Persepolis is an easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to identify with introduction to the Iranian Revolution of the 1980s.  Initially published in two volumes, the graphic novel is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran as a part of a revolutionary family that did its best to exist in the new regime while dreaming of a better future for their country.  Marji is outspoken about human rights from a very young age, explaining that Marx was one of her childhood heroes.  This gets her in trouble often at school, making fun of the veil she must wear, speaking out about political prisoners, and dressing like a punk in the conservative culture.

After a family friend is arrested for harboring a young woman who came from a communist family, Marji’s parents explain the danger of being a political activist in Iran: because it is against the law to kill a virgin, the woman was married to a soldier the night before her execution.  Fearing for Marji’s safety, her parents send her to France to study at a boarding school before her outspokenness and unpopular beliefs can get her into bigger trouble than being expelled.

In France, Marji struggles to reconcile her feelings of loyalty to her country and family with her desire for greater freedoms than she will ever be allowed in Iran.  Furthermore, she is an outsider with such a dramatic history that her classmates think she is lying when she describes the tribulations she’s experienced.

Beyond being an introduction to the politics of the Iranian Revolution, Persepolis is a coming of age tale as Marji grows from a small child into a young woman.  While her experiences of the terror of war are more than anyone who has grown up taking safety for granted can even imagine, her personal struggles are easy to identify and empathize with, making the story easier to comprehend.

Persepolis has also been released as a film.  As Satrapi illustrated her memoir and was highly involved in the creation of the film, the story and art are consistent across mediums.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and the film. I recommend reading the book first, as a lot of details and background are lost in the film, but I commend the feature on being so accurate to the book. For those of us struggling to understand the current events of Iran, Persepolis is a fantastic introduction to revolution and divides that have been at work in the country for decades.