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Cartoon Cat Helps Keep Tunisia's Revolutionary Flame Alight

Agence France-Presse

   When Tunisia's embattled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali delivered a
   last-ditch speech promising new freedoms to a country in revolt, Nadia
   Khiari sketched her cat delivering the same address to a group of mice.

   The next day, January 14, 2011, Ben Ali fled into exile, forced out by
   weeks of unprecedented mass protests against his rule.

   Ten years later, her cat remains in rude health, and his cartoon
   alter-ego Willis from Tunis has become an icon of the revolution.

   "I decided to use this character to tell the story of what was
   happening in my country," said Khiari, a painter and lecturer in fine
   arts.

   Pouncing on Tunisia's unprecedented new freedoms, she began posting
   bitter and witty political cartoons on Facebook, all featuring cats.

   "For me as an artist, it was a true revolution, because from one day to
   the next I was able to express myself freely," she said.

   Her audience, initially just family and friends, has grown to more than
   55,000 followers today.

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