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Iranian satirical magazine takes cautious stab at politics

TEHRAN, Jan 27 (AFP) - Iran's most popular satirical magazine, Golagha, takes a lighthearted look at politicians, but continues to steer safely clear of the all-powerful clergy two decades after the Islamic Revolution.

In a country where humour is both indispensable and a potential cause of trouble, Golagha has been treading a thin line since it appeared eight years ago.

So far, the illustrated weekly has achieved its goal of making the public laugh and ensuring its survival at the same time.

But the magazine has appeared to have tested the limits on a number of occasions.

In one of its bolder cartoons during legislative elections two years ago, Golagha portrayed outgoing MPs leaving the assembly in Mercedes limousines while newly-elected deputies in ragged clothing arrived on bicycles.

Another cartoon took a stab at recent legislation to segregate staff at Iranian hospitals by sex in accordance with Islamic morals.

It showed veiled and mustachioed women carrying a female patient on a stretcher in a hospital corridor.

A regular character in Golagha, an office tea-man, represents the man in the street, poking fun at officials with his wise and cynical, though good-humoured, attitude.

Sceptics dismiss the magazine as a mere "safety valve for the regime," but the magazine invokes its popularity as a defense.

An initial 20,000 readers has now risen to a steady 100,000. "If an issue is a day late, we can expect calls from our readers which range from the president's office to the local grocer," said chief editor Kyumars Saberi.

Iran's satirical publications have had a checkered history in the past two decades and were banned in the early 1980s.

Golagha began to publish in late 1990, during a period of political detente which followed the death of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"We had to convince people that caricatures and satire were an art form, not just a way of poking fun at the regime," Saberi said.

Saberi is indeed anything but a dissident journalist. He served in the 1980s as a cultural advisor to two presidents, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is now the country's supreme leader.

He is also close to President Mohammad Khatami.

There are two subjects the magazine will not touch: sex (which includes showing women without veils) and poking fun at the clergy.

And for good reason: a cartoonist from another satirical magazine, Farad, was jailed for a year in 1992 for crossing the red line. He had drawn a cleric some believed bore an uncanny resemblance to the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

But limitations on drawing clerics translate into restrictions on laughing at politicians, given the fact that everyone who matters in political life here is a cleric, including the supreme leader, the president, the head of the judiciary and intelligence ministry and the speaker of parliament.

Golagha has fallen back on benign ministers and deputies, notably the corpulent Vice President Hassan Habibi, who is a favorite target.

Saberi said an easing of censorship under the moderate Khatami had allowed the magazine to be a little bolder.

Its depictions of armed right-wing extremist groups, notorious here for their attacks on student gatherings and bookshops, are unprecedented.

"The red line used to be very close, now it's a little farther," the editor said.

While readers are still unlikely to see cartoons of Ayatollah Khomeini, they can feast their eyes on endless cartoons and articles on Iran's much reviled enemy the United States.

"I have opened a little space for political satire here," Saberi said. "If someone wishes to go further, they're welcome..."


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