Marjane Satrapi\u2019s acclaimed Persepolis<\/i> is the story of growing up amidst Iran\u2019s political and religious upheavals. It\u2019s a story most readers in the West will know primarily from media reports, emphasising the fundamentalist Islamic regime. However, Satrapi, as a child of secular liberals, is well placed to tell a different version. Originally published in English as two volumes (four in France), this volume gathers the complete story.<\/p>\n
A series of short chapters begins with \u2018Marji\u2019 aged ten, and then the introduction of that powerful symbol of the Islamic regime, \u2018The Veil\u2019. Satrapi\u2019s light touch is demonstrated by the playground scene of girls improvising uses for this new addition to the uniform \u2013 relatable to anyone who remembers their childhood. After this, we rewind to before the revolution and hear of key events as they enter Marji\u2019s world: protests against the Shah; families thrown into poverty, and members killed; and people imprisoned by one regime, released by the next only to be rearrested. The ostensibly Marxist uprising is railroaded by fundamentalists. All this is exacerbated by the Iran\/Iraq war, manipulated by the West, and prolonged by fundamentalists to maintain their hold on power.<\/p>\n
Persepolis<\/i> is a memoir, not a documentary, so events are dramatised in terms of Marji\u2019s life, and often re-enacted in the playground \u2013 \u201cyour father betrayed my father\u201d, and so on. As Marji reaches her teens she learns of the more shocking practices. The chapter \u2018Dowry\u2019, for example, shows the state\u2019s appallingly ingenious way round the prohibition on executing virgins. Other aspects are dealt with in a light-hearted manner, providing welcome relief from the tension.<\/p>\n
Satrapi the writer knows the limitations and foregrounds the subjectivity \u2013 most of the childhood stories are what young Marji has been told by others \u2013 relatives and family friends, even children in the playground. In one chapter she overhears her mother\u2019s phone conversation, as if to emphasise the idea that this is \u2013 in the most literal sense \u2013 one side of a story. Marji\u2019s combative nature is also useful in the book for unpicking and arriving at second opinions about things she has heard.<\/p>\n
With all the dangers exacerbated by Marji\u2019s own outspoken attitudes, her parents send her to \u2018safety\u2019 in Europe. Although physically free, internally she\u2019s still \u2018beating herself for Iran\u2019s martyrs\u2019, and struggles to enjoy the experiences on offer. She\u2019s seen as simply a problem teenager, and burden to be passed on. Following the arc of fictional coming of age stories, Marjane, now a young woman, returns to Iran. This provides further insight into her homeland, and its effects on her family and friends. Satrapi typically leavens the grim realities with an eye for the absurdities of the regime \u2013 like the life drawing class where the model wears a burqa \u2013 a garment designed to hide the wearer\u2019s figure.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[127,30],"product_tag":[269,271,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-1515","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-books-en","7":"product_cat-books1312","8":"product_tag-graficheskij-roman","9":"product_tag-iran","10":"product_tag-marzhan-satrapi","11":"product_shipping_class-europe","12":"desktop-align-center","13":"tablet-align-center","14":"mobile-align-center","16":"first","17":"instock","18":"shipping-taxable","19":"purchasable","20":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabotage.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}