Thinking of these two men as heroes, Marjane remains disappointed that her own father is not a hero, and that no one in her family is one, either. They speak of the tortures they experienced and the deaths they witnessed. She also begins to understand that different social classes exist, and that this is one root of much tension and suffering in the country.Īfter the Revolution comes to an end and the Shah is ousted, many political prisoners find themselves released from prison, including Siamak and Mohsen, both Revolutionaries who have been in prison for years.

Her own grandfather was a Persian Prince who was often imprisoned and tortured under the rules of the Shah. Forced to grow up quickly, Marjane begins to learn about the history of Iran and the many invaders and rulers it has had over its centuries’ long history. Marjane’s parents, however, are modern and secular in outlook though they supported the Revolution again the Shah, who was a despotic ruler, they are alarmed and dismayed at the fundamentalist turn of the new Islamic Republic. Further, the regime forces all women and girls to wear veils. Marjane Satrapi describes how she used to attend a French co-educational and non-religious school, but how this is outlawed because the Islamic Republic distrusts and rallies against all Western influences. Persepolis opens right after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which results in the downfall of the American-backed dictator known as the Shah of Iran and leads to the rise of the religious hardliners who establish the oppressive Islamic Republic.

Persépolis by Marjane Satrapi