The Wild Child

“I loved fries with ketchup, Bruce Lee was my hero, I wore Adidas sneakers and had two obsessions: Shaving my legs one day and being the last prophet of the galaxy.”

"Persepolis" could be "The Simpsons" in print, except the characters were real. Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel recounted her ambivalent coming-of-age moments.

Satrapi was born during the Pahlavi dynasty, which was a turning point in Iranian history. No one sensed the days of freedom were numbered. The young author had an impish spirit, which was influenced by the street protests. Iranian society turned upside down after Ruhollah Khomeini took power. There were many restrictions on women, which prompted Satrapi to rebel more. Her parents feared her imprisonment, so she was sent to Vienna. The culture shock was too much for her, which made her confused about her identity. She went back to Tehran, only to learn she was a foreigner in the Motherland.

Intimate rite of passage

Satrapi, who has been living in France for more than two decades, has been accused of Islamophobia. But those who shared that opinion overlooked her critical stance on the West. (Great Britain was mainly responsible for Pahlavi's grip on power, while the US was the winner in the Iran-Iraq War.) She came from a modern, avant-garde family, her grandmother ahead of her time. (Satrapi's grandmother divorced her first husband, which most Iranian women wouldn't do.) The veil, which Muslim women must wear in public places, troubled the author.

Satrapi showed her inclination towards the arts at a young age. The songs of Black Sabbath were cries of freedom. Many of the tacky hits during the 1980s became Satrapi's antidotes. These experiences, not uncommon among young girls during that period, would cause teenage angst. In Satrapi's case, it carried into adulthood. Writing was one way of purging it, but the outcome was far from brilliant.

The passport

"Persepolis" was Satrapi's love letter to her family. Her grandmother advised her not to forget her heritage, while her parents urged her to leave Iran. The novel's political context was hard to ignore; the title would refer to the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great. Could it be the fall of the great ones? This would be up for debate. Although there was hardly any change in Iranian society since Khomeini's ascent, unexpected things happened these last few decades. The Arab Spring took the world by surprise.

There would be less interest in Satrapi's autobiographical novel if she was serious and straight to the point. It remains to be seen if she sets foot in Tehran again.