Ali Ferzat to Relaunch His Satirical Magazine, Al-Domari, in Egypt

Reuters and Al Ahram Hebdo both report that the great Syrian satirical cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, plans to re-launch al-Domari, or The Lamplighter, in Cairo.

Ferzat was recently in Cairo, and, according to Reuters, sketches that he made while working near Tahrir Square will soon appear in a re-launched al-Domari, set to be based in Cairo.

Lucky Cairo.

The prolific and beloved Syrian cartoonist founded the journal in 2000. For three years, it was one of Syria’s only independent media outlets.  Then, in 2003, it was was forced to shut down by the al-Assad regime.

“The magazine’s purpose is gradually remove the darkness that befell our Arab world,” Farzat told Reuters.

He also told the news agency that he hopes to form a symposium with young artists and cartoonists in Egypt to support the art movement that grew out of Egypt’s uprising.

Ferzat was also recently in Brussels to receive his 2011 Sakharov Award, and in Strasbourg for the Cartooning for Peace exhibition. He is freer to travel now, since he was forced to relocate to Kuwait. He also said, to a reporter for European Parliament news, that “revolutions need voices from abroad to pass on their message. This makes the revolution stronger.”

And according to Al Ahram Hebdo:

Ferzat quitte Le Caire avec son enthousiasme et sa bonne humeur habituels et un espoir hors du commun. « La réédition de mon journal n’est pas une histoire de notoriété, mais une implantation d’idée. Moi, je m’en irais un jour (de ce monde), mais mes idées resteront à jamais immortalisées noir sur blanc. Ce journal ne sera pas uniquement ma réussite, mais celle de tout le pays ; c’est un symbole de développement. Il n’aurait pas dû s’arrêter si tôt … », regrette-t-il, sur un ton de litanie.

Surely, at any moment, Syria is never far from Ferzat’s mind. He recently told the newspaper Discordance that « le silence de la communauté internationale tue les Syriens en jouant la carte du temps. L’opposition ne demande pas d’intervention militaire, juste des zones tampons et des zones d’exclusions aériennes pour pouvoir créer des couloirs humanitaires « .

If you haven’t yet seen this video with Ferzat, of him working, then you should. Samar Media did several of them. You’ve seen them all, right?