“Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning autobiographical graphic novel, opens with a class photo of a row of young girls wearing identical black headscarves. “This is me when I was 10 years old,” Satrapi writes, “This was in 1980.” And this is our introduction to our heroine and our guide through the Iranian Revolution: a funny, outspoken and spirited young Marji.
Born in 1969, Marji was raised as the only child in a progressive, upper-class household in Tehran. Her highly educated parents marched in the protests that contributed to the demise of the shah’s monarchy and then watched as the fundamentalist theocracy that followed claimed the lives of their revolutionary friends and radically changed their way of life. Eventually, an altercation between Marji and her conservative principal over a piece of jewelry pushed her concerned parents to send her to high school in Austria.
Like other graphic novels we have featured in the “Velshi Banned Book Club,” including Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” R.J. Palacio’s “White Bird” and George Takei’s “They Called Us Enemy,” “Persepolis” masterfully combines historical accuracy and memoir with illustration.
The drawings are as stark as the stories they tell: mostly inky black and white, but also interspersed with some more traditional Persian styles. Marji’s friends are emotive white circles peering out from those uniform black veils, battlefields are framed with white clouds of smoke, and graffiti is curled Farsi lettering on brick. Except for Marji, and for the reader, nothing but the illustrations are black and white in this book.
Perhaps most notable is Satrapi’s ability to write from the perspective of a child without losing any of the depth that characterizes this book. It is powerful to learn the cultural and political implications of the Iranian Revolution through the eyes of a young girl. Marji laughs, plays and creates trouble in the universal way that all 10-year-olds do. This childhood naïveté and silliness are not just necessary breaks from a heavy story — they also contribute to an accurate and well-rounded portrayal of what growing up looks like in the midst of unrest, bombings and the unknown. We grow with Marji, learning and understanding this new Iranian regime and making sense of the chaos as she does.
Named for the ancient capital of the Persian Empire and a nod to the nation’s long and rich history, “Persepolis” is a celebration of Iranian culture and an exploration of what patriotism means in a nation’s dark moments. Marji’s rebellious refusal to embrace fundamentalism reads like a love letter to Tehran and to the modern women who raised her.
“Persepolis” is a celebration of Iranian culture and an exploration of what patriotism means in a nation’s dark moments.
There is a moment in the second volume of “Persepolis” that feels particularly poignant, especially now. Adult Satrapi, back in Iran, enrolls in art school. Instead of sketching a nude figure, as is customary in art classes around the world, the women students are ushered into a separate studio and expected to draw a figure entirely covered in a chador. “We looked from every direction and from every angle but not a single part of her body was visible,” writes Satrapi, “We nevertheless learned to draw the drapes.”
It’s summer now, but in a matter of weeks American students will take their seats and glance at their syllabuses. They will learn about the horrors of the Holocaust, the lasting impact of colonization and the pain of the Iranian Revolution by numbers only. Without books like Spiegelman’s “Maus” or Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” or Satrapi’s “Persepolis,” their education will be severely hindered, lacking in empathy at best or understanding at worst. It’s like trying to learn how to draw a human body through layers and layers of black fabric. And the students know it. “Persepolis” faced sweeping restrictions across Chicago’s public schools in 2013 as officials there objected to the book’s depiction of torture. Two students, who were older than Satrapi was when she witnessed the death and persecution the district deemed so inappropriate, condemned the removal: “The book actually tells us what happened during the Iranian Revolution…” and “…the truth of the book is not much different than what kids see in their neighborhoods every day.” We are at an ideological, political and cultural crossroads not dissimilar to the one Iran faced in the pages of this book. Surely reading “Persepolis” and other books like it can help bring the clarity we as a nation so sorely need. This is an adapted excerpt from the Saturday, August 5th episode of “Velshi.”
Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting for “How the Wheels Came Off,” a special on the near collapse of the American auto industry. His work on disabled workers and Chicago’s red-light camera scandal in 2016 earned him two News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, adding to a nomination in 2010 for his terrorism coverage.
Hannah Holland
Hannah Holland is a producer for MSNBC's "Velshi" and editor for the "Velshi Banned Book Club." She writes for MSNBC Daily. Recommended
