Cartoon 84: Human Rights Award Given to “Mothers of Khavaran”

Touka Neyestani’s cartoon pays homage to the Mothers of Khavaran, a grassroots organization dedicated to spreading awareness of and seeking justice for the victims of the mass executions of political prisoners carried out by the Islamic Republic in the 1980′s, on the occasion of the group’s being awarded the 2014 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, given annually by the South Korean May 18 Memorial Foundation.

The Mothers of Khavaran have been attempting to go to the Khavaran Cemetery in Tehran, where many of the executed prisoners are buried in mass graves, every last Friday of the Iranian year in order to keep the memory of their loved ones alive, but the Islamic Republic, as a matter of policy, has prevented victims’ families from installing headstones or even entering the cemetery for group ceremonies marking the anniversary of the mass executions.

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