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"Talking about any repressive system that may cause some side effects, such as: headache, mood swings, bloating, indigestion, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, loss of home, loss of friends, loss of guaranteed constitutional rights, death. If you are a dictator, please leave this The room immediately. "
("Tickling the Giants")
With this cautionary text, the documentary film "Tickling the Amalekites" by American Sarah Taksler, starring in the name of Youssef, the satirical show "The Program", focuses on the value of sarcasm and its role in revealing the truths to viewers, how ridicule causes the loss of friends, family, the homeland, and perhaps life.
If Bassem Youssef, the presenter of the program, who came out after the January 2011 revolution, had survived or been arrested by leaving Egypt, then another example is the journalist and satirist Shadi Abu Zaid, who was arrested by the Egyptian authorities in May 2018 for publishing clips. A video in which he mocks the regime and the security forces charged with protecting Tahrir Square in 2016, and still remains imprisonment, and the charge "sarcasm", the most disturbing accusation of authoritarian and military regimes whose role in the modern era revolves around defeating the last weapon that people possess is ridicule. Marx says that history repeats itself twice, once in the form of tragedy, and once in the form of a farce, but that the Arab reality has crossed the threshold of farce in stages, a reality in which the satire that Arabs have used since ancient times has become a weapon in the face of regimes and criticism of the community around them, a charge that may lead to Imprisonment, exile or death.
"The difference between the terrible and the funny, the majestic, Morocco is a poetry or an eye glimpse. There is no doubt about this fact, from a psychological point of view, the horrors suddenly turn into an emergency laughter from the emergency of change and change that alternates in the days of victory and defeat, and the rise and fall between the tyrants and the owners of states, no doubt. In this fact also from the historical point of view, there is no era that is full of sacrifices from the ages of volatility, adversity and horrors. ”(1)
(Abbas El Akkad)
When we talk about sarcasm, we may agree that no person has been able to be unique in describing the satirist in Arab history more than Juha and his donkey, this is confirmed by most historical sources about the uniqueness of Juha’s personality, in terms of popularity and staying on top of sarcasm for decades, so Abu Ghusn is the real name of Juhah The Arab tribe of Fazarah, who was born in the first Hijri century, and contemporated with the Umayyad Caliphate, which was famous for its sarcasm of its rulers and the conditions of society in their era. .
Aba Al-Ghusn died but his nickname remained alive, so we find him appearing in Istanbul in particular in the city of Konya, represented by Sheikh Nasruddin Khojah or Juha, who contemporary the rule of the Mongols to the countries of Anatolia. Until his grave turned into a historical shrine engraved with its anecdotes. Then the character of Juha continued to appear again and again, and the character of Juha appeared in Iran in the name of Mulla Nasruddin, then Artin, who has a strong tongue in Armenia, and Arrow dupe in Yugoslavia, and Gogha in Italy and Malta.
The personality of Juha was linked - in terms of historical reality - with the times when oppression and injustice intensify, especially in the eras of political repression and military oppression, where the people begin to choose the grammatical symbol - in relation to Juha - in an attempt to resist deviation and domination, while making sure to reject The situation and not melting in conditions. That is why it was not in vain, or coincidence, that the historical reality of the grammatical model relates to the eras of decline. It was also not in vain that Juha, in the popular tradition, remained associated with Genghis Khan, Timor Link, Abu Muslim Khorasani, Qaraqosh, and their likenesses of kings and rulers. (2)
That is why it is not surprising that the national sentiment continues to celebrate these regional anecdotes throughout the ages, and to remain intact in them for centuries and prolonged centuries, whenever its party commands, or stimulates them to stand, and for this, its anecdotes for the Arab people will remain a safety valve, a balance stick, and a means of expression in that battle The eternity between tyrannical power and defenseless truth, as historical facts confirm that the character of Juha will never meet a just ruler. (3)
Anton C. says. Zederfield, professor of general sociology and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam, ironic in his book "Sociology of irony and laughter" that humor can be defined as playing institutional meanings. By playing with the meanings that build our daily lives, a comic is able to disturb our definition of reality, causing doubt about the value of the daily routine and creating some confusion regarding the foundations of reality. ”(4) By playing in the sense, humor allows“ a professional comedian to reveal Playing according to double standards in official ethics or legal ethical rules and actual behavior. (5)
What was confirmed by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud's theory of humor, which he published in a research paper entitled "The Ego and the Fun" in 1923, "in which he says that within each person a defensive ploy, which are psychological strategies used by the subconscious to protect the individual from tension caused by ideas or Refused feelings, Freud classifies the psychological defenses that the mind uses into four parts: satisfactory, immature, nervous, and mature, among the characteristics of mature psychological defenses; patience, courage, respect, acceptance, and humor. He describes humor as an expression of ideas or feelings that usually It is of a painful nature in a joke that gives joy to others. " (6)
The social and psychological ridicule is considered a good quality that reflects the maturity and integrity of its owner’s thought, which completely contradicts the intellectual legacy cultivated by repressive regimes that ridicule is not a benign characteristic, but rather denotes the banality and lack of maturity of its owner, as reflected in the accusations of the Arab regimes in their analogies against those trying to Mocked her, calling him a clown or childhood.
Fajah is an example described by historical sources as an intelligent person, hinted, present at the answer, quick-witted, sharp-eyed, piercing, and if he pretends otherwise, he takes a special method in neglecting and foolishness as an ideal way to escape the oppression of everyone who gets rid of him with his mockery, (7) The thoughts of the playwright and playwright Oscar Wilde often said when he said: "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they will topple you."
The character of Juha came to Egypt from the Arabian Peninsula, to start a new phase of growth and development. The people of Egypt were earlier than their neighbors in the mockery of the pharaohs and kings, as Egyptologists return the first appearance of a satirical caricature on the papyrus leaves to about 1300 BC, where the ancient Egyptians symbolized the struggle between the king and the people with a conflict between cat and mouse, and it symbolized the cat to the king and mouse To the people, we see a sketch depicting the struggle between cats and mice, where the rat king revolves on a war wheel driven by two dogs and attacks a fort guarded by cats, in reference to the strength of the people in the face of an authoritarian ruler. (8)
The struggle for satire of the regimes in Egypt in its various forms continued to grow according to the need of the Egyptians, so the drawings were used and the anecdotes were transmitted among them, until the French campaign and then the English came, so he moved to Egypt a new form of sarcasm called "Caricature" invented by the Italian "Musini" and then moved to other parts Europe and from there to Egypt, and from the beginning the Egyptians directed that modern art at the time of the political and social framework, taking advantage of their long history with irony in creating funny pictures that expose aspects of corruption, injustice, the people's struggle with the king, his court, and the political elite.
The Egyptians ’reception of irony in all its forms explained the appearance of hundreds of satirical newspapers and magazines,“ beginning with Abdullah Al-Nadim’s magazines such as, lamenting and joking, professor, and Nadim, through to humor, a thousand jokes and jokes, kashkol, and bashkatib. In all those satirical newspapers the condition of the Egyptian people was The hero, and the government was the critic. How many articles or drawings in a newspaper were the cause of the trial of the writer or the painter. One of the first of them was the cartoonist “Rakha” who criticized the government of “Nazem Sidqi”, so they projected a person to write on his drawing the phrase “Down with King Fouad” He was imprisoned for that painting and never again to draw, but the cartoonists and writers continued to criticize them, and the people continued to embrace their works. (9)
Then the first stereotypical character in the art of caricature appeared at the hands of the Egyptian Armenian artist "Alexander Rukhitan" when he invented the "Egyptian Effendi" character to represent the Egyptian people, and to have their sarcastic tongue out of the system, the king and the English, and then satirical characters rolled by the great modern artists Such as Ahmed Hijazi, Bahjat Muhammad Othman, Muhyiddin al-Labbad, Salah Jaheen, etc. The satirical writing has been on fire and criticism since Al-Nadim, to Mahmoud Al-Saadani, Ahmed Ragab, Jalal Amer, and many others.
Then the forms of modern irony moved from writing and drawing to the Arab world from the Egyptian Gate, so Arab artists such as the Palestinian Naji Al-Ali, the creator of Handala, the Libyan artist Mohammed Al-Zawawi, and the Lebanese Mahmoud Mahmoud Kahil, and the Syrian Ali Farzat, whom the Syrian authority sent after the outbreak of the revolution in 2011, grabbed their men to break His fingers so that he can learn from all who want to make fun of her. But soon the irony moved from mere pens, drawings, pictures, newspapers and articles to a daily position practiced by the Arab peoples whenever the reality increased unjustly and bitterly.
"The size of the jokes that showed the extra weight above the imagination, ... and please joke at a little bit higher."
This was one of the many times that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi breaks his silence and demands no derision, which he tries to convey to the people that he knows everything, since he came to power in 2013 after a military coup against the first civilian president after the January 25 revolution, he tried In every way, he asserts that he cares about all the details that take place inside the country, even those "comics" that are published on social media platforms that he cares about, which made him, during his attendance at the youth conference, enter into a bout of laughter at the Egyptians' sarcasm at raising prices, the collapse of the Egyptian economy and the death of the middle class Because of the austerity policies of the system.
But the frenzy of the Egyptian president's laughter does not reflect the true image of his relationship to mockery. The Egyptian regime has been sure since taking the reins of affairs to put an end to everyone who does not adhere to the same voice, so there is no place for the other opinion or mockery. , Who, after fleeing Egypt, confirmed that he had stopped the program because of his fear for his family.
Specifically, the Egyptian regime continued to pursue the cynics, making sure that the Egyptian newspapers, after being seized by the intelligence apparatus, were free of any difference, which forced the satirical writer Bilal Fadl to leave Egypt and flee also after stopping a series that he wrote, and the regime continued to pursue him to the opposition Or anyone who might be suspected of being sympathetic to her, after human rights organizations monitored thousands of detainees for their opinions, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting enforced disappearances in Egypt, reaching 1,530 cases between July 2013 and August 2018.
The true picture of the Egyptian regime’s relationship with mockery developed very quickly. With the evacuation of the arena from opponents, the world of online media began to take the most attention from the people. Until that moment, it was a safe way to express opinions and speak with some freedom, and it began to circumvent the imposed security grip On it, pages began to be created on social networking sites that use a method that was not the first of its kind, which is "COMEX", as the magazine "Toktock", which was issued days before the January 25 Revolution, had a lead in using the "comics" mocking against the Mubarak regime.
Then, with the deterioration of the continuous conditions in Egypt, the "comics" pages occupied the social media sites, so many young people began to learn their working techniques, in order to implement the satirical ideas they wanted to communicate, until the "comics" turned into a collective way to reject the political and economic situation. Making "comics" became the best way to ridicule all segments of society, from the situation, and even from the society itself.
As if society had elected another way to circumvent the regime’s grip and oppression, then the “Comics” replaced Juha, but the other party remained preparing to fight the eternal conflict, so the regime started a frightening process, such as leaking news about the Ministry of Interior’s monitoring of social media pages under the pretext of eliminating terrorism, except that Not only did her attempt fail, she turned into comics.
After the state failed to contain the mockery of it, the Egyptian regime began to move to resolve this crisis, as the American "Pazfid" website published a news explaining the Egyptian security authorities contract with the company "C Egypt" of the American company to monitor Internet activities "Blue Coast" to step up censorship of websites Social media and other sites on the World Wide Web inside Egypt. (10)
The state began to legalize its electronic grip legally, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approved a law to tighten Internet censorship in the country, and the law gives the competent investigation authorities the right to block websites if they publish material that is a threat to the “security of the country or its economy.” According to that law, any personal account on social media, any blog, or any website on the Internet that is followed by more than 5,000 people is considered a media outlet that is subject to the Media Law. (11)
The situation did not differ much in the rest of the Arab countries. The public prosecution in Saudi Arabia published a tweet through its account on the social networking site "Twitter" that producing, sending, or re-sending what includes mockery, mockery, or excitement, and what would affect public order through social media or any means Technology is an information crime with a sentence of 5 years in prison and a fine of 3 million riyals. (12)
In the UAE, the IT Crime Law was passed in November 2012, which has been used so far to clamp down on Emiratis who challenge the way in which the country's political activists are treated with ridicule. The law stressed that there is no exception for foreigners, and a UAE court recently ruled a prison American Shezan Kassem is imprisoned for one year, fined 2,700 US dollars, and deported from the country for posting the satirical "Satwa School of Martial Arts" video on YouTube. (13) As for the rest of the other Arab countries, the situation was not different from that of its siblings, but the conflict remained in decline and rise, calm down and ignite at other times, but the sarcastic souls were always ready to rise whenever the circumstance required creativity of humor that puts a smile on the faces frowned, so the stage of ridicule Those whose fuse was ignited will remain burning until the just ruler extinguishes them.