Cartoons under Threat

Best known for his political cartoons and caricatures, many of which appeared in popular magazines such as France’s Charlie Hebdo, Osama Hajjaj was born in Amman, Jordan in 1973. He has worked for various daily newspapers in his country, and publishes his cartoons in several regional and international web-sites, such as Cagle Cartoons and Cartoon Movement.

Together with his brother Emad Hajjaj, who is also a cartoonist, they are acutely aware of the challenges involved in publishing political cartoons in the Middle East. Both have been victims of intimidation, have received death threats on account of their satirical work, especially cartoons directed at ISIS. Osama claims that he was jailed for one of his cartoons.