Acknowledgments

In making this study possible, I have benefited from kind assistance and help from many people, most notably my dearest father who supported me during my travels and studies. Furthermore, my heartfelt thanks go to several of my family members and close friends who have helped me in various ways, in particular by sending more than a hundred Persian sources thousands of kilometers from Iran to me in Malaysia, where much of this book was written as part of my PhD thesis. For this, I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Adnan Hussein from Universiti Sains Malaysia for his splendid supervision.

Nine of the best Iranian satirists around the world generously agreed to be interviewed for this thesis. I am very thankful to them all: Hadi Khorsandi, Ebrahim Nabavi, Roya Sadr, Abolfazl Zaruee, F. M. Sokhan, Firoozeh Mozaffari, Mana Neyestani, Hadi Heidari, and Pouria Alami. Prominent Iranian humor scholar Professor Hasan Javadi, who kindly allowed me to cite his valuable works in my thesis, and let me benefit from his worthwhile comments on the pre-published draft, is also greatly appreciated for his generosity.

I had the opportunity to gain comments and opinions on different parts of this study from several notable scholars including Professor Ahmad Sadri from Lake Forest College, Professor Michael Carter from the University of Sydney, Professor Mohammad Tavakkoli-Targhi from the University of Toronto, the late Dr Hossein Shahidi from the American University of Beirut, and my dear colleague Denise Ajiri from Colombia University. I would also like to thank my friend Dr Vahid Vahdat Zad, from Texas A&M University who read the partial draft of this thesis and assisted me in checking some of the Persian-English translation. Moreover, I thank Ms. Kristin Van den Eede from the University of Ghent for her very careful English editing, and her patience during the process.

My special gratitude goes to Professor Dirk Voorhoof, the former head of the department of Communication Science and member of the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University, Belgium, as he invited me as a Visiting Scholar and encouraged me to continue transforming my thesis into an academic book publication. This book may not have been possible without the support of Ghent University in cooperation with Scholars At Risk, an international network that protects scholars and promotes academic freedom. In addition, I appreciate the assistance of Dr Ephraim Nissan, Editor of John Benjamins’ book series on humor research, who enabled me to benefit from comments and guidance in preparing this book for publication.

I want also to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr Jessica Milner Davis from the University of Sydney, both a prominent humor scholar and a wonderful person. Since our first meeting at the 2012 annual conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, she has supported me with unfailing care and kindness, in many projects including this book.

Finally, and not least, I must name and thank a very special friend who occupies a unique place in my life, Parisa Minouchehr. Having shared so many of my difficulties with her, I would now like her to share in the success of bringing this work to publication and offering it to readers around the globe.

I am indebted to all the above-mentioned people and also to many others; unhappily this short acknowledgment does not suffice to name each and every one of them.