Marjane Satrapi (1969–2026)
Author of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
About the Author
Series
Works by Marjane Satrapi
Associated Works
My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices (2006) — Contributor — 113 copies, 3 reviews
The Penguin Book of Migration Literature: Departures, Arrivals, Generations, Returns (2019) — Contributor — 96 copies
Fumo di china n.114 Dicembre 2003 — Cover artist — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Satrapi, Marjane
- Legal name
- مرجان ساتراپی
- Birthdate
- 1969-11-22
- Date of death
- 2026-06-04
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Lycée Français, Tehran, Iran
- Occupations
- graphic novelist
illustrator
film director
children's book author - Awards and honors
- Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award (2001)
Angoulême Prize for Scenario (2002)
Time's Best Books of the Year (2004)
Angoulême Best Comic Book Award (2005)
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2005)
Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize (2007) (show all 7)
Cinema for Peace Award for "Most Valuable Movie of the Year" (2008) - Relationships
- Ripa, Mattias (husband)
- Nationality
- Iran
France - Birthplace
- Rasht, Iran
- Places of residence
- Rasht, Iran
Tehran, Iran
Vienna, Austria
Strasbourg, France
Paris, Île-de-France, France - Place of death
- Paris, France
- Map Location
- Iran
Members
Discussions
Persepolis 1 & 2 in Made into a Movie (July 2008)
Reviews
It took me a long time to finally read Persepolis. I was always turned off by the lack of color (I like colorful art!) and I wasn't even sure what it was about. But this year a comic-in-translation was my last category on the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (this is the first reading challenge I've completed in YEARS, thanks StoryGraph for having such an easy way to keep track!), and to my surprise Persepolis fit the prompt! (I really did not know anything about it other than seeing show more countless people and media outlets rave about it).
Now I know more about Iran than I did ever before. Satrapi's story is sad, thought-provoking, yet a little hopeful. I recently read that this time period in Iran was one of the (many) inspirations for The Handmaid's Tale and I can definitely see it now. It is frightening to see just how easy it was to convince everyone to go along with it (especially after dissidents were murdered en masse) especially given what the current administration is trying to sell us about women and gender. It's so easy to assume the worst about another place or another people, but Persepolis opens up the door to a different narrative of Iranian life that isn't what the media would have me believe. Reading her experience as an immigrant in Austria was interesting because she travelled as a student but was still treated as if she were less-than, a nothing. The stories of the older people attempting to start over in European countries, leaving behind careers that gave them purpose, to being unable to find a job were eye-opening. Because while I've read books about the immigrant experience before (Behold the Dreamers comes to mind), seeing it in stark black-and-white somehow makes it more real.
I think it's time to finally visit Reading Lolita in Tehran (and add The Lion Women of Tehran to my library holds). show less
Now I know more about Iran than I did ever before. Satrapi's story is sad, thought-provoking, yet a little hopeful. I recently read that this time period in Iran was one of the (many) inspirations for The Handmaid's Tale and I can definitely see it now. It is frightening to see just how easy it was to convince everyone to go along with it (especially after dissidents were murdered en masse) especially given what the current administration is trying to sell us about women and gender. It's so easy to assume the worst about another place or another people, but Persepolis opens up the door to a different narrative of Iranian life that isn't what the media would have me believe. Reading her experience as an immigrant in Austria was interesting because she travelled as a student but was still treated as if she were less-than, a nothing. The stories of the older people attempting to start over in European countries, leaving behind careers that gave them purpose, to being unable to find a job were eye-opening. Because while I've read books about the immigrant experience before (Behold the Dreamers comes to mind), seeing it in stark black-and-white somehow makes it more real.
I think it's time to finally visit Reading Lolita in Tehran (and add The Lion Women of Tehran to my library holds). show less
I am new to graphic novels, with the exception of the Maus books which I read long ago. Persepolis renewed my appreciation for the genre and blew me away with its delivery. My only regret is that I read an edition that combined Persepolis I and II in a rather unattractive presentation.
Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran, and her family experienced the tyranny of the Shah and the effects of the Islamic Revolution. The first book is about her family’s history, the politics of her parents, and show more her growing understanding of how a dream of freedom led to a fundamentalist State. The Satrapi family is interesting in that it teeters on the edge of many contradictions. Connections with the Shahs’ reigns conflict with her parents’ ardent communism and participation in the protests leading to the Revolution. Her parents’ professed political values conflict with the luxury and privilege that Marjane experiences. And yet I think the family is typical in its disappointment in the usurpation of the Revolution and the decline of modern Iran into a repressive state. At the age of fourteen, Marjane is sent alone to Austria in an effort by her family to give her a better life, and the second book deals with her experiences there. Isolated by her inability to speak the language, as well as the nature of her childhood experiences, Marjane loses her sense of self. It is only reconnection with her family and her country that saves her.
Marjane is amazingly candid, and her story is extremely compelling, but what really blew me away was how much the format of the book affected my reading experience. Her illustrations convey an emotional intensity that would be hard, if not impossible, to recreate in words. I had a visceral response to some of the frames and instantly understood exactly what she meant in others. Her ability to tell a story through pictures is exceptional, and Persepolis has become a personal benchmark for judging other graphic novels. Highly recommended. show less
Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran, and her family experienced the tyranny of the Shah and the effects of the Islamic Revolution. The first book is about her family’s history, the politics of her parents, and show more her growing understanding of how a dream of freedom led to a fundamentalist State. The Satrapi family is interesting in that it teeters on the edge of many contradictions. Connections with the Shahs’ reigns conflict with her parents’ ardent communism and participation in the protests leading to the Revolution. Her parents’ professed political values conflict with the luxury and privilege that Marjane experiences. And yet I think the family is typical in its disappointment in the usurpation of the Revolution and the decline of modern Iran into a repressive state. At the age of fourteen, Marjane is sent alone to Austria in an effort by her family to give her a better life, and the second book deals with her experiences there. Isolated by her inability to speak the language, as well as the nature of her childhood experiences, Marjane loses her sense of self. It is only reconnection with her family and her country that saves her.
Marjane is amazingly candid, and her story is extremely compelling, but what really blew me away was how much the format of the book affected my reading experience. Her illustrations convey an emotional intensity that would be hard, if not impossible, to recreate in words. I had a visceral response to some of the frames and instantly understood exactly what she meant in others. Her ability to tell a story through pictures is exceptional, and Persepolis has become a personal benchmark for judging other graphic novels. Highly recommended. show less
Brief informative essays about Iran's recent history, revolutions, and regime change are spaced throughout this collection, which is mainly in comic form. Iranians at home and abroad - there is a significant diaspora and "brain drain" - are hopeful that freedom and democracy will ultimately prevail over fanaticism and violence. The newest wave of protests were inspired by Mahsa Amini's murder at the hands of Iran's morality police.
Quotes
...if women are not free and equal, freedom and show more democracy cannot thrive in society. (13)
The first demonstrations take place. There's no crackdown by the police. That way they can identify the leaders... (64)
"None of us are safe..."
"And if we do nothing, nothing will change." (68)
"...this regime has two means of clinging to power: 1-exaggerating its power to create fear 2-dividing to conquer..." (95)
Ayatollah Khamenei....responds to every criticism with extreme violence. (122-123)
"To be human means nothing without freedom." -Toomaj Salehi (175)
"This country is a prison." (224)
"Don't be mistaken: calling for secularism means undermining the entire regime...because it has built its foundations on religion.....In the hearts of families, couples, and companies, they have already lost. But their violence persists." (240-241)
"This regime relies on three principles: Men, resentment, and submission." (243)
"Khomeini was no revolutionary - quite the contrary! His was a counter-revolution..." "Or rather...it was a revolution that wanted to force Islam on everyone and cared little if Iran disintegrated in the process." (246)
"Paradoxically, four decades of fanaticism and forced religion have secularized Iranian society, which now massively rejects religion." (247)
"The future leaders of a free Iran? Right now, they're in prison." (254) show less
Quotes
...if women are not free and equal, freedom and show more democracy cannot thrive in society. (13)
The first demonstrations take place. There's no crackdown by the police. That way they can identify the leaders... (64)
"None of us are safe..."
"And if we do nothing, nothing will change." (68)
"...this regime has two means of clinging to power: 1-exaggerating its power to create fear 2-dividing to conquer..." (95)
Ayatollah Khamenei....responds to every criticism with extreme violence. (122-123)
"To be human means nothing without freedom." -Toomaj Salehi (175)
"This country is a prison." (224)
"Don't be mistaken: calling for secularism means undermining the entire regime...because it has built its foundations on religion.....In the hearts of families, couples, and companies, they have already lost. But their violence persists." (240-241)
"This regime relies on three principles: Men, resentment, and submission." (243)
"Khomeini was no revolutionary - quite the contrary! His was a counter-revolution..." "Or rather...it was a revolution that wanted to force Islam on everyone and cared little if Iran disintegrated in the process." (246)
"Paradoxically, four decades of fanaticism and forced religion have secularized Iranian society, which now massively rejects religion." (247)
"The future leaders of a free Iran? Right now, they're in prison." (254) show less
4.5/5
My first memories of Iraq and Iran consist of mixing the names up, having nothing more than the vague knowledge from television talkers that someone was fighting someone and we, the United States, were fighting everyone. Persia was where my best friend in first grade was from, a place she once told me didn't exist anymore before she changed schools in third grade and we completely lost contact with each other. The intervening years between then and now filled up with reports of war and show more terrorism and an overwhelming fear mongering, leaving me with the feeling I was being force fed bullshit at such an insidious level that I couldn't even trust myself to seek out the least poisoned method of discovering the other side of the story. Since upgrading the status of literature in my life from hobby to livelihood, I've had more time to get down to the bottom of Introduction to Iran 101 - Autodidact Style entry on the neverending Lit bucket list, and I have to say, I can't imagine a better way than this book.
Graphic novel, really, but with [Watchmen] on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and [The Complete Maus] regularly touted as a modern classic, the faster the academic niches of capital L Literature come to terms with the more than capable qualities of the Graphic Novel in terms of Meaning and Importance and yadda yadda yadda, the better. Three hundred years ago it was the novel in Europe, two millenia ago it was the writing things down in general in Greece,, and really, if you can find a memoir that is erudite as it is hilarious as it is heartbreaking as it is politically conscious in a social justice manner as it is life affirming as it is of a country that has for decades been horrendously misconstrued six ways to Sunday by the United States as this one, please, let me know.
One of the first popular conceptions that comes to my mind when I think on Iran is how bad the women in that country have it. Now, the Wikipedia page for Rape culture states: According to Michael Parenti, rape culture manifests through the acceptance of rapes as an everyday occurrence, and even a male prerogative. It can be exacerbated by police apathy in handling rape cases, as well as victim blaming, reluctance by the authorities to go against patriarchial cultural norms, as well as fears of stigmatization from rape victims and their families. That description is the United States, complete with dress codes, lack of sexual education regarding consent, incidents such as Steubenville and statistics such as 1 in 5 women in universities have been raped at some point during their enrollment. This commentary has nothing to do xenophobia of the civilized countries of the so called West, or with Iran consisting of all kinds of people worn down by death and fear and love of their homeland and culture being controlled by Persian fundamentalists, or the CIA's involvement in taking down countries so as to slake the US's lust for oil, or the fundamental differences between Iran and Iraq and Kuwait and all those other countries media crews love to lump together and poke at, but it does have to do with my basis for relating with Marjane and her growth from child to adult. In comparison to the big picture of her story, it's not much, but it is enough to get me off my commonly accepted high horse of US superiority and start listening.
It's a crying shame that it took me this long to read a work that wonderfully cuts to the heart of that vague sensationalism that is the US's treatment of the Middle East. It's an even greater shame that this sort of work is a rare breed in the field of public perception. However, while it may have taken me the length of my own path from childhood to adulthood to experience a good introduction to the reality of things, a start in the right direction is a start. show less
My first memories of Iraq and Iran consist of mixing the names up, having nothing more than the vague knowledge from television talkers that someone was fighting someone and we, the United States, were fighting everyone. Persia was where my best friend in first grade was from, a place she once told me didn't exist anymore before she changed schools in third grade and we completely lost contact with each other. The intervening years between then and now filled up with reports of war and show more terrorism and an overwhelming fear mongering, leaving me with the feeling I was being force fed bullshit at such an insidious level that I couldn't even trust myself to seek out the least poisoned method of discovering the other side of the story. Since upgrading the status of literature in my life from hobby to livelihood, I've had more time to get down to the bottom of Introduction to Iran 101 - Autodidact Style entry on the neverending Lit bucket list, and I have to say, I can't imagine a better way than this book.
Graphic novel, really, but with [Watchmen] on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and [The Complete Maus] regularly touted as a modern classic, the faster the academic niches of capital L Literature come to terms with the more than capable qualities of the Graphic Novel in terms of Meaning and Importance and yadda yadda yadda, the better. Three hundred years ago it was the novel in Europe, two millenia ago it was the writing things down in general in Greece,, and really, if you can find a memoir that is erudite as it is hilarious as it is heartbreaking as it is politically conscious in a social justice manner as it is life affirming as it is of a country that has for decades been horrendously misconstrued six ways to Sunday by the United States as this one, please, let me know.
Member of the Guardians of the Revolution (MGR): Madam, why were you running?
Marjane: I'm very late! I was running to catch my bus.
MGR: Yes..but...when you run, your behind makes movements that are...how do you say...obscene!
Marjane: WELL THEN DON'T LOOK AT MY ASS!
I yelled so loudly that they didn't even arrest me.
One of the first popular conceptions that comes to my mind when I think on Iran is how bad the women in that country have it. Now, the Wikipedia page for Rape culture states: According to Michael Parenti, rape culture manifests through the acceptance of rapes as an everyday occurrence, and even a male prerogative. It can be exacerbated by police apathy in handling rape cases, as well as victim blaming, reluctance by the authorities to go against patriarchial cultural norms, as well as fears of stigmatization from rape victims and their families. That description is the United States, complete with dress codes, lack of sexual education regarding consent, incidents such as Steubenville and statistics such as 1 in 5 women in universities have been raped at some point during their enrollment. This commentary has nothing to do xenophobia of the civilized countries of the so called West, or with Iran consisting of all kinds of people worn down by death and fear and love of their homeland and culture being controlled by Persian fundamentalists, or the CIA's involvement in taking down countries so as to slake the US's lust for oil, or the fundamental differences between Iran and Iraq and Kuwait and all those other countries media crews love to lump together and poke at, but it does have to do with my basis for relating with Marjane and her growth from child to adult. In comparison to the big picture of her story, it's not much, but it is enough to get me off my commonly accepted high horse of US superiority and start listening.
Marjane: 'I don't want to leave the country right away.'
Reza: 'It's because you are still nostalgic. You'll see, a year from now people will disgust you. Always interfering in things that don't concern them.'
Marjane: 'Maybe so, but in the West you can collapse in the street and no one will give you a hand.'
It's a crying shame that it took me this long to read a work that wonderfully cuts to the heart of that vague sensationalism that is the US's treatment of the Middle East. It's an even greater shame that this sort of work is a rare breed in the field of public perception. However, while it may have taken me the length of my own path from childhood to adulthood to experience a good introduction to the reality of things, a start in the right direction is a start. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 29,601
- Popularity
- #679
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 981
- ISBNs
- 250
- Languages
- 30
- Favorited
- 62
