1980s. Amoozadeh and his young colleagues in Chelcher-
agh injected humor into almost all content instead of the tradition of having a separate
humorous section. By their intent, it was still a serious magazine with content in
various subjects like technology, history, literature, politics, and youth culture

63
On July 2003, two years after the closing of Tavana, the publisher, Iraj Rastgar, was imprisoned after
being summoned to the court (Yas-e Now, “Modir Mas’ule Hafteh-nameh-ye Tavana Bazdasht Shod”
[Editor-in-chief of the weekly Tavana was arrested], July 15, 2003).
 Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom 239

accompanied by playfulness and humor in most of the content. For example, not only
did Hosseinpour draw cartoons on the last page every week, but Nima Akbarpour also
wrote scientific essays with a humorous tone about computers and technology in his
pages. The experiment was successful and soon Chercheragh became one of the best-
selling magazines in Iran. The style became popular and has been imitated by other
publications. A few years later Hamshahri-ye Javan (Young Hamshahri), one of the
papers funded by the Tehran municipality, after an unsuccessful bid to become
popular, applied this style and soon flourished. Chelcheragh was banned in November
2010 but reopened later.64
2000s and Satire, Horrors and Hopes. Political satire is often one of the first targets in
press crackdowns and attempts to limit political freedom due to its commonly critical
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examination of power and authority. From this point of view, political satire can be
counted as an index of freedom of speech in Iran. Persian political satire in the
Iranian press suffered great setbacks during the decade investigated. Among the very
few license holders for a humorous or satirical paper, none could publish for long
and only one monthly (Tanz Va Caricature) was published for the entire decade.
Gol Agha, the most prominent satirical publication of the time, was closed down
by its publisher. Almost none of the satirical political columns were able to continue.
The new Press Law, passed in the spring of 2000, made the arrest and punishment of
satirists as well other journalists and press-related writers even easier. Some of the best
political satirists and cartoonists left Iran for other countries and many became jobless.
At least four satirists were detained (Kowsar in 2000, Nabavi in 2001, Neyestani in
2006, and Heidari in 2009).
By contrast, political satire in cyberspace boomed. Almost all satirists who left the
country continued publishing their works in various electronic media, with more
freedom to be explicit in their criticisms. Particularly, some, like Nabavi and
Kowsar, began to make Khomeini and Khamenei, the two supreme leaders of the
Islamic Regime of Iran, the subjects of their works, breaking a more than thirty-
year taboo.

64
To read a sample of Iranian political satire in late 2009 in English, see Letter to Hussein, by Ebrahim
Nabavi here, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/11/letters-to-hussein-iran-
has-changed.html#ixzz1keUNhjFp.
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