--- description: The pen that mocked Syria's tyrant title: Ali Ferzat - The World's 100 Most Influential People: 2012 - TIME image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30c8211e086da438/6998ce69c8dcb4c617b50f36/t100_ferzat.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 18, 2012 # Ali Ferzat Cartoonist by [Matt Wuerker](/author/matt-wuerker/) ## Matt Wuerker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Muzaffar Salman / AP There's something about cartoons. They really get under the skin. Tyrants often don't get the jokes, but their people do. So when the iron fist comes down, it often comes down on cartoonists. Ferzat wasn't intimidated. His hands have healed and are back to cartooning — drawing sharp, vivid pictures and wry observations on his people's plight. In the end, the joke is on the regime. It thought it could silence Ferzat and break his will by breaking his hands. Instead it created a powerful symbol who draws cartoons the whole world is now reading. Talk about a great punch line. _Wuerker is a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for_ Politico ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-worlds-100-most-influential-people-2012/7373579/ali-ferzat/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-worlds-100-most-influential-people-2012/7373579/ali-ferzat/"},"headline":"Ali Ferzat - The World's 100 Most Influential People: 2012 - TIME","datePublished":"2012-04-18T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:56:31.383Z","description":"The pen that mocked Syria's tyrant","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-worlds-100-most-influential-people-2012/7373579/ali-ferzat/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30c8211e086da438/6998ce69c8dcb4c617b50f36/t100_ferzat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Wuerker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-wuerker/"}],"creator":"Matt Wuerker","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30c8211e086da438/6998ce69c8dcb4c617b50f36/t100_ferzat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-worlds-100-most-influential-people-2012/7373579/ali-ferzat/","name":"Ali Ferzat - The World's 100 Most Influential People: 2012 - TIME"}}]}] ```