The satirical French newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, released a comic last week featuring Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose body washed up on the shore of Turkey and shifted the public perception of the refugee crisis. The newspaper shows a caricature of Kurdi’s lifeless body as it was in the famous photograph inset within a frame of a man chasing a woman, arms outstretched to grope her. From French, the translated text above the image reads “What would have happened to little Alan if he had grown up?” Beneath the drawing is the caption “German ass-grabbers.” The cartoon came as a response to the recent coordinated sexual assaults that took place on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany. The perpetrators of the attacks were allegedly migrants.
Kurdi drowned off the coast of Turkey along with his five-year-old brother and mother in early September 2015. His family was attempting a journey from Syria to Greece when their boat filled with refugees capsized and sank. The family had initially applied for refugee status in Canada where they have family, but was rejected.
The comic has sparked outrage. Kurdi’s aunt, Tima, who lives in Port Coquitlam, B.C responded to the cartoon through CBC News saying, “I only wish from [the cartoonists] as human beings to respect this innocent three-year-old boy.”
This is not the first time Charlie Hebdo has published controversial comics, nor is it the first time they have used Kurdi’s image. In a cartoon from September 2015, Kurdi is drawn face down on a beach with a McDonald’s billboard in the background. The drawing’s caption reads, “So close to his goal.” Another cartoon that was released depicts Jesus and a drowning boy, assumedly Kurdi, captioned with “Proof that Europe is Christian: Christians walk on water, Muslim kids sink.” The release of this latest comic comes just after the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office. Eleven were killed and eleven others injured when two gunmen entered the Paris office on Jan. 7 2015. Social media and politicians responded to the attacks with the polarizing slogan #JeSuisCharlie.
In response to the cartoon, Queen Rania of Jordan commissioned a Jordanian editorial cartoonist, Omar Hajjaj, to recreate the image. Queen Rania tweeted, “Aylan could’ve been a doctor, a teacher, a loving parent…” along with the image of Kurdi growing up to become a doctor.
While some have interpreted the cartoon as a criticism on the changing attitudes of the general public and media on the refugee crisis, the overwhelming majority of response to the cartoon has been negative, saying it is in poor taste and preys upon those who are already in a marginalized position in society.