An Artist and Fan of Anime

She wrote a whole book about it, actually, that was adapted into an animated movie. Satrapi's Persepolis is a memoir about her life growing up in Iran, immigrating to Vienna for high school, and returning for college. It's free on YouTube with ads so you have no excuse to not watch it.

Here is what she said about a "republic" run by ayatollahs:

And yes, this scene is in the film near-verbatim.

Hey wouldn't it be caraazy if you downloaded and read Marjane Satrapi's biographical graphic novel, Persepolis, about growing up in the revolution and the following Iraq-Iran war? For free?

And the sequel about fleeing abroad as a teenager?

Persepolis

4 June 2026

Marjane Satrapi 22 November 1969 – 4 June 2026

Marjane Satrapi leaves behind a legacy of courage, honesty, and artistic resistance. Through Persepolis and her many other works, she gave a human face to Iran and inspired generations to defend freedom and dignity.

In 2025, she refused France’s Légion d’honneur, the country’s highest state distinction, protesting what she called France’s “hypocritical attitude” toward Iran. She criticized the ease with which the children of Iranian regime insiders could enter France while many dissidents struggled to obtain visas. For Satrapi, principles mattered more than honors.

Persepolis / 2007 / dir. Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud

I got my copy of Persepolis second hand probably almost a decade ago and was delighted at how much the previous owner had notated it. I treasure this book as one of the most poignant pieces of illustrated storytelling but also as a small bridge that connects me to an unknown girl named Natalie and to the magic of Marjane's life & work, all three of us with incredibly different backgrounds.

Here are some of my favorite notations by Natalie:

"She wants to help people + make them feel equal"

"Everyone involved with those fighting for freedom had it rough"

"Conflict: GOV vs the people"

"She wants people to live equally"

"Friendship is key"

Like I've seen documentaries on the past. They would zero in on little girls being taught how to cook and clean at early ages. They would specify how terrible girls had it. How they, at such young ages, had their childhoods taken from them.

The boys? The boys were in the coal mines. They were filling their lungs with soot and dying very early deaths. That is, if the mines didnt collapse or blow up on them.

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis mentioned how we talk about the girls being taught sewing and cooking in school instead of math and science by the new religious rule and that was terrible. But she also (albeit briefly) mentioned that the boys were also not taught standard school subjects, but how to be soldiers. They were being taught that losing their young lives on the battlefield was an honor.

I'm reading comments on the show "Anne with an 'e'", and there's countless comments on how the women and girls had to cook and clean and the men and boys did nothing. The men and boys were doing farm work.

They literally had scenes where a preteen boy couldnt go to school because he needed to do grueling work as a farmhand to bring money to his family. This kid didnt even know how to read, but desperately wanted to learn. When asked what he wanted from life, what his dreams were, he was confused. He could only envision a future where he gets any job he can to feed his family. That was his life and the life of most men and boys.

"It's quite bizarre to let people have guns and then ban them from reading books." —Marjane Satrapi