Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical series of comics, Persepolis tells the story of her youth and early adulthood in Iran before and during the Islamic Revolution and her adolescent years in Austria. The name Persepolis refers to the former Persian Empire. The graphic memoir was initially released in French and has been translated into numerous other languages.
The protagonist, Marjane is a six year old in the beginning of the book, and she is seen as a kid who is trying to follow her parents’ footsteps of being a communist rebel against the Shah who was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last monarch of Iran.
This book turned out to be one of my favorites because of its comical presentation and the portrayal of the protagonist, Marjane (by Marjane), who has been a rebel since her childhood. I’ve always found books that have an average, normal thinking human who turns out to do the extraordinary without being the extraordinary, appealing; and this book certainly did fill that category.
The main historical plotline that follows in the book is the Iranian revolution of 1979. About the revolution; Mohammad Pahlavi’s father used to be an army official 50 years before, and he wanted to overthrow the Quadjar emperor and make Iran a republic. The English came to know about this and offered him a deal that if he agrees to provide them oil; they’ll make him the emperor. They apparently convinced him to become an emperor instead of the President of a Republic by telling him that religious leaders are against the republic. So, he agreed on the deal and became the emperor. He was a dictator; still he modernized Iran, unlike his son. Marjane was a part of the royal bloodline here as her grandfather was a Quadjar prince. He was jailed by the Shah for being a communist.
The Shah finally resigned and 99.9% of the population voted for an Islamic Republic. At this point “war-wounds”, as in revolutionary wounds were considered heroic, and students were being taught to be against the royal family, now that it got overthrown. Marjane’s teacher who used to love Shah told her students to tear all the pages of the royal family from their books. This part reminded me of propaganda model, which we had discussed in class. Earlier they were being brainwashed into worshipping Shah via their books, so that even though people were getting against him, at least the students, being naïve, would support him. Since he was ousted, there was no need for that, and the anti-Shahs had sway, their removal from the media was fair.
An Islamic Republic, which was based on the notion of rule by Islamic jurists and employs clerics in a variety of significant government positions, had replaced the autocratic monarchy. A "neither east nor west" yet profoundly Islamist foreign policy was substituted for one that was pro-Western and pro-American. Islamic culture and a populist economy had displaced a capitalist economy that was quickly modernizing. Hence, the government got much stricter. Any anti-revolutionary elements were being eliminated. Marjane’s uncle and her uncle’s uncle, who were communists, had proclaimed province of Azerbaijan independent under Shah’s rule were also executed along with many of her relatives. Then, war broke out between Iraq and Iran, leading to daily bombings and millions dying.
Rules obviously had gotten stricter with the rise of the Islamic Republic, implementing rules like women should cover themselves from head to toe including their hair, and if any part of their bodies or hair is seen, they’ll be punished accordingly; women shouldn’t wear any makeup; men and women shouldn’t be seen together in public if they don’t have ids clarifying that they are married or are siblings, or they will be whipped. Quoting from the book, “Veil stands for freedom. A decent woman shelters herself from men’s eyes. A woman who shows herself will burn in hell.”
Getting to Marjane, she had always been a rebel like her parents and she always spoke up about things she felt were morally wrong. I like how she was inspired by rationality and what was morally right throughout the book, even if it meant going against her religion. Her family, who had an extremely outgoing mindset, always supported her through every aspect of her life, so much so that it was a clear example of how if even the whole world turns against you, but your parents stand by your side, you are still the luckiest kid in the world.
Moving forward; Marjane and her parents, being the rebels they were, met in secret groups with their peers, held parties, drank alcohol, and basically did everything that was proscribed to do. They did it all with the risk of getting jailed, and being whipped, if they ever got caught. The best part is, they did it all when the war was still on with bombings reaching till their neighborhood.
Things escalated when the war escalated. Young men were being sent off to war in the name of going to heaven. It was impossible to get a visa to leave the country, so nobody could escape the war, and things were getting tougher every day. Marjane used to keep debating with her teachers, correcting them on political points and one time she did that with her principal which got her expelled. Her parents couldn’t find her a new school, and her mother had a panic attack about where Marjane would lead herself to, being herself. She warned her that she might get executed, reminding her that in prisons, it was considered a sin executing female virgins. So, a prison guard would marry her and then rape her before killing her.
Because of such events, being worried about her, her parents decided to send her off to Vienna in the year 1986, when she was just 14 years old. She got into a French school, and stayed at her mother’s friend’s place. She sent her off to a boarding house as quickly as she welcomed her.
She obviously found it difficult to adjust to a First World Country. So, to try and adapt, she started going against her own principles, as in, going to anarchist parties, denying that she was Iranian, etc. At the same time she found it guilty to have fun when back in her home country, people were dying. It was all quite reasonable considering her position.
The next part in the story, while her being in Vienna, is quite a hassle. Long story short, she gets really desperate to be in a relationship because her first boyfriend found out that he was a homosexual because of her, so she gets into a toxic relationship with a guy who ends up cheating on her on her birthday. One thing leads to another and she gets into a fight with her lessee and spends her nights on the street. Out in the cold, being an addict to smoking, she starts coughing blood, and passes out. When she wakes up, she finds herself in a hospital with the doctor telling her that she has Bronchitis. Quoting her, “Survived a war but a banal love story killed me.”
She gets back home under the deal that nobody would ask her about her time in Vienna, while also going into depression. Getting to this part of the book, I didn’t agree with her, with the way she dealt with her thoughts and feelings. She kept dismissing her feelings, keeping them a secret and thinking that people are in worse conditions out there and are suffering from “actual, real life problems”, when she’s crying about the way a boy treated her. Yes, comparatively they have a huge difference, but still, problems are problems, especially related to mental health. You can’t just dismiss your feelings like that. No matter how trivial it is, if it a mental health issue, you have to address it or it would end up building up inside of you, like it did with Marjane. She tried to commit suicide because of it. I opposed this part the whole time I read it. This was the only part which I was against in the book, along with maybe the portrayal of communism.
Continuing with the story, the eight year long war ends, with both of the countries realizing that they were played cynically by the West the whole time, because the West sold weapons to both of them. To get over her depression, Marjane got into a university where she studied arts. She wanted to get a degree so that she could leave the country. This is one of my favorite parts of the book when while at the Uni, she voiced out her opinions on the whole dress-code extravaganza when the girls were asked to wear narrower trousers, longer headscarves and wear no makeup. She said, “You talk about our scarves and trousers, you say we use makeup etc. As an arts student, I am often in the studio; I need to move freely to draw. A longer scarf would hinder me. You say our trousers are too wide, even though they hide our shape. Since, these trousers are in fashion right now, I pose a question: Is religion defending our integrity or is it just opposing our fashion? Your criticism is always directed at women, yet our brothers here are allowed to dress as they please. Sometimes we can even make out their underwear. I just don’t understand, why as a woman, should their tight clothes have no effect on me, while a shorter headscarf arouses them.” When she was questioned about her speaking up and asked if she wore her veil in Austria, she said, “No, I have always thought if women’s hair posed so many problems, God would have certainly made us bald.”
The story ends with her divorcing her husband, which honestly, is quite courageous in Iran, considering how if a woman gets divorced there (or used to), men would start treating her like she is a free real estate. She moves to another country, after her grandma’s death and that’s when the book finishes.
Why I liked this book so much is because of the amount of coherence that Marjane Satrapi had. She knew the difference between being religious and being blindly religious. She knew where religion ended and politics started. And the best part of it all was that she had common sense, and she openly expressed it (except for the whole Austria scene, but she’s excused for that because she was a lonely teenager without guidance in another country).
Would give the book a four out of five rating and would recommend it to everyone, for being the eye-opener it is.