The people of Syria have undoubtedly endured brutal repression for decades. Since the Ba’ath Party was founded in 1947, Hafez and Bashar al-Assad have taken turns using a patrimonial structure (1) to assert dominance over the country––using physical and psychological tactics to enforce power. As Syrian refugee, public speaker and human rights activist Omar Alshogre recounts in his TED Talk “What I Learned in Prison,” the government will arrest innocent people at random for publicly expressing their opinions. Once imprisoned, it is virtually impossible to escape. Even if one manages to physically escape, like Alshogre, it is much harder to escape the lingering psychological torture that permeates every corner of life under the regime. In Syria, the fear of getting killed, arrested, or losing loved ones is omnipresent. 

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This is why political satire is such a powerful tool of resistance: by implicitly subverting the foundation of the Syrian government through cartoons, comedies or films, artists resist the government’s psychological manipulation. Political satire encourages high levels of awareness and confrontation in an inherently unbalanced regime (2) by forming an imagined community around a shared lack of faith (“unbelief” (3)) in the Ba’ath Party. Founded in Syria in 1947, Ba'athism calls for the unification of the Arab world into a single state. Today, Bashar Al-Assad's Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party is the dominant force in Syria's political landscape.

 

Although sometimes belittled because of its humorous and cynical nature, political satire in Syria has the power to fight oppressive regimes like Assad's Ba'ath Party; a global unifier, political satire creates an imagined community (4) so powerful that it transcends borders and carries over into countries–– particularly Western ones––where freedom of expression is more widely accepted. In this paper, I will examine the use of political satire in Syria and outside the country, to highlight differences in censorship and explore various impacts that this tool of resistance has based on the environment it’s diffused in.

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Satire, albeit an incomplete form of conflict transformation at large, is the best tool of resistance given Syria’s political climate. According to Adam Curle and Máire Dugan, the process of transforming unpeaceful relationships into peaceful ones is complex. The end goal––that all parties are aware of the injustice at hand and achieve a sense of balance through restructuring the unpeaceful system––is unrealistic in Syria. While those in power are highly aware of the structural imbalance between themselves and the people, they are not likely to change it for the simple reason that the imbalance benefits them. 

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Syrian citizens are required to conform externally to the demands of the regime regardless of what they actually believe. As Lisa Wedeen explains in Chapter 1 of Ambiguities of Domination, Syrian politics depend on “external and easily falsified trappings of loyalty rather than on people’s actual beliefs” (p. 69). While the government also exerts physical power over its citizens, it is psychological compliance that holds the system together. Deviating from the rules has severe consequences, including imprisonment and death. As a result, directly confronting the regime is a costly form of resistance that will ultimately punish citizens more than offer relief. To preserve their own safety and wellbeing, Syrians must find more covert ways of subverting the regime.

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Political satire strikes the perfect balance because it criticizes an unpeaceful structure while remaining discreet enough to avoid substantial backlash. Furthermore, political satire depends on an awareness of the injustice at hand: its comic effect “relies on the fact that viewers know the truth” (p. 104). By providing a space to commiserate over shared injustices, political satire allows Syrians to confront the unpeaceful nature of their government without having to outwardly express themselves. This can be as simple as hearing the laughter of fellow spectators in a theater (5), or flipping to the same channel as a friend to catch the latest episode of Yasir al-‘Azma’s Maraya (6). These small but powerful acts “counteract the atomizing conditions of the [Ba’athist] cult” (p. 90) by forming an imagined community tied together by unbelief.

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A counter-argument for political satire as an effective form of resistance is that it is superficial. Dismissed as “just a joke,” satire has the reputation of being overly cynical and taking politics too lightly. Yet the case of Syria demonstrates that the power of political satire actually lies in its lighthearted nature: it is harder for censors to sanction political satire when it does not explicitly criticize the Syrian regime. While the artist’s intentions and the consequences of their work are hardly superficial, the fact that political satire can pass as “just a joke” is what makes it such a powerful tool of resistance. By using a medium that evades censorship, artists can safely produce revolutionary content that is widely diffused across the country.

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In fact, the imagined community formed by political satire is so strong that it transcends borders, reaching audiences across North Africa and Europe. Because Syria has experienced such a strong exodus due to the Syrian Civil War, it is impossible to study political resistance inside the country without also exploring political resistance in the diaspora. This is particularly relevant for political satire, because foreign opinions can directly influence the degree to which satire is censored in Syria.

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Nujum al-Nahar (1988), a film by Usama Muhammad, is considered one of the “most politically critical film[s] ever made in Syria” (p. 113). After gaining commercial distribution in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and winning first prize at both the Festival of Valencia and the International Festival of Rabat, Syrian censors chose not to ban the film. While not explicitly approved, either, the fact that Nujum al-Nahar was not entirely censored by the Syrian government is astonishing. Wedeen describes the film as a “thinly disguised metaphor for political power and for Assad’s cult” (p. 113). Not only are there striking parallels between the Alawite backgrounds of the protagonist and those of Assad, but the lead actor looks uncannily like him (7). These parallels would normally be red flags to Syrian censors, but because of the film’s international recognition, it managed to slip through the cracks. 

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In The Arab of the Future, French-Syrian political cartoonist Riad Sattouf depicts images from his childhood with a satirical lens. Raised by a French mother and a Syrian father, Sattouf grew up between Libya and Syria where he experienced authoritarian regimes firsthand. His perspective is unique and rich in cultural awareness: in the image below, he illustrates the interchangeability of Syrian dictators who take turns imposing the same systems of oppression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Because the flags are unmistakably Syrian, this cartoon would likely be censored in Syria. In France, on the other hand, Sattouf is a bestselling author whose work has been translated into over 16 languages.

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The international repercussions of Syrian political satire make it especially powerful: the more content is made accessible worldwide, the more people from various cultural backgrounds can gain awareness of political injustice in Syria and take action to confront it.

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Options for political confrontation remain limited in Syria, but awareness of the oppression that everyday people face is increasing thanks to political satire. Satire offers a safe space where people can escape the brutality of daily life. Outside the country, where the confines of Syrian censorship are erased, satire educates and entertains Syrians and non-Syrians alike. Finally, the spread of political satire abroad has direct consequences on censorship within Syria. By recognizing the work of Syrian artists abroad, audiences can help empower the Syrian people in their resistance against an oppressive regime. While satire might not have the power to restructure structural imbalance in the country, it provides a safe outlet for Syrians to educate themselves and question authority. Furthermore, it allows Syrians abroad to speak freely on systems of oppression that might otherwise be kept silent. In a regime where political resistance is so costly, this is truly the most powerful way to take action.

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Notes

(1) Bellin, Eva. “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring.” Comparative Politics 44, no. 2 (2012): 132

(2) Dugan, Maire, and Adam Curle. “Peacemaking Processes: Understanding the Connections,” November 15, 2004.

(3) Wedeen, Lisa. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria: With a New Preface. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015. 

(4) Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. 

(5) Wedeen, Lisa. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria: With a New Preface. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015 (90)

(6) ibid (100)

(7) ibid (114)

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Bibliography

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Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. 

 

Bellin, Eva. “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring.” Comparative Politics 44, no. 2 (2012): 127–49. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041512798838021. 

 

Dugan, Maire, and Adam Curle. “Peacemaking Processes: Understanding the Connections,” November 15, 2004. 

 

Wedeen, Lisa. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria: With a New Preface. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015. 

 

Yassin-Kassab, Robin. 2021. "The Arab Of The Future By Riad Sattouf Review – An Emotionally Honest Graphic Memoir". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/31/the-arab-of-the-future-by-riad-sattouf-review.

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