In the cartoon, there is a woman who is leaned back in a chair with her head tilted back.  As her head is tilted back, her face is unrecognizable and hidden. She has brown, wavy hair, and she is wearing a red hat with a blue gown. The woman has a black belt tied around her gown and a black jewel or pendant on her hat. Her legs take on the form of pencils, except there appear to be holes in the pencils. The pencils have red and blue stripes on them. Ink spills from the holes in her legs and drips down to the floor. The background is blank, along with the chair.

Since the title of the cartoon is “@ Charlie Hebdo”, it is safe to assume that the Charlie Hebdo magazine is represented in the cartoon. The color scheme of the overall cartoon renders this assumption accurate. The woman having white skin and wearing red and blue suggests that the woman represents France, or a figure of France because the French flag is red, white, and blue as well. Since the Charlie Hebdo magazine is a French magazine, it is evident that the woman represents Charlie Hebdo magazine. The holes in the woman’s pencil legs implicate gunshots. The manner of the ink as it spills out of the holes is reminiscent of blood, which would make the holes appear to be the result of something as violent as gunshots. The woman being shot also makes sense when you analyze her posture in the cartoon. Her body is seemingly lifeless, and her head is hanging backward in an unusual manner that hides her face. There is no presence of movement in her positioning, and this strange lack of motion can only suggest that the woman has been killed. Given that the woman was shot, it can be further stated that this cartoon alludes to the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. This is because the victims of the terrorist attack were shot just like the woman in the cartoon. The ink spilling out of the holes in the woman’s legs don’t only represent the blood, but also symbolizes a loss of freedom of speech. This is because other works by Eladl commonly feature pens, and other writing utensils being as a symbol of verbal liberty and being able to publicize one’s thoughts without censorship. However, the circumstances are different in this situation. The Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack that is depicted in this cartoon had intentions to silence the voices of the cartoonists and journalists of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. The spilling of the ink from the woman’s legs represents this act of silencing in a way that deprives the woman in the cartoon of having the ability to utilize her legs, the same way that the cartoonists and journalists that passed away during the shooting were deprived of having the ability to exercise their verbal liberty in the magazines. In this cartoon where the featured writing utensil is being damaged, it shows contrast from Eladl’s other cartoons where the featured writing utensil is being used to its full extent, which pushes the meaning of this cartoon even further.

This cartoon bears thematic similarities to another cartoon by Eladl titled “Jamal Khashoggi”. This cartoon references Jamal Khashoggi, who was a journalist  that was assassinated for similar reasons as the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting. He spoke very openly about woman’s rights and freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia, which is what ultimately lead to his demise. This premeditated act of murder on writers who speaks out about their political oppositions is what makes the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and the Charlie Hebdo terrrorist attack similar to eachother. Both of these cartoons share the same world issue of suppression of freedom of speech. The way that Eladl illustrates both of these events are similar as well. In the Jamal Khashoggi cartoon, the man in the cartoon appears to be presumably dead, like the woman in the Charlie Hebdo cartoon. The characters in the cartoons being illustrated in a way that is devoid of liveliness depicts the deaths of the victims of both attacks. Visually, both cartoons have the same aesthetic of a blank background, and the most critical parts of the cartoon being colored selectively to pinpoint crucial points made by the cartoon. For example, in the Charlie Hebdo cartoon, only the colors red, white, and blue are depicted in order to represent France, since France is where the terrorist attack took place. In the Jamal Khashoggi cartoon, the only color is green of the dollar bill of the cartoon, and the red that splatters on the bottom of the dollar bill. These visual choices can represent the expression, “blood money”, which is money paid to hired killers to carry out a murder.

Essentially, this cartoon shows the unfortunate consequences that writers and artists face when they make their freedom of speech become a large part of their art form. It isn’t the first time an event like the one depicted in the cartoon has happened. Journalists and writers from all over the world have been executed for displaying their political oppositions. It is an issue that has kept artists from speaking out about the truths that they wish to speak about. Eladl, being an artist herself is well aware of the absurdities that surround this behavior that has been seen so many times throughout history and is even using her freedom of speech in this cartoon to speak out about those absurdities. This cartoon may confuse someone that isn’t familiar with the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack and comes across as a political cartoon about a woman’s freedom. However, for someone knowledgeable about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, the cartoon deviates from that meaning, and gender of the character portrayed in the cartoon proves itself to be irrelevant.