Marjane Satrapi, a writer and filmmaker, has died in Paris at the age of 56. She was someone who managed to wrest a piece of the Iranian experience from the grip of the state, war, propaganda, Orientalism (the perspective that views the East from the outside, through fixed clich\u00e9s), and the nostalgia of exile, and transform it into a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her loved ones described her death as a loss that followed the passing of her husband. This information raised a question that is usually overlooked in the lives of those who struggle: how does the political activist, the person in exile, the person who resists, deal with love, loneliness, physical contact, loss, and exhaustion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran in 1969. Her childhood was shaped by the 1979 revolution, the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the Iran-Iraq War, and political repression. Her family was politically active. She witnessed firsthand how major historical events enter the home, sit at the table, manifest themselves at school and on the streets, control women\u2019s bodies, and change children\u2019s language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is how Persepolis<\/em> came to be. It tells the story of a young girl\u2019s childhood and adolescence in Iran after the revolution. It draws on experiences of family, school, war, migration, return, repression, anger, and confusion. The work was first published in France and went on to become one of the most well-known graphic novels about Iran. The film adaptation of Persepolis<\/em> won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. That success transformed Satrapi from a writer and illustrator into a figure known around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What mattered in Persepolis<\/em> was her perspective. Satrapi told the story of Iran neither through the eyes of the state, nor through the eyes of the Western media during wartime, nor through the orientalist gaze that understands Iran only through the veil, backwardness, violence, or mystery. She told the story of Iran through the journey of a little girl, a family, a woman\u2019s body, a home, a school, and exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems simple, but in the politics of image, it\u2019s a huge deal. Governments and the media usually erase the human being. The Islamic Republic turns people into symbols. The West, obsessed with security, turns people into a threat. Crisis media turn people into victims. Satrapi, with her black-and-white drawings, has put the human being back at the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marjane Satrapi is not immune to criticism and should not be turned into a superhero. One may disagree with certain aspects of her work, her language, her social stance, or her political choices. No artist is the absolute representative of a society. No personal story can stand in for millions of lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is precisely what makes her work so important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satrapi was not the voice of all Iranians. Among millions of Iranian experiences, she recounted a specific one: the experience of a young woman from a politically active, urban family, belonging to a specific social class, as she grappled with the revolution, war, womanhood, migration, and exile. The strength of her work lay in translating this specific experience into a language in which many Iranians saw something of themselves\u2014even if their lives were not exactly like hers\u2014and which millions of people around the world also understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satrapi\u2019s contribution has been to turn her personal experiences into a public narrative, and then to use the influence she has gained to defend freedom, women\u2019s rights, and the fight against executions in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satrapi has explained on many occasions that one of the main goals of her work was to humanize the image of Iranians. In an interview with The Guardian<\/em>, she spoke of a hidden racism in the West\u2014a perspective that views Iranians as a people unworthy of human rights, or that seeks to understand Iran only through outdated, silent, and timeless images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another interview, she had said that the Iranian people do not speak for the ayatollahs, just as the American people did not speak for George Bush. That statement still holds true. Satrapi has taken the same stance that many of us still hold: she does not defend the state, nor does she accept the war-mongering image of Iran propagated by the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not an easy position to be in. The state wants you to side with the government against the West, and part of the West wants you\u2014in order to be accepted\u2014to turn your own people into its favorite stereotypes. At the best moments of her work, Satrapi has managed to avoid this trap. She has shown that it is possible to fight both religious despotism and the racist image of Iran prevalent in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNeither through the eyes of the State nor of the West<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Neither a saint nor the spokesperson for all Iranians<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Art Challenging Iran\u2019s Official Image<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n