Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Zehra Ömeroğlu
2025-2026
Discipline(s)
Arts and arts studies
Literature
Political Sciences
Theme(s)
Contemporary violence & Justice
Human Rights
Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Zehra is a Safe Haven Fellow at NIAS during 2025-2026.
Zehra Ömeroğlu was born in April 1985. She has a degree in social sciences and business administration. Her professional career as a cartoonist began in the magazine Bayan Yanı, which began as a supplement to Leman and then became the only satirical magazine in the world composed mainly of women. Today she draws in Leman, Gececi, Mağara, Tarama Ucu, Ot Mis and many other comic magazines. She generally deals with the absurdity of the so-called seriousness of everyday life, women’s stories, taboos, human psychology and our inner conflicts.
Research Project
The Case: A graphic novel on censorship, resilience and artistic resistance in the face of political repression
Research question: How can graphic storytelling document and resist political repression, and what role does satire play in reclaiming freedom of expression?
The Case is a deeply personal graphic novel that explores the absurdities of censorship, the limits of freedom of expression, and the resilience of artists under pressure. Based on her own experience as a political cartoonist prosecuted in Turkey for a satirical cartoon, Zehra Ömeroğlu examines how humor can become both a target and a tool in authoritarian contexts.
Through visual storytelling, it contrasts the severity of repression with the surreal logic of the legal system.
The narrative follows a journey from public defamation and legal persecution to international solidarity, forced relocation, and artistic reinvention.
Set between Turkey, Georgia, and Germany, “The Case” addresses the global erosion of artistic freedom and the power of satire as a form of resistance. It questions who gets to define offense, and how creative expression survives — or adapts — under pressure. The project blends irony, documentary reality, and emotional depth to reflect on the shifting borders of dissent.
Research Interests:
Political cartooning and censorship; satire as resistance; artistic freedom under authoritarianism; exile and creative reinvention