In an escalating war of words that reflects the long-running conflict between the Judiciary and lawyers over the legal profession’s independence in Iran, the Iranian Bar Association Union’s president, Bahman Keshavarz, reiterated in an interview with the official ISNA news service on June 21 that the Union does not operate under the auspices of the Judiciary and that it is a private institution. The group’s “relative independence brings integrity to the Judicial Branch, court decisions and the state as a whole,” Keshavarz told ISNA. This is cartoonist Touka Neyestani’s take on the issue.