Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Omayya Joha is a well known cartoonist in the Middle East; she is the first Palestinian and Arab woman political cartoonist that has worked for a daily newspaper, and the first to establish her own business of Joha Toon. Joha was born in Gaza on February 2, 1972. She graduated from the Mathematics Department at Al Azhar University in Egypt 1995 with the highest degrees of honor and distinction. She is a member of the Naji Al-Ali Assembly of Fine Arts in Palestine, the Palestinian cartoonist who drew 40.000 political cartoons and created the Hanthalh character; the bair footed Palestinian child who appears to be watching what is going on, and thus we always saw his back and never saw his face. Joha is so good that she has won the Arab Journalism Award for her work in 2001 in a very competitive field dominated by men.
Joha has had a very sad life, she was married twice and both husbands died, the first husband was Rami Khader Saad, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2003 for being a fighter in the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, one of Hamas groups, the second husband was Wael Oqailan who died due to Israeli siege when he was prevented from leaving the Gaza strip to seek medical treatment after being injured in an explosion in the stomach. Aqilan died in May 2009. Joha’s personal and nation’s difficult life is reflected in her work which is focused on the political messages.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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