Arifur Rahman

Arifur Rahman (born August 8, 1984) is a Bangladeshi-Norwegian political cartoonist, illustrator and animator.

He is a self-taught cartoonist who is renowned for his contribution to cartoons both on the internet and in print media.

In Bangladesh, he is best known as "Cartoonist Arif" for anti-corruption cartoons.

He's won multiple awards for Anti-Corruption cartoons from Transparency International Bangladesh and the Daily Star. He was the first and former guest cartoonist of International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN).

He is a publisher of cartoon magazine Toons Mag and the organizer of international cartoon contests and exhibitions.

Arifur Rahman was born in a small village called Tetiar Kanda in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, Bangladesh.

When Arifur Rahman was in the Preschool, Arif's father left his wife and children and remarried.

Arif's parents got divorced afterward and his mother went back to her family's village, taking Arif and his sister along.

They were broke and his mother was depressed.

Whatever she was to inherit from her father had already been given to her husband in dowry, so she had nothing to get by.

Arif, with his mother and sister, lived in a room with their grandmother.

Arif's maternal grandfather was a pious man and had two wives.

Arif's mother was among the children from his first marriage, but he had come to live with his second wife during those years.

It meant he barely saw his first wife.

Arif was enrolled in the a nearby school there.

Arif and his family struggled for money.

His mother started farming chickens for some pocket money.

His uncles and aunts helped out by gifting Arif's mother goat and sheep cubs and he used to take care of the cattle when he returned from school.

Arif went to a village school back then, which was far away from his grandfather's house.

Arif had to walk a very long way to go to school every day.

Their village did not yet have access to electricity so, in the evening, he had to study by the tame flame of a kerosene lamp.

He was a self-taught cartoonist and started drawing at an early age.

His first cartoon was published in 2004 in a satire magazine called Bichhu by the Daily Jugantor.

Every day, he drew cartoons and sent them to the newspapers for publishing.

That is how he created a name for himself as a cartoonist.

He studied both in Bangladesh and in Norway.

In Bangladesh, he was famously known as “Cartoonist Arif.” In April 2004, Arif's cartoon was published in the satire magazine, “Bicchu” under the Daily Jugantor.

Since then, he has been drawing political satire cartoons and comic strips instead of paintings.

He drew every day and sent his work off to newspapers.

Almost all the daily newspapers in Bangladesh regularly published his cartoons back in the day.

During 2004–2007, he drew a large number of cartoons for various Bangladeshi newspapers, such as The Daily Jugantar, Bhorer Kagoj, Samakal, Jaijaidin, Amar Desh, Ittefaq and Prothom Alo.

He was noticed by people and known as "Cartoonist Arif" around Bangladesh.

He was recognized by fellow and legendary Bangladeshi cartoonists like Rafiqun Nabi, Shishir Bhattacharjee, and Ahsan Habib.

In 2005, Rahman won the third prize in a contest titled Pin Hunt that was put on by The Daily Prothom Alo's periodical, Alpin (আলপিন), and won third prize in the Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition arranged by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in 2006, as well as first prize in the Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition arranged by The Daily Star in 2007 and in the same year, The Daily Prothom Alo appointed him to draw cartoons as a contributing cartoonist.

Arifur Rahman's cartoons were regularly published in the satirical weekly supplement of The Daily Prothom Alo, Alpin, but the one published in the 17 September 17, 2007 edition stirred quite a bit of controversy.

The cartoon features a conversation between a little boy and an older man.

The apparently funny and harmless cartoon hurt a group of people's Islamic religious sentiments and Arif was sued for his cartoon.

Some people led by acclaimed religious influencers chose to call for a nationwide strike in Bangladesh on the back of the incident.

Alpin was discontinued and the editor, Sumanta Alam, was fired, effective immediately.

The editor of The Daily Prothom Alo, Matiur Rahman promised never to publish Arifur Rahman's cartoon in his newspaper again.