Call for Freedom and Independence with Support for Saad and Safiya Zaghlul (al-Siyasa al-Musawwara)
A colour cartoon shows portraits of Saad Zaghlul (the 'esteemed president') and his wife Safiya (veiled, 'the esteemed president's wife') clasped by hand between kneeling women in pharaonic-style dress, under portraits of four earlier nationalists and rows of crescent-and-star pennants. The tell is the lineup: the earlier nationalist figures and Egypt's ancient imagery are placed around the Wafd leader, so their prestige attaches to him, while the caption slogans (freedom, independence) are virtue words with no programme.
- Date
- 1923
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Wafd-aligned cartoonists Abd al-Hamid Zaki and Ahmad Hasan al-Shubaki, for al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo
- Region
- Middle East and North Africa
- Country
- Kingdom of Egypt
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Kingdom of Egypt
- Leader
- Yahya Ibrahim Pasha
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Elections and party politics, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Egyptian Election Campaign 1923
- Techniques
- TransferGlittering generalities
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (reproduction from Cannon, University of Utah Press, 2019), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1923, before 1931 in the U.S.; Commons PD-Egypt tag, term expired)
Abd al-Hamid Zaki and Ahmad Hasan al-Shubaki, al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo, 1923; via Wikimedia Commons, reproduced in Cannon (2019)
Text on the object
عبد العزيز جاويش وليم مكرم عبيد مصطفى كامل باشا محمد بك فريد الرئيس الجليل الرئيسة الجليلة تحيى الحرية تحيى الاستقلال تحيى الرئيسة تحيى الرئيس [left margin, rotated and small: عبد الحميد زكي و احمد حسن الشبكي]
Abd al-Aziz Jawish William Makram Ebeid Mustafa Kamil Pasha Muhammad Farid Bey The esteemed president The esteemed president's wife Long live freedom Long live independence Long live the president's wife Long live the president [left margin: Abd al-Hamid Zaki and Ahmad Hasan al-Shubaki]
Read from a 960 px reproduction. The verb at the start of each slogan is printed in a form whose first letter is hard to tell apart at this size (it may be read as ta, ya or nun); it is transcribed as 'ta-hya' and translated as the ordinary 'long live' slogan, but a fluent reader should confirm. The left-margin artist credit is tiny and rotated, and is taken from the Commons description rather than read with confidence. Translation is literal, machine-made, and not checked by a fluent reader.
