Saturday, January 31, 2009

January Blog of the Month: The Female Hanthalah



‘Hanthalah and Meiroun are friends’... at least on Facebook. This Palestinian affair is only natural and the reunion inevitable, since Naji’s El-Ali’ caricature character, having melted our hearts for Palestine, was bound to engender friends and relatives. But caricatures have moved with the times. Meiroun is older, more sophisticated in her approach and comfortable at venturing into more global themes: Love, Hate, the Internet etc.

Amal Kaawash blogs since 2005 and uses cartoons and drawings as her main communication medium. Words rarely take centre stage in her posts except to illustrate images. Meiroun, her online alter-ego is named after her home village in Galilee, Northern Palestine (Now part of the State of Israel). A wavy dark figure against simple stylised backgrounds she screams her nostalgia for a nation’s past, her sorrow for its present and its hope for its future.

Amal, through her cartoons, does not shy away from firm political stances, whether on the Intra-Palestinian conflict or the Intra-Lebanese conflict of the last 3 years. This is nowhere less obvious than in her personal take on the ‘I Love Life’ poster campaign launched by the media machine of the March 14th coalition in 2006. But she does it subtly and without offending, triggering reflection and soul searching. There is a clear positive evolution over the years in style and content. Her talent was duly rewarded at the Hanzala Cartoon Contest in May 2008 in Egypt.

Naji El Ali, had he not been tragically assassinated in 1987, would be proud... Palestine should be proud!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work...

Anonymous said...

Indeed, Naji El Ali would be proud...
I know I am Proud

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