Not quite an ordinary Iranian woman. Satirical caricatures by Mahnaz Yazdani, created in defiance of all social conventions.

Mahnaz Yazdani (born in 1980) is a truly unusual artist, as she managed to succeed in a Muslim country in the purely male genre of satirical caricatures, reflecting various problems of modern society. But in Iran, where the artist was born, there are still a number of restrictions for women, who ideally should be engaged exclusively in housework and raising children, without counting on anything more.

Workplace

In this article we will talk about Yazdani’s unusual and interesting works and how she managed to overcome all prejudices and become a sought-after cartoonist.

Solar battery

Mahnaz is originally from the Iranian city of Isfahan. She tries not to remember her childhood, according to Yazdani, she had to face all the prejudices of Muslim society, when girls were treated as second-class creatures, kept in extreme strictness and instead of parental care they knew mainly only beatings, hard housework, endless prayers and fear of their father and brothers, since they could not disobey them in anything, and punishment followed immediately. But Yazdani learned from childhood what pain and fear are, and learned to fully sympathize with people who have to experience them.

Hijab

As a child, she loved drawing most of all, but the teachers taught painting in a peculiar way: they gave her a picture and told her to draw everything exactly the same, not allowing the slightest deviation from the original sample. Yazdani was bored with all this, and the themes of the drawings did not interest her much. When she grew up, she became interested in Persian painting. But even here, 18-year-old Yazdani was disappointed: she wanted to bring something new to the established genre, to depict real thoughts and feelings of people, but instead she had to do everything strictly according to the centuries-old canon.

Gadgets

So Yazdani began to study at a cartoonist's course, where there were mostly young people. She was looked at askew, but was soon accepted into their circle, because the young artist was bursting with interesting ideas and was able to masterfully realize them in drawings.

Real face

There she found her husband, an animator, who, not unlike other men, supported her interest in cartoons in every possible way and helped her further her career. Yazdani managed to get a job at Irani Press as a cartoonist, as marriage opened up more opportunities to find interesting work.

Above

Since 2014, Yazdani has also started creating animated humorous short films. She says that when she has an interesting idea, she tries to write it down in text form and then decides how to display it graphically: drawing a comic book or creating an animated short film. The right choice contributes to success, and her idea will be seen by as many people as possible. She prefers to express her thoughts in a humorous way, but she also wisely believes that brevity is the sister of talent. In this context, the cartoon genre suits her best.

Slums

Perhaps her cartoons lack any particularly acute social context, and to the Western viewer they are too innocuous and toothless. Of course, there is no vulgarity or black humor in them, and women in public must wear hijabs, but it should be understood that Yazdani has to comply with all strict Muslim norms and rules, otherwise her works will never be published anywhere. However, the range of topics addressed by the artist is very wide: social inequality, problems of education, gadgets, covid, relations between people, etc.

Main love

Among her favorite writers she names Fyodor Dostoevsky, and admires the animated films of director Peter Docter, who created the animated films “Soul” and “Puzzle”. According to the artist, this art reveals to the audience the deepest human feelings, including pain, suffering and loneliness, but does not dwell on them, but always leaves some hope. Her cartoons are also dedicated to this, they touch on problems, but do so with a certain degree of optimism.

Window to the world

For Yazdani, the most important thing is to be indifferent, which she tries to teach her viewers: “the easiest thing to do is to close your eyes and not see what's going on under your nose, as long as you observe all external decency. It takes a lot of willpower to go against society, but it's the only way to live in harmony with your conscience”, and it's hard to disagree with the artist.

Cartoon Source: https://www.ainazcartoon.ir/

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