Marjane Satrapi, author of the comic book and film that subverted feminism in the Islamic world, has received the Princess of Asturias Award for the Humanities.
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It is almost 25 years since the first edition of her comic book was published and yet, unfortunately, her cartoons are still highly topical. Marjane Satrapi, Iranian cartoonist and film director, justified in the midst of the boom of her masterpiece Persepolis, already a cult film, that it was in no way a documentary about her life nor a political allegation, that what she had done was art: “Political films offer answers and I only ask questions. That’s the difference.
And yet, however Persepolis was conceived, its irruption first in the literary panorama and later in the cinematographic one, was received internationally as a clear message against the Islamic fundamentalism that ravaged then and continues to devastate with renewed cruelty Marjane Satrapi’s native country, Iran, from which she left at the age of 14 and to which she will only be able to return if the regime falls.
The first of the four volumes that make up Persepolis was published at the turn of the century, but it referred to 20 years ago, shortly before the Iranian Islamic Revolution. The protagonist, Marjane, is then 10 years old and belongs to a progressive family. Great-granddaughter of the last shah of the Kadjar dynasty, Ahmad Shah Qajar, and granddaughter of the prime minister under the last shah, Reza Pahlavi, the girl grows up in a highly politicized and militant environment. Her parents demonstrate in the streets against the coming to power of the Islamists while Marjane, who is a strong believer, plans to become a prophet and returns to wearing the obligatory veil at school.
