New at Cartoon Movement today, Josh Neufeld’s Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand, a true story set during Bahrain’s short lived Pearl Revolution about two two young Bahraini editorial cartoonists named Mohammed and Sara who see the events from opposite sides. This is an excellent, accessible piece that really helps make clear a smaller eddy of the complex, swirling events of the Arab Spring.
Neufeld met Mohammed and Sara at workshops he led while visiting the tiny Persian Gulf country on a U.S. State Department trip. Shortly after Josh became friends with both of them on Facebook, Bahrain underwent much turmoil in protests inspired by the Arab Spring.
Neufeld documents Mohammed and Sara’s impressions of the events, through their words, experiences, and their own cartoons, which were published as events unfolded. What emerges is a portrait of a complex society burdened by a history of religious sectarianism. “Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand” is an unusual story of multiple, often conflicting narratives, much of it enabled by a rapidly changing online environment.
