Iran. The early 1970s. A time and place rife with discontent.
It is the decade in which anti-Western sentiment would boil over, leading to the inevitable overthrowing of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the monarchy that had reigned for over 2000 years.
In its wake would rise an Islamic Republic, one founded on extreme religious beliefs that would bring to an end many of the liberties enjoyed by the people of the country. Women would feel the weight of these changes more than any other, for new laws were established under the ideological principle that they were a lesser sex, and should not be equal to men.
Their faces were covered, their voices silenced, and many accepted their unworthy fate. Many but not all.
Some fought back with brilliant minds and proud hearts. Some, like Marjane Satrapi. Though her work as an artist, she has shone a light on life in Iran like no other, while as a champion for open discourse and a rational mind, she continues to challenge the heinous disregard for human rights that have poisoned her former home.
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Marjane Satrapi was born in the trade city of Rasht, Iran, on November 22nd, 1969. It wasn’t long before she and her middle-class Marxist parents, Taji and Ebi, moved to the capital city of Tehran.
At the time, the country was very different from the one we know today. Shah Pahlavi supported a more Westernised Iran, one that was stylish, cultured, and beautiful. As Satrapi grew old enough to reflect on this, her mother made sure she didn’t fall into the trap of valuing aesthetic over intelligence that ensnares many young women.
Satrapi didn’t entirely understand. “Now, as a child I thought she was actually telling me: ‘You are extremely ugly, you are never going to make it. You shouldn’t even try to be cute . . . the cause is lost and no matter what, nobody is going to marry you so at least try to be bright!'” she stated in an interview with Emma Watson for Vogue.
Yet as the revolution tore down the world around her, Satrapi began to understand. She watched as friends and family were persecuted, assaulted, and murdered.
It was during this time that she experienced her greatest loss. Her uncle Anoosh, a political prisoner returned from exile, quickly became her hero, and he in turn treated Satrapi look a daughter. It wasn’t long, however, before he was arrested and scheduled for execution. Allowed one final visitor before his death, he requested his niece.
The experience changed Satrapi. She became a rebel, clashing with police over the purchasing of banned music, and her refusal to follow modesty codes.
“There was a ban on everything! Was I less free in my mind? No, I wasn’t. Did I become a stupid person? No, I didn’t. Because no matter how much they looked at me, they could not get into my mind.”
As the situation intensified, her parents were left with no choice. At the age of 13, she was sent to study at theLycée Français de Vienne, a prestigious school in Vienna. With no money to cover her other expenses, Satrapi had no choice to but to stay with friends while completing high school.
Hard times got even harder when Satrapi suffered a serious bout of pneumonia, and became homeless for two months. Her illness culminated with exposure, Satrapi was lucky to survive the streets. Upon her return to health, she returned to Iran.
Satrapi went on to study visual communication at the Islamic Azad University, eventually completing her master’s degree. Yet she remained as rebellious and outspoke as ever. At one of many illegal parties she attended, she met her first husband, Reza. The pair divorced a couple of years later, at which point Satrapi headed overseas once more. This time, she would live in France.
It was one of the most important decisions she would ever make.
Here she would meet comic artist David Beauchard, who became her mentor. Under her tutelage, she would expand her craft, culminating in a series of autobiographical comics published between 2000 and 2004 as Persepolis. Presented in high contrast inking to create a simple yet bold style, it was declared one of the greatest non-fiction books of the decade, selling over 1.5 million copies. Persepolis also won the Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award in 2001, one of the major awards for comics in Europe.
A film version followed in 2007, co-directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, another artist/filmmaker. Premiering in Cannes, it went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In doing so, Satrapi became the first woman nominated for the award.
Satrapi and Paronnaud followed up with their first live-action film, Chicken with Plums, in 2011, once again based on a Satrapi comic. From there, Satrapi ventured out on her own, first scripting and directing Gang of the Jotas, then the black comedy The Voices in 2014 from a Michael R. Perry screenplay.
Outside of her art, Satrapi has made a name for herself as a vocal advocate in the battle against injustice and ignorance, not just in Iran, but across the world. “I am absolutely not a feminist, I am against stupidity, and if it comes from males or females it doesn’t change anything,” she told ABC News in a 2008 interview. As she did with Persepolis, Satrapi works to remind those who will listen that whether we are Iranian or American, black or white, gay or straight, we are all human beings.
It’s a valiant perspective, and one that escalates Marjane Satrapi beyond the state of an artist and towards something greater. She has experienced the worst of what happens when stupidity and ignorance rule, and is right to lay the blame not on any one group of people, but anyone unwilling to accept the truth, and fight for what matters. Surely, that is what truly matters.