A cartoon contest themed "Trumpism" has been held in Tehran in which cartoonists competed with satirical images of the US president. The contest was organized by the same group that had held The Holocaust cartoon contest.
The organizers say the contest drew "hundreds of cartoonists from all around the world" with four artists from the US.
Hadi Assadi, a local cartoonist, won the $1500 first prize on July 3 for his cartoon that portrays a flame-haired Donald Trump, wearing a jacket made of hundred dollar bills, and drooling over a pile of books. The wining cartoons have been posted on the official website of the contest.
“I wanted to illustrate Trump busy in destroying cultural hallmarks. I tried to outline Donald Trumps "money enchanted" and "warmongering’ nature,” says Assadi. The cartoon was drawn in two weeks using designing software.
The exhibition, consisting of more than 1600 cartoons, was inaugurated on Monday July 3 in Tehran and is expected to stay on display for a week. The organizers claim that cartoonists from 74 different countries participated in the contest.
One of the cartoons depicted Trump busy drawing a Hitler-esque moustache over the upper lip of the Statue of the Liberty. “The ism in Trumpism is a reference to racism and Nazism,” organizer Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei told the AP.
"Many believe his remarks are similar to Hitler’s. He has a bad attitude toward media, refugees.” According to the AP, violence against women and wall building were also depicted in the contest, which followed last year's Holocaust-themed contest.
The contest was organized by a group that last year also held a cartoon contest on the Holocaust.
The contest’s organizer claimed that the holocaust cartoon exhibition was not an effort to raise doubt about the Nazi’s genocide but to underline double standards on freedom of speech and expression in the West.
The logo of the "Trumpism" contest is a black diagonal capital letter “T”, for Trump, on a white circle and red background. The organizers say that the logo is deliberately supposed to reference the Nazi swastika.
American Ed Wexler's work shows Trump saying "Fake news," while running away from a snowball, on which a red star with a hammer and sickle emblem is is painted, according to Associated Press.
In another cartoon by American Robert Jones Clayton, two copies of Time magazine are contrasted– one with Trump's picture and the other with Adolf Hitler’s. Both men are portrayed as Time's Person of the Year and Trump tells Hitler: “It is a great honor” and in return Hitler replies “Ja.”
Cartoonists are often imprisoned in Iran and are not allowed to draw the clergy, even without any intention to mock them.
Atena Farghadani, 30, an Iranian cartoonist and former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, was imprisoned for 18 months for one cartoon.
Criticizing a draft law which would outlaw voluntary sterilization and restrict access to measures of birth control in a cartoon, she had portrayed Iranian MPs as monkeys and goats.
Ms. Farghadani was freed in May 2016 after an international campaign (#draw4atena) for her release.
Several other cartoonists have had similar stories. The enormous clout of the Islamic Republic over the press in general and cartoonists, in particular, has forced many of them to leave their homeland and live in exile.