Turkish Cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu Receives 2025 Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award

 

Via Daily Cartoonist:

Cartoonists Rights has bestowed the 2025 Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award 2025 on Zehra Ömeroğlu, a Turkish cartoonist, who has been the target of criminal prosecution for a cartoon that was published in 2020 and faces a three year prison sentence.

The offending cartoon was published in Leman, a satirical magazine composed mainly of women. In 2022, she was summoned to the police station and informed of obscenity charges for her tongue-in-cheek pandemic-related cartoon.

Since 2022 she has been subject to 13 court dates and many delays to have her day in court. In 2024 the cartoon was finally and officially designated as “obscene” by the Turkish Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services who stated:

“We take great exception to the way in which Ömeroğlu’s work is characterised, with a definition that is indistinguishable from that of pornography.”

In February her trial before the Istanbul Criminal Court began but a requested report from an expert panel of academics had not been received by the court. The next hearing is scheduled for June 26th. 

While her legal battle is in limbo Zehra reports that her career in Turkey is ruined. Even if she receives a suspended sentence the risk of harsher penalties hang over her head should she commit another alleged offense.

Regarding the selection of Zehra, Cartoonists Rights’ Executive Director, Terry Anderson, stated:

I’m delighted our Board of Directors chose to honor Zehra this year, especially as we witness the change that is unfolding in Türkiye. In our view, her prosecution is based wholly on her gender; the same cartoon, in the same space and at the same time with a male byline simply would not have attracted the same (over)reaction from state censors. Like many outspoken women in Türkiye, Zehra has been deliberately persecuted, but this attempt to silence her has wholly backfired. As a direct result of her prosecution, Zehra’s cartoons are now seen in international media on a regular basis, and her story will soon be told in a new graphic novel project that she’s currently working on. We commend her bravery and resilience, and above all, her undaunted sense of humor.