Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani was born in Tehran. For several years, he worked for the government magazine Iran.

His use of an Azeri word for “cockroach” in a children’s cartoon published in May 2006 triggered riots among the Azeri minority, already persecuted by the Iranian government. The newspaper closed and Neyestani spent months in prison. Upon his release he emigrated to Malaysia and now lives in Paris. He received the Courage in Editorial Cartooning Prize from the Cartoonists Rights Network International in 2010.