TEHRAN – Turkish cartoonist Hicabi Demirci and Iranian artists Payam Vafatabar and Puya Sarabi won the top prizes at the Palestine Is Not Alone International Cartoon, Caricature and Poster Contest, the organizers announced on Thursday.

Demirci took first prize in the cartoon section and Vafatabar and Sarabi won first prizes in the caricature and poster categories respectively.

The competition was organized by the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization in solidarity with Palestine.

Submissions to the contest were showcased in an exhibition at the Abolfazl Aali Gallery of the bureau over the past two weeks.

Second prize in the cartoon section went to Mahmud Nazari, and Alireza Baqeri and Iman Mandegari, both from Iran, received second prizes in the caricature and poster sections.

In the cartoon section, the special jury award was given to Palestinian artist Haneen Taysier Al Amassie.

Raul Fernando Zuleta from Colombia, Antonio Antunes from Portugal and Xu Kai from China won third prizes in the cartoon, caricature and Poster categories respectively.

The winners were announced during a live TV program broadcast from IRIB’s Ofoq Channel, which was attended by Art Bureau director Mohammad-Mehdi Dadman.

“No doubt that all the world’s altruist people, including artists, do not tolerate the bullying of Palestinians by the Zionist regime, and they show their negative response to the oppression,” he said during the program.

“The motto of the competition, that Palestine is not alone, was demonstrated in practice to everybody in the world; a free Palestine is our idea, which is not only limited to Iran,” he added.

The artworks in various categories of the contest were judged by a jury composed of Luiz Carlos Fernandez from Brazil, Cristina Bernazzani from Italy, Izabela Kowalska from Poland and Balai Kartun Rossem from Malaysia. 

Photo: Cartoon by Turkish artist Hicabi Demirci won first prize in the cartoon section of the Palestine Is Not Alone International Cartoon, Caricature and Poster Contest in Tehran, Iran.

MMS/YAW