{"id":10511,"date":"2011-08-30T10:59:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T06:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=10511"},"modified":"2011-08-30T11:15:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T07:15:38","slug":"leading-syrian-writers-and-artists-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/leading-syrian-writers-and-artists-under-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Syrian Writers and Artists Under Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/thetorturerssentimentality.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10512\" title=\"thetorturerssentimentality\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/thetorturerssentimentality-e1314687551397.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/thetorturerssentimentality-e1314687551397.jpg 498w, https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/thetorturerssentimentality-e1314687551397-145x92.jpg 145w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a>Beirut39-winning novelist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/2011\/aug\/03\/author-author-samar-yazbek-syria\">Samar Yazbek was detained and beaten<\/a>. Syrian songwriter <a href=\"http:\/\/qunfuz.com\/tag\/ibrahim-al-qashoush\/\">Ibrahim al-Qashoush<\/a>, author of a popular anti-regime song, was murdered, his vocal cords apparently ripped from his throat. And this Thursday, political cartoonist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ali-ferzat.com\/\">Ali Farzat<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/08\/26\/world\/middleeast\/26syria.html\">Damascus\u2019s \u201cPen of Steel,\u201d has had his head, arms, and hands severely beaten<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a 2005 interview, two years after Farzat was forced to shut down his independent paper\u2014the first under Assad\u2014he told interviewer Scott Davis, in response to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cunepress.com\/E2003\/farzat\/Davis_int_engl.htm\">a question about whether he continued to publish<\/a> at home and abroad:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes of course I am because my drawings are not anchored to a certain place and time, although they spring from local concerns and pains. But they are part of a comprehensive human art that touches the feelings of people all over the world. The works of the artist Mr. Charlie Chaplin are a clear example of what I mean.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Farzat described his favorite target as \u201cthis whole world with its contradictions\u201d and said that he doesn\u2019t use text, in general, because: \u201cA comment would push the picture in the frame of local understanding of the language. Hence, my pictures aim their criticism at the practices without any written language, this makes them a humane art talking in all languages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In both the interview with Davis and another with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cunepress.com\/E2003\/farzat\/sabah_int_engl.htm\">Sabah Hawasli<\/a>, the specter of Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali\u2019s assassination was raised. Certainly, Farzat was aware of the danger.<\/p>\n<p>You can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cunepress.com\/7d\/showproduct.aspx?SiteID=43&amp;ProductID=354\">buy a collection of his work from Cune Press<\/a>. And much more at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ali-ferzat.com\/\">Farzat\u2019s official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>M. LYNX QUALEY: Whether it&#8217;s novelists, songwriters or cartoonists artists of all shades and description are subject to vicious and sustained attack  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,154,483,482,5,317],"tags":[1831,1192,105,703,18291,2443,8481,18330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}