Marjane Satrapi successfully subverts the hitherto monolithic presentation of the Iranian woman as suppressed, victimised and silenced. Satrapi’s characterisation of Marji, her mother and her grandmother frequently challenges Western civilisation’s Orientalist perception of the Iranian woman. In her essay ‘Feminism Without Borders’, Chandra Mohanty examines this homogenous presentation of the ‘Third world woman’ which is perpetuated by Western media and popular thought: “The average ‘Third world’ woman leads an essentially truncated life based on her feminine gender (sexually constrained) and her being ‘Third world’ (ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition- bound, domestic, family-orientated, victimised etc.)”. (22) According to Mohanty, this definition of what the ‘Third world’ woman constitutes exists in contrast to the implicit self-representation of the Western woman, as empowered, sexually liberated, educated and autonomous. (22) The fact that Satrapi portrays many Iranian women in a manner which adheres to Mohanty’s stereotype of the Western woman causes the reader to re-evaluate their presuppositions regarding an ethnically dictated categorisation of the female subject.

Even in infancy, the character of Marji is portrayed as rebellious, outspoken, confident and empowered. Originally, she aspires towards becoming a prophet. This ambition is quickly rejected in favour of life as a ‘Che Guevara style’ revolutionary. She declares “The year of the revolution I had to take action, so I put my prophetic destiny aside for a while.” (Satrapi 10) The politicised rebel and the prophet are two roles which are traditionally associated with the masculine. The fact that Marji is unperturbed by this (even unaware of it), reflects how unaffected she is by the constraints placed upon her gender. She sees no reason why she cannot fulfil these traditionally masculine roles.
Marji’s mother is also portrayed as an emancipated woman. When the reader is first introduced to her, she is demonstrating against the veil. It is interesting to observe the manner in which Satrapi illustrates those opposing the veil and those supporting it. The former are drawn with their eyes open and the latter with their eyes shut. This is symbolic of the enlightened condition of those who reject the enforcement of the veil. The inference is that they can see clearly, whilst their opposition are ignorant and blind to their condition, and to the world as a whole.
The novel opens in 1980 “the year it became obligatory to wear the veil.” Though the veil is enforced through totalitarian coercion, Marjane describes the minor rebellion which women undertook under such a suppressive society. In ‘The Trip’ she illustrates the “modern woman” in comparison with the “fundamentalist woman”. The difference is minimal “You showed your opposition to the regime by letting a few strands of hair show”. (75) This difference, albeit slight, distinguishes the progressive women from the traditionalists. The veil is subverted by the liberal Iranian women. They achieve some level of empowerment through their adaptation of a clothing which is enforced.

Satrapi’s obvious rejection of the veil is somewhat controversial. Historically, the veil has played a part in distinguishing the Eastern world from imperial Western rule. In this sense, it appears that Marji’s feminism is incompatible with an opposition to Westernisation. This argument is supported by the fact that the character of Marji is often portrayed as empowered through Western means, such as her idolisation of Kim Wilde and her adoption of the punk movement. Though Satrapi is of Iranian heritage she has been criticised for writing from a Westernised privileged standpoint. Even though she appears to be overthrowing the racial stereotyping of the Iranian woman as suppressed, throughout the novel, Satrapi maintains the binary opposition where the West acts as a model for the progression of the ‘Third world’ subject. It is only when she immigrates to Europe that Marji becomes more politicised and sexually liberated.

And yet, Satrapi by no means presents the Western world as wholly autonomous. When Marji enters the school run by nuns, she muses over the fact that one can find as many fundamentalists in Austria as Iran: “In every religion, you find the same extremists”. (180) Although clothing is not enforced through coercion in the Western world, it is still presented as an enforced discipline to some extent. Marji’s adoption of her “new look” when she befriends the anarchists is not presented as an expression of freedom but rather, as an alternate form of conformity. Instead of complying with the Iranian definition of a woman, she adheres to a Eurocentric notion of one. (192) It is only when the bildungsroman draws to a close, and Marji has undergone a process of psychological growth that she appears to dress for herself and not societal expectancy.

One might argue that Marjane is let down from a feminist perspective by her perceived reliance on men; she falls into a fit of depression because of a man, and the narrative can be seen as being centred around her relationship with men, thus not allowing the otherwise strong character of Marji to fully develop an independent identity. However, it is important to remember that courtship itself, in the context of the novel, is an act of female autonomy and is an act of rebellion; it is a rebellion against the state and the cultural conditions that state has tried to impose on her. Marji pursues her sexuality-we hear about her first boyfriends, her living with eight gay men, her awareness of her “ass” and what this means. These events happen outside the physical space of Iran, and this is significant as it shows the “principles”, such as sexual repression and the repression of women, that have come to define post-revolution Iran and most importantly, Iranians, are enforced upon Iranians by a single force; these ideologies are not inherent in Iranians particularly. This may seem obvious, however, this can be seen as a counter-narrative to the predominant Western perception of Iranian, and specifically Iranian women, as being inherently fundamentalist; once Marji is taken out of a space in which the order has enforced certain rules on her, she behaves in a way that is not correspondent to any Iranian stereotype. Indeed, Satrapi’s feminism is derived from her humanism (“I am not a feminist. I am a humanist. I believe in human beings" (Sneddon)). Satrapi therefore uses Marji and space in order to trespass the stereotype and contradict the often condescending view Western feminists take of Iranian women as being helpless and weak.

Works Cited
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practising Solidarity.
London. Duke University Press. 2003. Print.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. London: Vintage Books. 2008. Print.
Sneddon, Laura. “Persepolis.” The F Word. Web. 20 May 2012.
Works Consulted
Anderson, Kristin. “From Prophesy to Punk: Marjane Satrapi’s Alternative Iran.” Rev. of
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. The Oxonian Review of Books. 4.2 (2005). Web. 15

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