The Power of Political Cartoons in Iran

Carol Hills speaks with Omid Memarian, an Iranian journalist and blogger who’s edited a new book called “Sketches of Iran: A Glimpse from the Front Lines of Human Rights.”

Those sketches are political cartoons and most (but not all) of them are by Iranians who are now in exile because their cartoons irked Iranian authorities.

Political cartoons have played an important role in Iranian newspapers for decades but the nature of social media has put their dissemination out of the reach of Iranian authorities who still eager to control their message.

Memarian is himself in exile in the United States after an arrest and imprisonment in Iran in 2004.

Now he’s devoting himself to human rights issues in Iran and he believes political cartoons can play a role in calling attention to them.

Here’s a slideshow of recent political cartoons by Iranians both inside and outside Iran.