IRANIAN BLOGGERS STIRRED OVER COCKROACH CARTOON
by Hamid Tehrani

Global Voices Online, MA
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 @ 17:42 UTC
Iran, U.S.A.

About a week ago, a Chicago newspaper, The Colombus Dispatch, published
a cartoon that depicts Iran as a sewer with cockroaches crawling out of
it. The cartoon has created intense discussion among Iranian bloggers,
especially those living in North America.

Iranians as cockroaches

Iranian Truth says, it is no small thing:

"In fact, this trend of dehumanization is apparent in almost every
epic of genocide, massacre, war, and atrocity including the Cambodian
genocide massacres, the the massacres of Serbs and Bosnians in the
Yugoslav wars, the Armenian genocide, and the Holocaust."

The blogger has also senta letter of protest to Dispatch editors.

Racist cartoons in Iran

Kamangir does not share the same sense of outrage. He says, "Following
the issue about the cartoon in The Columbus Dispatch, I did quick
research on cartoons published in the [Iranian] state-run newspaper
Kayhan whose head is appointed by the Supreme Leader. The result? See
it for yourself."

The blogger says:

"Some people in the Iranian blogosphere have felt insulted after The
Columbus Dispatch published a cartoon "resembling Iran to a sewer
with cockroaches coming out of it". The issue has also attracted
NIAC’s [National Iranian-American Council] attention, "By publishing
this racist cartoon, the editors of the Dispatch have insulted and
propagated hate against the Iranian American community". Guys! Cool
down! No one is saying you are a cockroach. Someone has practiced
his freedom to say that Iran is acting like a source of trouble for
the Middle East. Does anyone think this sentence is wrong?"

Us and them

Nik Ahangkosar, a blogger and a popular cartoonist, says [Fa]:
"Freedom of expression does not mean that we can publish whatever we
want." The blogger says we need to protect the feelings of all ethnic
groups, and adds that freedom is a relative concept that depends on
our place, beliefs, tradition, rules and many other elements.

Iranwrites writes:

"What is the use even if we mange to force the Columbus Dispatch to
apologize? Would it be the end?

Unfortunately, we are the cause of it ourselves. As long as we
identify ourselves as Iranians we are one with whatever is Iranian,
Ahmadinejad and Khameneii included. Don’t you hear Ahmadinejad’s
speeches everyday? Don’t you get angry and disgusted? Do you think
he portrays us much better than those cartoons?

I don’t think any of us wants to admit he is one of us, an Iranian. But
he is, and the whole world sees it that way, no matter how hard we try
to separate ourselves from him. For sure, these Americans won’t see
us differently, and they don’t have to. If we need to be respected
collectively, we should be respectable collectively and need to act
respectfully, all us Iranians."

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2 Responses to "Iranian bloggers stirred over cockroach cartoon"
September 18th, 2007 at 21:48 pm nnamdi: 1 what is all the heck
about cartoon or no cartoon, Christians watch as Jesus is depicted
as a sinner with Mary Magdalene yet not routes and killinngs nor
request for apology.We should all learn that the supporters of
all these cartoons and their publishers are not the ones to die,
but the poor innocent ones who will be fooled to go out protest. it
is the same evrywhere. let the cartoon be, let the publishers be,
since you know you are not cockroach, they will get tired, when you
dont react. but when you react they will write more. cant you see,
and when you react more people will protest and others will go to
war and others will supply war equipments while others will be richer.

September 19th, 2007 at 0:18 am Marta: 2 Maybe the cartoonist meant it
as an offense to Iran, but it could be interpreted that the cockroaches
are the US military after they invade Iran, and the sewer is what
they have made of the country, as they did Iraq.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress