Ferzat, Ali

Ali Ferzat was born in the city of Hama , in Syria . He studied at the faculty of arts of Damascus University ^[2] . He is the chairman of the Arab Association of Cartoonists ^[3] .

Ferzat's love of drawing appeared in childhood. His first drawing would have been printed in 1963 in the Al-Ayam newspaper (الايام - Days), shortly before its closure due to the coming to power of the Ba'ath Party . In 1969, he began his career as a political cartoonist in the state-owned newspaper al-Saura (الثورة - “Revolution”). In the mid-1970s Ferzat moved to the Tishrin newspaper (تشرين - October), where he began working on a daily basis ^[4] . Ferzat is extremely prolific - today he owns more than 15,000 drawings ^[1] , more than 30 of his personal exhibitions have been held in different countries of the world ^[5] .

In December 2000, after Bashar al-Assad came to power and the beginning of the so-called “ Damascus Spring ”, Ferzat, at his own expense ^[5] , founded the first in Syria , since the Baathist coup of 1963, the independent newspaper “ad-Dumari” (الدومري - “Lamp-lighter”). It was an attempt to create a newspaper of political satire, later “ad-Dumari” was compared with the French “Le Canard enchaîné” . The newspaper focused its efforts on the fight against incompetence and corruption. In particular, the playwright Mamduh Adwan and the comedian Yasser al-Azma came to work in the newspaper, the entire staff of the newspaper was only 15 people ^[5] . A special sign of goodwill was permission to publish a newspaper without prior censorship. The first issue of Ad-Dumari was released in February 2001. Fifty thousand copies (official daily newspapers did not exceed 40,000 copies) were sold in the first hours of sales, Ferzat had to urgently order another 25,000 copies. The second issue of the newspaper was already published in one hundred thousand copies, and this still did not satisfy the demand ^[5] . However, by the end of February, authorities advised Ferzat to soften the position of the publication, preliminary censorship was restored for ad-Dumari, and the distribution of the newspaper was transferred to the state department, as a result of which the circulation decreased to 6,000. In May 2001, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Mero insisted on removing from the next issue of the newspaper an article directed against him called “Who puts the sticks in the wheels of the Prime Minister?”. Ferzat agreed not to print the article, but in the published issue there was a void in its place with a small picture depicting a hand holding a pen. In 2003, ad-Dumari ceased to exist. This was caused by a number of reasons: a lack of funding, a small readership, constant conflicts with state censorship, as well as the deterioration of Ferzat’s personal relations with the authorities in connection with his position on the US invasion of Iraq ^[6] .

Relations with Saddam Hussein

Tensions between Ali Ferzat and Saddam Hussein began in 1989, after an exhibition of works by Ferzat held in Paris ^[7] . Then Hussein recognized himself in one of the untitled caricatures. This caricature depicted an Arab general handing out military awards instead of food to hungry people. Hussein threatened Ferzat with death and forbade him to enter Iraq (also after this exhibition Ferzat was banned from entering Jordan and Libya ) ^[8] . Ferzat answered with dozens of cartoons directed against Hussein . Subsequently, Ferzat was one of the few famous Arabs who supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the months leading up to the start of this campaign, many of his cartoons directed against the Iraqi leader, both old and new, appeared in the official Kuwaiti press. Ferzat’s position turned out to be completely opposite to the official position of Damascus regarding the American invasion of Iraq . On March 31 and April 1, 2003, the Syrian state newspaper Tishrin declared Ferzat “money hungry for a foreign agent,” demonstrations took place in front of his office in Damascus . Ferzat’s response to the reproaches, the Tishrin newspaper refused to publish ^[9] .

Relations with Bashar al-Assad

Ferzat's initial relationship with the current Syrian president , Bashar al-Assad, was quite normal. In the mid-1990s, Assad , while not yet president, visited one of Ferzat’s European exhibitions and told him personally that all his cartoons, including those forbidden in Syria at that time, should have been printed ^[5] . After Assad Jr. came to power, Ferzat became the first person who was allowed to establish an independent, uncensored newspaper. Subsequently, however, the newspaper had to be closed, and Ferzat began to criticize Assad ’s regime more and more. This criticism intensified after the start of the Arab Spring . Ferzat published a series of caustic cartoons directed against Assad . On one of them, for example, Assad was depicted as erasing the shadow of a huge guard, while the guard himself was unharmed. The signature read: “Lifting a state of emergency.” In another caricature, Assad asked Muammar Gaddafi, who was hurrying away in a car, to plant him.

Ali Ferzat and the Arab Spring

Ali Ferzat, who had previously openly criticized the Arab regimes, as the protests in Syria escalated, he turned to harsh criticism (including through stinging cartoons) of the entire Syrian leadership and of individuals (in particular, Rami Mahluf ^[10] ). The result was a further deterioration of Ferzat's relations with the ruling regime of the country. At about 4.30 a.m. on August 25, 2011, Ferzat was captured (pulled out of his car) in one of Damascus streets by masked men and placed in a minivan. Then Ferzat was brutally beaten, and the main target of those who beat him was his hands. After the beating, Ferzat was left on the side of the road leading to the airport ^[2] , ^[3] . This attack caused a wide public outcry both inside Syria and beyond. Ferzat’s colleagues from around the world responded to this incident ^[11] , later this year he received two European prizes dedicated to the struggle for human rights and freedom of the press (see the section “Awards and Prizes”). In Syria, Ferzat became one of the symbols of the protest movement, the movement “We All Are Ali Ferzat” ^[12] , similar to the famous Egyptian movement “We Are All - Khaled Said ” ^[13] .

During his life, Ferzat was awarded more than ten different prizes ^[5] .

• Prince Claus Prize, 2002 ^[14]
• Prize "For Freedom of Thought" named after Andrei Sakharov ^[15]
• Reporters Without Borders Free Press Award and Le Monde Newspaper 2011 ^[7]

• Arab spring

• Official website of Ali Ferzat
• Ali Ferzat's gallery of works on creativesyria.com
• Ali Ferzat's official page on facebook.com