Review: The Complete Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s not often that a graphic novel demands that you sit up straight and take notice. Instead of taking us to the land of make believe, forces us to address the realities of the world, our world, which we share. Asks us to take a step back and reevaluate our views and opinions regarding something, which has at first glance no bearing on our well being as a person. But has great leverage on what sort of person you want to be, and the world that you want to leave to your children.

The last time I felt this moved by Graphic novels as a medium for societal enlightenment, was when I read Maus, which Persepolis shares a lot of parallels to; whether it be the black and white contrasting art style which can go from whimsical to terrifying at the drop of a hat. Or be it the sensitive subject matter, which is hard to bear, but impossible to look away from.



Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi is a coming of age, autobiographical work, which details the life of its author as a child in Iran, who lived through the Iranian Revolution, and had to bear the consequences of the fundamentalist regime which took power afterwards.

What it does in abundance, is give a first hand account of people who lived through, and are still living through the totalitarian theocracy of the nation, which aims to strip away all individual freedoms, modern thoughts and ‘paltry’ concepts such as civil liberties, rule of law and gender equality.


Better than any media coverage or investigative piece written by foreign correspondents, Persepolis gives more bang to the buck, as the accounts being told are those of the author herself, as she lived through them. They are not merely faithful reproductions of facts, but the internal/ external struggles and observations of this person who has to experience these events, and was forever changed by it.

Persepolis too, is a truncated history lesson for the uninitiated, as to the advent of the nation which would come to be known as Iran, how it got there, and the nation’s turbulent on and off relationship with tyrants and despots.



But for the most part, it focuses on the childhood and later adult life of Marjane Satrapi, who experiences first hand how much her life, the life of the Iranian women, and that of the citizens in general continued to chaff under a despotic regime. A regime whose expectations of their people, was to be nothing more than mindless sheep, who follow the tenants of Islam to a pathological degree, had not a single thread of original thought, and were willing to fall down on their sword at commands of the leaders.

In many ways you could say that Satrapi led a lucky life. Something weird to say about someone in her circumstances. But growing up in a loving household, under progressive parents, who taught her to think for herself and to hold the fire of independence. At a time when most of peers were cowed into submission, and grew up into the embodiment of the ‘submissive’ muslim women that the regime wanted them to be.


Religious Fundamentalism, Sexual repression and Misogyny

When addressing the case of the unrest in the middle east, regarding people who were suffering under regimes of the Taliban, Saddam, Gaddafi and such, one thing that really pissed me off is the sheer amount of restrictions which were placed upon women under such regimes.



And restrictions which predominantly affected only women. Having to completely cover every single inch of your body, essentially being made into human coat hangers, not allowed to interact with any member of the opposite sex, forbidden from having any semblance of freedom or self dependence, instead being completely reliant of the males of the family. That is not to mention all the usual misogynic practices which saw them as nothing more as objects for sexual gratification and childbirth.




Now, I’m not commenting against the need for muslim women to wear veils or other religious garbs. Log knows there has been such a heated debate over it, that no one sane would want to be pulled into that quagmire. (Except perhaps Quagmire himself, giggity)

But the enforcement of archaic dress codes for women, in forms of Niqab and Burqa is with a frankly sick and disturbing purpose. Its purpose is to ‘preserve the purity’ of the woman. And mind you, this is not the purity of the soul, or one’s moral character. It is purity of the flesh, as in, making sure that the female commodity that you have in your possession is ‘unspoiled’, before it is passed on from one owner (a male patriarch) and the next (your master/spouse).



Then there is also the asinine rationale that, it is to prevent men from being titillated by obscene displays of skin in women, which would ‘entice’ them to rape. If men seeing women and getting aroused is the issue, a much shorter piece of cloth, tied around the eyes of men would do the job much better.

This all goes back to that same sexual repression, where in boys and girls are forbidden to interact, and grew up stunted in matters of relationships and of course sex. Which is sort of contrarian, as the same religious leaders who forbid intersexual relations, also somehow want women to be married off as young as possible, and to start pumping out a school bus full of children. How one wonders, do individuals who’ve spent their whole life under the belief that anything related to the opposite gender is taboo carry this out. This right here is a perfect recipe for dysfunctional toxic family life.

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When bringing up such issues, one has to deal with the part of the crowd who makes arguments such as ‘you are an outsider and don’t understand their culture’, or ‘It’s all propaganda/ misinformation from foreign media outlets’. Well, here is someone who was born and brought up in the nation, and has as much understanding of the culture and religion as any follower, and the tales she has to share is quite harrowing.

All this segregation, oppression and sexual repression has given rise to a generation that is, for the lack of a better term, ‘backed up’, who are then force fed religious propaganda 24/7, promised 72 virgins and an ocean of booze in heaven and sent out to kill innocents. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the acts of cruelty that such fundamentalists, even females, perpetuate against other women has sort of become a cliché of its own.



When you take away the freedom of people, and forbid them from indulging in things that they enjoy, remove all means of relaxation, wring out any original thoughts, you fill them up with garbage and send them out to stink up the world. Also to make a 20th century society regress back to the dark ages.

Apologies for the rant, but as I said, this work brought out a lot of strong emotions in me.


Totalitarian regimes & sparks of resistance.

So far in this conversation, we have been talking about the evils of oppressive regimes. Without taking into consideration the other parties in this dynamic; the oppressed. No culture is a monolith, and the Iranian people are no exception. Despite things going from bad to worse, following the Iranian revolution, and the rise of Religious fundamentalism, there were still people who hoped for a better future, and willing to go up against the leviathan to make their voices heard. And suffered dearly for it.




Even before the revolution, under Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, or the Shah, people were living precariously. Corruption and foreign interference was rampant, dissatisfaction in the government was high, civil unrest was forming, and the ruling regime had resorted to acts of domestic terrorism to create a false narrative in an effort to hold power.

But after the revolution, and overthrow of the government, the purpose of the revolutionaries and its leaders underwent a drastic change. When theocratic leaders such as the Ayatollah took power, the people had merely exchanged one despot for another. All that remained was the death and suffering of countless thousands.





The loss of civil liberties and freedom was a given; but there was also the systematic destruction and regression of the nation as a whole, when unqualified, uneducated, narrow minded individuals were placed in positions of power, with the only criteria being how 'religious minded' they were.


Growing up to adulthood, and struggling to belong.

The latter half of the book deals with the life of an adolescent Marjane, as she is sent to live away in Europe, away from the increasingly restrictive life back home. As anyone passing into the cusp of adulthood, and perhaps as a product of her environment and fierce personality, combined with the negative perception of her homeland aboard, Marjane was shown to have drifted off, trying to fit in, and indulging in toxic friend circles and hitting rock bottom.

Before cleaning herself up, and returning home to resume her life. Which did not make it any easier. Now, having been completely entrenched by repressive fundamentalism, this subservient lifestyle was miserable for the free spirit in her. The journey to adulthood, love, marriage and self independence was filled with a number of close shaves and near misses. And what she ended up as, was at times incomprehensible, to her as well as the readers.

Needless to say, Persepolis is a work which would make you uncomfortable. But it also makes you think and take notice. A must read for anyone who is interested in world affairs, and just the lives of people on other shores. 5 out of 5


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