Gomaa Farhat, known simply as Gomaa, has been a cartoonist for almost 50 years. Since 1999, he has been a part of the Al-Ahram Weekly staff as a cartoonist. In an interview with ITN Source Gomaa said, “I think the cartoon is an important art form for Egyptians because it can summarise a big situation in a small form. And it has the spirit of humour just like the Egyptian people”(1). For Gomaa, cartoonists have attempted to provide cartoons that play this role despite years of censorship. Gomaa discussed the impact on Egyptian cartooning by censorship with ITN Source explaining that before the 2011 revolution, during the Nasser regime and later, during Sadat’s rule, strict censorship existed that forced political cartooning to criticize international governments because cartoonists could not safely critique their own government openly. As the ITN Source article points out, during Mubarak’s rule censorship lessened some to allow artists more freedom to critique the regime, but censorship laws continued to prevent open critique of government officials and Mubarak himself. After the revolution however, freedom of expression opened up in such a way that cartoonists and artists were able to and should take the opportunity to “have total freedom to express themselves” said Gomaa to ITN Source (1).
Source:
(1): “Egypt: Political Cartoonists Celebrate Ease on Censorship” on ITN Source, January 2012.
- “Egypt: Political Cartoonists Celebrate Ease on Censorship”, ITN Source, January 2012.
- Madame Sosostris, “Pack of Cards.” Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 5-11 August 1999. (Scroll down the page for a brief bio on Gomaa.)
- Please click here for a link to Al-Ahram Weekly and visit their “Opinion” section to see more cartoons by Gomaa.