Persepolis (comics)

Persepolis 1 begins by introducing Marjane, the ten-year-old protagonist. Set in 1980, the novel focuses on her experiences of growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Her story details the impact of war and religious extremism on Iranians, especially women. Belonging to an upper-middle-class family, Marji has access to various educational materials, such as books and a radio, which expose her to Western political thought at a very young age. By discovering the ideas of numerous philosophers, Marji reflects on her class privilege and is eager to learn about her family's political background. This inquiry inspired her to participate in popular demonstrations against the Shah's regime, in which people asked for his exile to safeguard their rights. Unfortunately, after the Shah's departure, Marji notices the rise of religious extremism in her society and is unhappy about it. Her uncle Anoosh's visit deepens her interest in politics when he tells her stories of being imprisoned as a communist revolutionary. His stories cause her to value ideas of equality and resistance. The new government then began to reform Iranian society, especially by having women cover themselves publicly and restricting social freedoms. Marji's family begins to fear for their lives since many of their friends and thousands of Iranians have fled the new regime to Europe or the USA, but they resolve to stay. Anoosh is arrested again and accused of being a spy. He is executed for his political beliefs. Marji is upset that God did nothing to help her uncle and rejects her faith.

After an abrupt family vacation to Europe, Marji returns to Iran, where she learns from her grandmother that the government has declared war against Iraq. As her hometown of Tehran comes under attack, she finds safety in her basement, which doubles as a bomb shelter. One night, the family hears the Iranian National Anthem play on the TV, moving them to tears. It is later revealed that the government released the soldiers and air pilots from prison who were in jail for protesting. The soldiers agreed to fight on the condition that the country's National Anthem be played on public broadcasting. Amidst the chaos of an ongoing war, her family secretly revolts against the new regime by having parties and consuming alcohol, which is prohibited in the country. Two years of war force Marji to explore her rebellious side by skipping classes, obsessing over boys, and visiting the black market that has grown due to the shortages caused by war and repression.

As the war intensifies, Marji rushes home one day to find that a long-range ballistic missile has hit her street. Her family escaped the missile as it hit the neighboring building, which housed their neighbors of Iran's minor population of Jews, the Baba Levys. She is traumatized by seeing her friend's dead body and expresses her anger against the Iranian political system. Her family begins to worry about her safety and decides to send her off to Austria for further study and to escape the war. The novel ends with her departure to Europe and the final sight of her mother fainting in her father's hands, unable to bear letting go of Marjane.

The second part of the series takes place in Vienna, where Marji starts her new life, whilst a student at the Lycée Français de Vienne, at a boarding house because her mother's friend has no room for her at her own apartment. Since she cannot speak German upon arrival, Marji finds it hard to communicate, but eventually overcomes it and makes friends. She assimilates into the culture by celebrating Christmas and going to Mass with her roommate. Away from home, Marji's Iranian identity deepens, and she is expelled from the boarding house after a verbal altercation with a nun who makes xenophobic comments against Marji.

Marji starts living with her friend Julie and her mother. Here, she experiences more culture shock when Julie talks about her sexual endeavors, as such topics are prohibited in Iran. Soon she undergoes a physical and ideological transformation by using drugs and changing her appearance while continuing to move house. Marji finally settles on a room with Frau Dr. Heller, but their relationship is unstable. Issues also arise in many of Marji's relationships, in which she finds comfort in drugs. She forms a relationship with Markus, but breaks up with him when she discovers that he has been cheating on her. Marji leaves Frau Dr. Heller's house after she accuses Marji of stealing her brooch. She spends the day on a park bench and ends up living on the streets for two months. When she catches bronchitis, she almost dies, but is found and taken to a hospital. Marji reaches out to her parents who arrange for her to move back and thus, after living in Vienna for four years, she returns to Tehran.

At the airport, she recognizes how different Iran is from Austria. Donning her veil once more to go out, she takes in the 65-foot murals of martyrs, rebel slogans, and the streets renamed after the dead. At home, her father tells her the horrors of the war, and they talk deep into the night about what she had missed. After hearing what her parents had gone through while she was away in Vienna, she resolves never to tell them of her time there. However, her trauma from Austria makes her fall into depression, forcing her to attempt suicide twice. When she survives, she takes it as a sign to live and starts her process of recovery by looking after her health and taking up a job. She also begins art classes at the local university. However, due to the restrictions of showing female nudity, Marji and her friends attend secret sessions and parties, away from the prying eyes of the religious police.

Following her return to Iran, Marji meets Reza, also a painter, and they soon begin to date, but this proves to be frowned upon by the religious police. They are caught holding hands and their families are forced to pay a fine to avoid their lashings. In 1991, Reza proposes marriage to Marji, and after some contemplation, she accepts. Her mother, Taji, warns her that she has gotten married too young, and Marji soon realizes that she feels trapped in the role of wife. Marji attends a party, but someone warns them about the religious police. They quickly discard the alcohol and the women cover themselves as the police enter the building. The men make their escape by jumping from the rooftop, but Marji's friend Nima hesitates and falls to his death. Later on in 1994, her marriage has deteriorated and Marji confides in her friend, Farnaz, that she no longer loves Reza and wants a divorce. Farnaz advises her to stay with her husband because divorced women are social outcasts, but her grandmother urges her to get a divorce. After much contemplation, Marji decides to separate from a reluctant Reza. She goes to her parents and tells them about her and Reza's divorce, and they comment on how proud they are of her and suggest that she should leave Iran permanently and live a better life back in Europe.

In late 1994 before her departure for Europe, Marji visits the countryside outside Tehran. She also visits the Caspian Sea, the grave of her grandfather, and the prison building where her uncle Anoosh is buried. In the autumn, Marji along with her parents and grandmother go to Mehrabad Airport for their final goodbye as she heads off to live in Paris. Marji then reveals that her grandmother died in 1996. The book ends with the message: "Freedom has a price."

Satrapi's graphic memoir contains themes concerning feminist ideals and the hegemonic power of the state. Satrapi uses the context of the Iranian Revolution to criticize the hypocrisy of state-enforced social pressures that seek to enact violence.[17] During the Iranian Revolution, martyrdom had been nationalized by the state in order to encourage young men to participate in the revolution[18] and strict social rules were forced upon women and were justified as protection.[17] Satrapi's recount of her harassment by both male and female members of the Guardians of the Revolution because of her untraditional behavior and clothing exemplifies the hypocrisy of the state's beliefs.[17] Although Satrapi criticizes the socio-political pressures, she does not fully dismiss her Iranian identity.[17] Marji struggles with finding her identity because she is torn between a deep connection with her Iranian heritage and culture and the political and religious pressure enforced by the state.[17] Satrapi's struggle with societal pressures is based on her belief that the Islamic state oppresses women when it regulates their expression and dictates their beliefs.[17]

Jennifer Worth, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Wagner College, presents that Satrapi uses the veil as a metaphor to describe the desire to control women.[19] Worth proposes that the Guardians of the Revolution wield the cultural symbolism of the veil to oppress the social liberties of women, while Marji herself dons the symbolic veils of makeovers in Austria to escape social ostracization for her Iranian identity.[19] Through her utilization of the veil as a symbol of concealing latent struggles, Satrapi contends that the confusion surrounding Marji's transition into adulthood stems from her complex beliefs and feelings about her Iranian heritage.[19]

The portrayal of the veil in Persepolis has also been used to combat the Western perception that the veil is solely a symbol of oppression.[20] The perceptions are challenged in the first chapter of Persepolis similarly titled 'The Veil,' where Satrapi illustrates young girls playing in the schoolyard with their veils.[20] Lisa Botshon, a professor of English, and Melinda Plastas, a professor of Women and Gender studies, comment that Satrapi's depictions of the veil illuminate for Western audiences the extent of Middle Eastern women's agency.[20] The depictions challenge the Western notion that women who wear the veil are helpless and victims of brutal social oppression.[20]

Manuela Constantino’s article, published as part of the University of Toronto Press, argues that Persepolis was released during a crucial time that aided its reception in North America. In 2003-04, tensions over middle eastern evasion were on the rise in the United States. At the same time, Persepolis started to circulate in the North American education system. It’s possible that “its arrival could be read as a political attempt to shape an understanding of Middle Eastern cultural practices by presenting a liberal Middle Eastern viewpoint amidst radical unrest” Constantino speculates if Satrapi’s memoir had anti-American or anti-Western sentiment, “would it have been so widely circulated and therefore so popular”?  This makes Persepolis "easily accessible and seemingly transparent,"[21] Constantino states that these childlike reactions to the horrors they are exposed to bridge the gap between human and history. The complicated historical facts of war are broken down into easily understandable moments in history, and help people understand what is usually complex and culturally intricate into relatable and educational.[21]

Mahdiyeh Ezzatikarami and Firouzeh Ameri of the International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature published their article the strengths of Persepolis as a memoir. Telling the story from a child's point of view allows Satrapi to facilitate "supreme authenticity and immediacy" to her memoir. Satrapi created an identity that readers immediately relate and identify with. This is seen through her childish ways of coping with evil. When Marji's grandmother asks how she will install the rule of old people never feeling pain, Marji states she will simply forbid it.[22] Seeing how children react to the violence of war makes Persepolis "easily accessible and seemingly transparent."

Despite the positive reviews, Persepolis faced some attempts at censorship in school districts across the United States. In March 2013, the Chicago Public Schools ordered copies of Persepolis to be removed from seventh-grade classrooms after Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett determined that the book "contains graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use".[28][29][30] Upon hearing about the proposed ban, upperclassmen at Lane Tech High School in Chicago flocked to the library to check out Persepolis and organized demonstrations in protest. CPS reinstituted the book in school libraries and classrooms.[31]

In 2014, the book faced three different challenges across the United States, which led to its placement as #2 on the ALA's list of "Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2014".[4] The first of these controversies occurred in Oregon's Three Rivers School District, where a parent insisted on the removal of the book from its high school libraries due to the "coarse language and scenes of torture".[32] The book remained in libraries without any restriction after school board meetings to discuss this challenge. Another case of censorship arose in central Illinois' Ball-Chatham School District, where a student's parent stated that the book was inappropriate for the age group assigned. The parent also inquired into why Persepolis was assigned to the students to read on September 11.[32] Despite this opposition, the school board unanimously voted to keep the book both in the school libraries and within the curriculum. The third case occurred in Smithville, Texas, where parents and members of the school community challenged the book being taught in Smithville High School's World Geography Class. They voiced concerns about "the newly-introduced Islamic literature available to students". The school board met to discuss this issue at a meeting on February 17, 2014, after a formal complaint was filed against the book. The board voted 5–1 to retain the novel.[32]

In 2015, Crafton Hills College, in Yucaipa, California, also witnessed a challenge to the incorporation of Persepolis in its English course on graphic novels. After her completion of the class, Tara Shultz described Persepolis as pornographic and lacking in quality. Crafton Hills administrators released a statement, voicing strong support of academic freedom, and the novel was retained.[32]

In 2022, Franklin Regional High School, located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, paused teaching of Persepolis after complaints to the district. The book was reinstated to the curriculum as of a meeting on March 31, 2022.[33]

Persepolis has been adapted into an animated film, by Sony Pictures Classics. The film was co-directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.[34] It was voiced by Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux and Simon Abkarian. Debuting at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Persepolis won the Jury Prize but also drew complaints from the Iranian government before its screening at the festival.[35] It was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007 for best animated feature. The film has also received high honors, specifically, in 2007, when it was named the Official French Selection for the Best Foreign Language Film.[36]

Persepolis 2.0 is an updated version of Satrapi's story, created by different authors who combined Satrapi's illustrations with new text about the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Only ten pages long, Persepolis 2.0 recounts the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12, 2009. Done with Satrapi's permission, the authors of the comic are two Iranian-born artists who live in Shanghai and who give their names only as Payman and Sina.[37] The authors used Satrapi's original drawings, changing the text where appropriate and inserting one new drawing, which has Marjane telling her parents to stop reading the newspaper and instead turn their attention to Twitter during the protests.

Persepolis 2.0 was published online, originally on a website called "Spread Persepolis"; an archived version is available online.[38]