Egyptian cartoonist arrested for 'unauthorized' Facebook page
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Egyptian cartoonist Islam Gawish speaks about his brief detention and vows to continue with his work.
CAIRO — “Managing a Facebook page without a license. That was the accusation they used to detain me,” the Egyptian caricaturist Islam Gawish told Al-Monitor in an interview from the Cairo International Book Fair Feb. 2, a few hours after his release. Gawish was at the fair to launch volume 2 of “Al-Waraqah” (“The Paper”), a collection of pieces from his Facebook page, also titled Al-Waraqah. The site, with its simple, satirical caricatures lampooning the state of affairs in Egypt, has met with widespread success on social media.
Gawish had been arrested Jan. 31 at his workplace, the offices of the Egypt News Network website, and interrogated about drawing political caricatures targeting symbols of the Egyptian state. After a wave of protests and controversy generated through social media, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement announcing that the charge against Gawish was “managing an electronic website without a license.” Ultimately, however, the authorities released Gawish Feb. 1 without charging him.
Gawish commented, “The ludicrous part is that Facebook pages are not licensed.” He affirmed that he would continue to voice the economic, political and social concerns of Egyptians through satirical caricatures on social media, asserting that his protection was the Egyptian constitution, guaranteeing him unfettered freedom of expression.
A transcript of the interview follows.
