An Iranian girl looks ahead, arms crossed. She wears the veil, and a certain firmness in her eyes. Just two vignettes later, we see exalted men and women, protesting with raised fists: the Islamic Revolution begins. Those drawings, which began in the year 2000 Persepolis, they changed the history of that little girl, of the graphic novel and, perhaps, even of Iran. So much so that for years Marjane Satrapi (Rasth, 54 years old) continued to be asked to portray that young woman, to which she responded again and again: “she has grown up.” She has become a woman. Comic legend. Filmmaker. Franco-Iranian. Fierce opponent of the regime of her country. And now, the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, as announced this Tuesday by the foundation that awards the awards.
The jury defined Satrapi, who lives in Paris, as “a symbol of civic commitment led by women”, described her as “one of the most influential people in the dialogue between cultures and generations” and recalled that in “Persepolis “It exemplarily embodies the search for a more just and inclusive world.” And she, in a press conference via videoconference this Tuesday, dedicated the award to the fight for freedom in her country and to the rapper Toomaj Salehi, sentenced to death a few days ago: “He is the voice of the entire country.”
He even took the opportunity to send a message to Josep Borrell, high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: “If I had him in front of me, I would slap him. Iran is waging five wars right now. What else does the Revolutionary Guard have to do to be declared a terrorist group? When there was a lot of talk about Iran in the West, no one was killed. When he stopped speaking, there began to be executions. And what is Europe doing instead of condemning them? Makes Iran president of the human rights social forum within the UN. No one from Iran would ask the West to go and make a revolution, but at least to recognize that there is a movement with 85% of the population that does not want that religious dictatorship. “Public opinion counts and that is why these awards matter, not to applaud me.” Although Borrell can promote the Revolutionary Guard declaration, such a measure would have to be approved by the 27 EU member states.
So this Princess of Asturias recognizes many things at the same time, just what Satrapi’s works imply. Above all, the talent of a narrator capable of learning and mastering new formats. She had hardly any experience, other than having only been at the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts for a short time, when she built her masterpiece. She believed that she would never find a publisher, that everything would end up in photocopies for her friends. It became a milestone for comics “only comparable to the Maus by Art Spiegelman”, according to Reservoir Books, the publisher that publishes it in Spanish, Basque and Catalan.
Why Persepolis She draws on her childhood in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution that, in 1979, overthrew the Shah of Persia and brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, until the beginning of her adult life with her arrival in Europe, where her parents sent her and she has resided since then. Satrapi’s family, wealthy and progressive, initially sympathized with the revolution, but when it was dominated by Islamist sectors it led to a theocratic regime that restricted individual freedoms and embarked on a war with Iraq in 1980, under the surveillance of the Guardians of the Revolution. All this is narrated in Persepolis, but the black and white of the drawing also serves to trace all the grays of such a complex event: the macro-story, between ecstasy, repression, prison and deaths, along with daily life and the perspective of a teenager who longs for both freedom and a Kim Wilde cassette on the black market.
“Drawing is the first expression of the human being, prior to writing,” she said about choosing the comic. Among her graphic novels, there are also Embroidery, which tells the lives of Iranian women, and Chicken with plums, about the last eight days of the life of a relative of Satrapi named Nasser Ali, a well-known player of tar, the traditional Iranian lute. But Satrapi didn’t know much about cinema either when he let himself be convinced to adapt Persepolis to the screen, four hands with Vincent Paronnaud. Received equally the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and, then, the first nomination of a female creator for the best animated film in the history of the Oscars. Later, she filmed the road movie in spanish sauce The Jotas band, The Voices, About a killer in the deep United States, Madame Curie, or a movie that you have said is pending release.
But the Princess of Asturias also exalts the courage of a voice always ready to say what she thinks. To detest the use of the veil, as a symbol of submission, and to defend, at the same time, that women who want to be able to wear it. She defines herself as “very feminist” and categorically rejects patriarchy, as well as the fight conceived as women against men: “No one has the right to dominate anyone. We are all equal. There are no races, we are the human race.” “There are very few differences between a Jew, Muslim or fanatical Catholic. The problem with religion is that it prevents people from speaking and reflecting, it tries to give answers instead of raising questions,” she added.
Although his cries for justice and against oppressive power, both in his interviews and in his art, are directed above all towards his country. Satrapi recently returned to comics for the first time in years to coordinate Women. Life. Freedom, anthology where she has brought together stars like Paco Roca and Joan Sfarr – a kind of “international comic brigade”, in her definition – with Iranian authors like herself or Shabnam Adiban, to support the protests that are shaking their country and denounce the repression that citizens suffer. All since the death, on September 16, 2022, of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl detained by the morality police for not wearing the mandatory veil for women in Iran. Satrapi has insisted several times that there is only one word to explain what she boils in her country. Neither “revolt” nor “movement”, but “the world’s first feminist revolution.”
It is equally clear now to qualify the other front: “The situation has worsened in my country since Persepolis. We are in an even more violent dictatorship, more than 85% of the population wants a democratic and secular government. 68% live below the poverty line, despite the fact that Iran is a very rich country. Money disappears in corruption. The government does not want to let go of power. That’s why I need to keep talking and talking and talking about it.” His choice is therefore evident in another difficult debate: there are Iranian artists who have stood up against the Government and have paid a price for it, such as the director Jafar Panahi, sentenced to six years in prison for propaganda against the regime. Others, like filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, have been accused of profiling for years. Satrapi has belonged to the first camp for decades. Somehow, with Persepolis, He even showed the way.
“I sold millions and I don’t know how many hundreds of conferences I gave. Did I change something? What do I know? Did I arouse people’s curiosity? Yes. I contributed a little. Just a little bit, although that’s the only way to change the world,” he reflected in November with EL PAÍS. Although, even today, he is not clear about the real impact of the work: “It worked because it was a good, honest book. You have to talk about what you know. If what I do helps, fantastic. But I often have the impression that I am convincing already convinced people. If someone like me receives this award the world must be very bad. “I’m neither super nice nor super tolerant.”
At once, Persepolis It contained other fundamental keys for Satrapi: a realistic portrait of the country and its people, far from the frames of “hills and donkeys” or the image of a nation “trapped in dark times” that Western festivals look for in Iranian art, as he lamented. a month ago The Guardian. There is another key word, one of the most repeated in his interviews: “Decency.” That of not wanting to give lessons or suggestions from afar, but only support and a speaker, to his fellow citizens who fight every day in Iran. And not to complain despite decades without visiting your home, because there are others suffering greater tragedies.
All of this has guided his work, his career and his life. With the same decision she opposes a dictatorship, being photographed, or being locked in a category. “Growing up they told me: ‘a young lady wouldn’t do that or that.’ One day I raised my finger and said: ‘Maybe I’m not an educated lady, but I’m free.’ I have always refused to be sweet, I am when she wants, but not because I am a woman. When she was a child she wanted to be Batman, because there were no female role models.” Today she may be a reference for many young women. The girl of Persepolis has grown. She has changed. But believe and fight just like then. Or more.