Touka Neyestani

Touka Neyestani (Persian: توکا نیستانی‎) (born 1960) is an Iranian political cartoonist who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1] He is the brother of Mana Neyestani, who is also a cartoonist.[2]

Touka Neyestani
Born1960 (age 59–60)
Persia
NationalityIranian
Area(s)Cartoonist
Pseudonym(s)Touka
Notable works
Crocodile Cartoon
Official website

Life and career

Touka Neyestani was born in Tehran into a literary family. His father Manouchehr Neyestani (1936 - 1981) was a well-known Iranian poet and his brother Mana Neyestani also became a cartoonist and political satirist. Touka Neyestani is a well-known and popular cartoonist in Iran in his own right.[3] He collaborates with more than 40 Iranian newspapers, and also produces cartoons for Nebel Spalter, a weekly publication printed in Switzerland. He has participated in several international cartoon exhibitions held in Japan, Belgium, Turkey, Iran, and Italy.

Political satirists, living in Iran, face a number of threats. Work for cartoonists in daily newspapers has largely dried up. A website known as Persian Cartoons (Persiancartoons.com), designed to provide a mechanism for political satire to be dessiminated, was shut down in 2005, and many cartoonists have been forced to flee the country to escape the Secret Police.[4] As a result, Neyestani has gravitated towards social media as the primary outlet for his cartoons, simply because it gives him greater control over who can read and comment on his posts. Facebook is also less likely to be hacked by the Islamic regime's cyber-security team.[5] The Internet and social media have played an important part of the evolution of political satire in Iran.[6]

Awards

He is the winner of many prizes,[7] some from International cartoon exhibitions, including:

  • The Fifth Yomiuri Shimbun Cartoon Contest - Excellence Prize - 1984
  • 11th Simavi International Cartoon Competition - Honorable Mention - 1993
  • First International Cartoon Competition, "Iran": "Man and Nature" - Honorable Mention - 1997
  • Sbadiglio Umoristico - Honorable Mention - 1998
gollark: It sounds like you'd still have to do lots of manual filtering.
gollark: How would you implement this anyway? A contact form gated behind a "paste the output from this C program" box?
gollark: ... okay, just tell me and not anyone else if you find anything, so I can hopefully fix it.
gollark: No. I assume it's because I am not on any online dating things, and images of me are at least nontrivial to find.
gollark: Anyway, you could... directly *say* to send more than just "hi", perhaps?

References
  1. Sandals, Leah (9 March 201). "Nowruz spurs art exhibition". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
  2. "UN DESSIN QUI FAIT LE TOUR DU MONDE. Sur Facebook, le dessinateur iranien Neyestani croque l'ambiguïté des relations entre Israël et l'Iran". IsraelValley (in French). 1 April 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
  3. Farjami, M., Iranian Political Satirists: Experience and Motivation in the Contemporary Era, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, p. 76; Kazemi, R., Kiss Me! Let the Universe Sing a New Song, Author House, 2013, p. 84
  4. Farjami, M., Iranian Political Satirists: Experience and Motivation in the Contemporary Era, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, p. 76
  5. Faris, D.M. and Rahimi, B. (eds), Social Media in Iran: Politics and Society after 2009,SUNY Press, 2015, p. 133
  6. Sreberny, A. and Torfeh, M. (eds), Cultural Revolution in Iran: Contemporary Popular Culture in the Islamic Republic, I.B.Tauris, 30 Oct. 2013, p. 200
  7. Sreberny, A. and Torfeh, M. (eds), Cultural Revolution in Iran: Contemporary Popular Culture in the Islamic Republic, I.B.Tauris, 30 Oct. 2013, p. 200
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