Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi

This graphic (in the literal, illustrated sense) book relates the experiences of the author as she grew up from a ten year old girl to a young woman of twenty-four in Iran during the troubled years from 1980 to 1994. This edition combines Persepolis – The Story of a Childhood’ and ‘Persepolis 2 – The Story of a Return’.

The only child of middle class liberal parents, Marjane is first affected by the Islamic revolution through the gradual imposition of religious dogma at her previously secular French-run school – gender segregation, cultural indoctrination, and the compulsory wearing of the dreaded veil. Inconvenient as these changes might be to her she soon learns of the more serious effects on her country as friends and relatives who oppose the regime disappear or suffer arrest, interrogation and beatings.

To escape the poisonous, stifling and eventually war-hit environment (and to continue an unfettered education) she is packed off to Vienna, where the opportunities of Western liberalism are almost too much for an unsupported young girl to deal with. The freedoms are all very well, but with no family to anchor her, they are also dangerous. In the end she feels the need to return home.

Back in Tehran the repression continues, but as a resourceful young woman she and her friends find ways and means to subvert the regime and achieve small victories over the Guardians of the Revolution, but not without peril.

Seeing the momentous events from a child’s and then a young woman’s perspective, using stark black and white drawings to support the simple but surgical comments, is very effective. The politics and history provide the context but it is the development of Satrapi as an individual that drives the story. She is candid about her mistakes and while critical of the regime she remains patriotic to her country.

I expected an easy read (this being my first ‘graphic novel’) but found instead a thought-provoking and compelling book with wise words and evocative images.