Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood: Growing Up Rebellious in Iran

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi; Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
by Marjane Satrapi
Review by: Carol Anne Douglas
Off Our Backs, Vol. 35, No. 3/4 (march-april 2005), pp. 63-64
Published by: off our backs, inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20838330 .
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 review

:
Persepolis

The of a
Story
Growing Up Rebellious inIran

Persepolis: The Storyofa Childhood (2003)

Persepolis 2: The Storyofa Return (2004)
By Marjane Satrapi, Pantheon ReviewedbyCarolAnneDouglas

I haven't read a comic book since I was about 10 could have imagined.
years old. The only comics I read now are "Dykes to Then, in 1981, Iraq attacked Iran and the fundamen
Watch Out For" and "Doonesbury," but I am a devoted talist Iranian government urged everyone to fight and
fan of both. The idea of graphic novels didn't interestme become martyrs. During the eight-year war, the Iraqi
at all. Then I read Persepolis and Persepolis 2 by Marjane military killed 1million Iranians. But at one point when
Satrapi and changed my mind. Her books show that Saddam Hussein wantedto end thewar, Iran's Ayatollah
graphic novels can provide a great deal of information? Khomeini refused because ithad become a holy war.
in this case, with a highly political viewpoint?in a very Teachers held daily sessions inwhich children were
accessible way. I suspect many people who otherwise supposed to hit themselves to show their sympathy with
wouldn't read a book on fundamentalism in Iran will read the martyrs.
and learn from her books. Apparently Satrapi was always rebellious and full of
Her books are enjoyable, although that is certainly a pranks that could have landed her in jail. She even struck
strange word to use to describe books that tell about a teacher who treated her badly. Her parents sent her to
murders, torture, and the repression of an entire popula Austria because they feared she was likely towind up
tion, particularly women. But Satrapi has such a sly sense imprisoned, raped, and executed if she stayed in Iran (it's
of humor that she makes her points with bitter laughter in against the law to execute a virgin in Iran, so jailers rape
the background. That's the virgins before theykill
only way to bear oppres them).
sion, she says in some of The second book is the
her graphic stories. tale of her life inAustria,
Her first book tells
Satrapi has a sly which was lonely because
about her childhood as an she was surrounded by
upper-class girl whose
sense of humor and people who didn't under
family,many of whom stand her or her culture and
were communists, opposed makes her points with didn't care to try.But the
the Shah. She and they most compelling part of the
supported the revolution,
bitter laughter in the book tells about her return to
Iran after an absence of
background. That's
which they thought would
bring about democracy or several years. Again, she
the rule by the proletariat,
the only way to bear tries to cope with living
under a dictatorship.
only to find that the result
was a fundamentalist
Islamic republic thatwas oppression, she says. Satrapi does not spare
herself. She shows herself in
more repressive than they all her weaknesses and even

off our backs.

march-april 2005 page 63

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tells what was surely theworst thing she ever did: When something terrible.
she thought revolutionary guards were about to arrest her But how could anyone cope with such an insane
forwearing lipstick, she drew their attention to a nearby world? She knew people who were tortured for owning
man who she claimed had harassed her, even though he playing cards and chess sets, and attended a party
hadn't, and they arrested him instead. She never knew (parties were forbidden) where the police pursued a
what happened to him; perhaps nothing much, perhaps young man over the rooftops (because he was a guest
at the party) until he fell
and died. But her friends
partied on in secret
because itwas
the only
way they could bear their
lives.

In a world where she

studied art at the univer
sity and was supposed to
learn how to draw the
human figure by drawing
a woman in a chador, and
was supposed to draw a
man (clothed, of course)
without looking at him,
it MlN<*et>OH the UlTTte how could she not resort
peTAit,*. our UApess, to hysterical laughter?
THe smaiust thws cooto se
a suwecT of sueveRsio?.
Satrapi is no friend of
U.S. imperialism, either.
SHOWING
*. She observes that the
WRIST. CIA interfered in Iran in
the 1950s and suggests
A lAU&H.
that theWest set Iran and
HAVING A WALKMAN, Iraq against each other,
arming them both
because itwanted to
reduce both countries'
?NSHORT . ,,eve^VTHl^ wa*
a pieerexr arr?st us. power. Men she knows
who were tortured under
rne Re&Me hap iwcrstood it's OMtV natural1 WUm the Shah's regime
that one person teAvw?? neR we'Re afraid, we tose au
House wHite asking ?eRseir: sense of ana?vsis because theywere leftists
Rer tecTiON, eue reAR
ARt MV PARAtv??es us, eesioes, said their torturerswere
fear ?as Aiways eee*4 t?&
trocars!
driving f?RCe eeniNO A?k?
trained by theCIA (the
. dictators' same men were freed
e*eo<SH? ReP^essio^.
GS
SHOWING YOUR HAIR OR briefly after the revolu
1tcsrcAtty ?eCA/^e acts tion, thenwere executed
by the Islamic Republic
because they were
CAH leftists). She now lives in
MY
France.
MAtce- I
UP 8? Do read these books.
see*?
You'll be glad you did.

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page 64 march-april 2005

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