Cartoon 115: Ali Khamenei at the Tehran International Book Fair

During a visit to the Tehran International Book Fair, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, asked a publisher whether “novels by Iranian authors have any takers?” Over the past four decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has routinely censored and banned books by Iranian novelists from publication, based on content security agents label as “inappropriate” or “offensive,” and many authors and journalists have been imprisoned for what they have written. This is Iranian cartoonist Touka Neyestani’s take on the issue.