Question

How is revolution portrayed in the book? In Satrapi’s account, what are the stages of the revolution and what do these stages mean for the Iranian people?

Answer 1

In her graphic novel Persepolis, diaspora writer Marjane Satrapi presents a version of the contemporary Iranian politics in a highly everyday undertone. The story line takes place during the late 1970’s in the Iranian capital city of Tehran when the country was undergoing major political changes that would forever change the social and political landscapes of the nation. Using the female protagonist Persepolis, Satrapi presents a version of the religious revolution from the perspective of a young girl whose own experiences with her identity development from childhood through adolescence and young adulthood are stitched parallel to the transformation of the Iranian society from more modern liberal lifestyles to increasingly regressive educational and fundamentalist political systems. Thus, it is in the intersection of the state policies and censorship laws into the domestic space of Persepolis’ own household that we see the Islamic Revolution in Iran as a comical but nonetheless a thriving reality in the novel.

The Revolution is shown through a progression of panels depicting the change in the agents of law enforcement from bearded religious headmen to moral police to finally the military personnel and each gradient pertains to a greater level of restrictions on the civilian population leading a multi staged demise of their belief and practice of freedom of expression.