\n<\/span>Seven Stories Press<\/a>\u00a02024
\n<\/span>ISBN 9781644214053<\/span><\/p>\n
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Katie Logan<\/h4>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve urgently got to change the public perception of Iran,\u201d Marjane Satrapi pleads in the final selection of the new collected comics anthology, <\/span>Woman, Life, Freedom. <\/span><\/i>\u201cIranians are <\/span>just like you<\/span><\/i>. There are plenty of Marjanes in Iran.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some of those Marjanes \u2014 artists, migrants, students, activists \u2014 appear in and co-create the pages of <\/span>Woman, Life, Freedom. <\/span><\/i>The volume was shepherded into being by Satrapi, Alba Beccaria, and Beccaria\u2019s editorial team at the French publishing house <\/span>L\u2019Iconoclaste<\/span><\/a>. It strategically wields the <\/span>Persepolis <\/span><\/i>author\u2019s fame to direct global attention toward the Iranian fight for democracy and equal rights, reignited by the murder of <\/span>Mahsa Jina Amini<\/span><\/a> at the hands of Iranian morality police in September 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are plenty of Marjanes and plenty of audiences in this collaborative undertaking. As Satrapi suggests above and in the anthology\u2019s preface, one of its aims is to \u201cexplain what\u2019s going on in Iran, to decipher events in all their complexity and nuance for a non-Iranian readership, and to help <\/span>you<\/span><\/i> understand them as fully as possible.\u201d The other, she says is \u201cto remind Iranians that <\/span>they<\/span><\/i> are not alone.\u201d (my emphases)<\/span><\/p>\n The choice to engage both these audiences simultaneously illustrates the book\u2019s ambitions and its operating philosophy. The story of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, or <\/span>Jin, Jyan, Aza<\/span><\/i>d\u00ee<\/span><\/i> in its Kurdish origins<\/span><\/a>, cannot be told with only one voice or toward only a single conclusion. Satrapi, who notably <\/span>distanced herself<\/span><\/a> from comics following the success of <\/span>Persepolis <\/span><\/i>(2000\u20132003)<\/span>, Embroideries <\/span><\/i>(2003)<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> Chicken with Plums <\/span><\/i>(2004)<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>contributes to this anthology a preface, an introductory essay, a two-page spread on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and participation in the volume\u2019s final comic \u201cAnd Then?\u201d The rest of the book is indebted to a multigenerational collective of writers, scholars, and artists with varied experiences inside and outside of Iran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From the anthology\u2019s opening essay, \u201cA Persian Tale of Good and Evil,\u201d Satrapi and her colleagues argue that the movement is not just a \u201cmomentary societal eruption.\u201d Instead, they root their narration of Woman, Life, Freedom in a culture of women\u2019s protests extending back decades if not centuries. The anthology\u2019s writers trace that lineage through both myth and history to locate the \u201cfierce women who break chains and inspire freedom.\u201d The opening essay also identifies the institutional forces that conspire to maintain power; these include containment strategies like political violence, religious dictate, medical diagnoses, and economic control. Fatemeh Baragh<\/span>\u00e2<\/span>ni-Tahereh delivered a sermon while unveiled in 1848; the ruler Naser al-Din Shah \u201cordered her execution through strangulation, a method of death reserved for women who dared to speak out.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Subsequently, one of his daughters, Tadj es-Saltaneh, supported democracy and the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911). Satrapi and Abbas Milani don\u2019t mention es-Saltaneh\u2019s forays into gender fluidity\u2014a photograph of her dressed as a man exists <\/span>in the Golestan Palace archives, the inspiration for <\/span>Iranian photographer <\/span>Amak Mahmoodian<\/span><\/a>\u2019s photobook <\/span>Zanjir<\/span><\/i>. However, the two do<\/span> write that es-Saltaneh \u201cwas accused of \u2018hysteria,\u2019 a last resort for the wretched individuals who tremble before empowered women.\u201d By highlighting the female leaders, scholars, writers, and activists who have shaped the history of modern Iran, \u201cA Persian Tale of Good and Evil\u201d situates the pieces that follow within this legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Woman, Life, Freedom <\/span><\/i>unfolds in three major sections\u2014\u201cThe Events,\u201d \u201cA Bit of History,\u201d and \u201cAn Iron Regime \u2026 A People Resisting\u201d \u2014 each containing several short comics. The majority are written by Iranian political scientist <\/span>Farid Vahid<\/span><\/a>, French journalist <\/span>Jean-Pierre Perrin<\/span><\/a>, Iranian-American historian <\/span>Abbas Milani<\/span><\/a>, or Satrapi, with visuals from more than 17 contributors. These artists, all ages, genders, and speaking different languages, hail from Iran, France, Spain, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Diversity of style echoes the multiple approaches to narrating the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Some pieces, particularly when setting the stage early on, read as <\/span>graphic essays<\/span><\/a> where visual elements depend on Vahid\u2019s analysis or Perrin\u2019s reporting. Elsewhere, language is unnecessary; in the moving \u201cThe Art of Rebellion,\u201d <\/span>Deloupy<\/span><\/a>\u2019s meticulous rendering of a young Iranian woman\u2019s daily activities occurs across silent panels until the final page. <\/span>Nicolas Wild\u2019s<\/span><\/a> black and white images pairs a newsreel quality with a father introducing his son to the heroism of human rights lawyer <\/span>Nasrin Sotoudeh<\/span><\/a> and Nobel laureate and feminist activist <\/span>Narges Mohammadi<\/span><\/a> in \u201cWomen Saying No.\u201d And <\/span>Coco<\/span><\/a>\u2019s watercolor aesthetic in \u201cMale Turf\u201d pays homage to <\/span>Sahar Khodayari,<\/span><\/a> better known as the \u201cBlue Girl,\u201d who self-immolated following a brutal arrest for attending a soccer match.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Woman, Life, Freedom <\/span><\/i>is the result of publisher L\u2019Iconoclaste\u2019s determination \u201cto take tangible action\u201d during the uprising, according to Satrapi\u2019s preface. That statement feels more grounded and less grandiose when thinking about \u201caction\u201d as a range of possibilities advanced by each individual piece. Because comics resist generic categorization and can proffer a <\/span>deceptively vibrant face<\/span><\/a> even when engaging big questions and issues, they can push against the standard narrative frameworks that quickly come to define a political moment. The narrative strategies gathered in this volume enhance understanding, memorialize, humanize, agitate, shock, terrify, motivate, bolster, guide, and reflect. They satirize to highlight hypocrisy in the day-to-day lives of \u201cAghazadeh,\u201d children of wealthy, supposedly religious oligarchs (\u201cThe Rich Kids of the Regime,\u201d <\/span>Patricia Bola\u00f1os<\/span><\/a> and Vahid), and grieve the dead through imagined conversations between multiple generations of ghostly martyrs (\u201cDialogue with the Dead,\u201d <\/span>Paco Roca<\/span><\/a> and Perrin). In giving each contributor the space to create specific and precise storytelling, the project refrains from assigning anyone the impossible responsibility of speaking to all these needs, a surefire way to falter in the face of political upheaval and state violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The anthology relies not just on the impact of Satrapi\u2019s previous comic work but on other artists whose creative efforts have broaden the vocabulary of resistance. <\/span>Amir and Khalil\u2019s <\/span>2011 <\/span>Zahra\u2019s Paradise<\/span><\/i><\/a> serialized a fictional account of one family\u2019s efforts to locate their missing son during the Iranian Green Movement of 2009. The project relied on authorial anonymity and online distribution to protect the creators, just as the graphic novel itself documented the protestors\u2019 use of technology to avoid surveillance and connect with other protestors. The filmmaker <\/span>Jafar Panahi<\/span><\/a>, whose work is referenced directly in this anthology, was imprisoned and banned from directing movies, writing scripts, or leaving in Iran in 2010. His subsequent projects, like <\/span>This Is Not a Film <\/span><\/i>(2011) and <\/span>Taxi <\/span><\/i>(2015), play with form to undermine this ban.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Across the Middle East and in the diaspora, Deena Mohammed\u2019s online <\/span>Qahera<\/span><\/i><\/a> comic follows a female superhero who, in short vignettes documenting daily life in her namesake city, stands up to street harassment and misogyny. Qahera is a fantastical counterpart to the real-life heroes and well-organized operations of <\/span>OpAntiSH<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> the volunteer collective that joined together to protect female protestors from sexual violence in Tahrir Square.<\/span> Yasmin Rifae reflects on their strategies and legacy in the extraordinary <\/span>Radius<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2022).<\/span><\/p>\n In each of these instances, a singular voice or pair of voices shapes the project and perspective. The more collective nature of <\/span>Woman, Life, Freedom <\/span><\/i>connects the anthology to comics collaboratives like the Lebanese <\/span>Samandal<\/span><\/a>, which recognized the value of assembling a range of graphic sensibilities in the mid-2000s. Samandal\u2019s success has also lead to <\/span>legal challenges and censorship battles<\/span><\/a>, a sobering reminder of the state apparatuses in both Lebanon and Iran surveilling and limiting artistic creation in both Lebanon and Iran; these mechanisms haunt <\/span>Woman, Life, Freedom, <\/span><\/i>as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA Demonstration in Iran\u201d (<\/span>Pascal Rabat<\/span>\u00e9\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and Perrin) hews closest to the practical details of preparing to protest in the face of state violence. Each protective measure \u2014 dressing in clothing that allows for quick movement, leaving cell phones at home \u2014 is designed to create as much safety as possible for protestors and their compatriots. While Perrin\u2019s youth protestors are practiced, well-trained participants, they still lose a compatriot to arrest by the end of the comic. Though the concluding panel features two protestors looking out from their balcony and vowing to \u201cgo again!\u201d tomorrow, the weight of that repetition is clear from the shadowing on their backs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The young protestors of \u201cA Demonstration\u201d remark that protest is only worth it if video can be uploaded and seen broadly online after the fact; it\u2019s not the only comic interested in who controls political narrative. In Vahid\u2019s <\/span>\u201cThey\u2019re Watching You,\u201d an older Iranian fights against his own information biases and fears to stand alongside his daughter. Illustrated by <\/span>Mana Neyestani<\/span><\/a> (who has been interviewed and his comics on <\/span>Kurdish smugglers<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Covid-19<\/span><\/a> in Iran featured in The Markaz Review), the comic unpacks the impact of state television, forced recorded confessions, and disinformation cyber-campaigns on middle class Iranians. The protagonist, Mr. Jafari, comes to understand the regime\u2019s grip on media sources through the influence of his daughter Leila, actively protesting and then arrested in Iran, and a sister who lives abroad and joins protests in Toronto.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Jafari comes to recognize state mechanisms for chilling protest as his own daughter, Leila, is arrested and forced through a brutal series of interrogations and trials. His fear for her comes from the real accounts of state executions over the course of the protests; \u201cThe Winter of Executions,\u201d created by Perrin and the Iranian cartoonist <\/span>Touka Neyestani (<\/span><\/a>Mana\u2019s brother) memorializes young male protestors killed by the Islamic Republic in December 2022 and January 2023: Mohsen Shekari, 23; Majidreza Rahnavard, 23; Seyyed Mohammed Hosseini, 39; and Mohammed Mehdi Karami, 22. At the bottom of each page documenting the men\u2019s arrest, abuse, and false charges, a sketch of Ayatollah Khamenei descends further and further into a pool of blood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the older Mr. Jafari reflects on these executions and others like them, he resolves to fight for his daughter and her compatriots. \u201cStrength lies in numbers,\u201d he discovers. \u201cPeople must come together, trust one another, and remain unswayed by psychological warfare. For all the Leilas out there, for the generations to come, for the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The emphasis on unity, a population\u2019s power, and a forward looking perspective echo throughout the anthology, perhaps emphasized most notably by <\/span>Shabnam Adiban\u2019s<\/span><\/a> illustrated rendering of <\/span>Shervin Hajipour\u2019s<\/span><\/a> revolutionary <\/span>\u201cBaraye\u201d<\/span><\/a>, which forces readers to decelerate their interaction with the internationally renowned song. Vahid\u2019s introduction to the illustrations note that \u201cBaraye\u201d was played more than 40 million times in its first two days online and garnered international acclaim. Adiban\u2019s visual interpretations ask readers to notice how \u201cBaraye\u201d links the regime\u2019s oppression of citizens with the dispossession of migrants and refugees, impoverished conditions for children, and the degradation of the environment. Adiban\u2019s images nest one inside the next, so that the illustration accompanying \u201cfor <\/span>Valiasr Street<\/span><\/a> and its withered trees\u201d contains a small icon of the newspaper that becomes \u201cfor the extinction of <\/span>our leopards<\/span><\/a>.\u201d In a fight for freedom, these issues are connected to \u201cthe girl wishing she was a boy\u201d and \u201cimprisoned intellectuals.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In that opening essay, Satrapi and Milani call their female historical heroes \u201csmall lanterns in a dark night of despotism and misogyny \u2026 We can see all roads converging in \u2018Woman, Life, Freedom\u2019 to lead us toward a promising dawn.\u201d Each comic in this anthology might also function as a small lantern, an opportunity to illuminate yet another aspect of daily Iranian life and resistance under the current regime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the lantern imagery is rousing and optimistic, the question that still plagues this anthology is \u201cfor whom?\u201d In her preface, Satrapi notes that <\/span>Woman, Life, Freedom <\/span><\/i>is being made available free of charge online in Persian for all Iranians. <\/span>Elsewhere<\/span><\/a>, she acknowledges that this book is \u201cmore for the Westerner,\u201d in part because of the creative team\u2019s composition: \u201cPeople in the diaspora \u2014 we are not there. We don\u2019t know the heartbeat of our society anymore. We can be the loudspeaker, we can support them, we can talk. Whatever we know, we can spread it. We can share it with the world. But we cannot decide for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Woman-Life-Freedom-book-Marjane-Satrapi-ed-Seven-Stories-Press.jpg\")
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