Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi is a wonder to look at. It was even turned into a movie. This project hopes to add a little bit of audio to her beautiful and evocative drawings.
In it, there are multiple quotations from Satrapi’s book (The complete Persepolis, not just the first one). The audio opens with some music and the crowds of children playing, but then – they are forced to put on a veil and are separated from their friends. The children are not pleased with this policy change, and you can hear their voices.
Satrapi writes “The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough?’ Is my veil in place?’ Can my make-up be seen?’ Are they going to whip me?’ No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought?’ Where is my freedom of speech?’ My life, is it livable?’ What’s going on in the political prisons?” She views the morality police as a tool of the Iranian regime in spreading extremism and fear, rather than tolerance and reassurance. Thus she says that every religion has the same extremists, and that “fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators’ repression.” You can hear eruptions and sirens in the fearful police state.
Finally comes the war- it is bloody and millions die. The fear and pain are unavoidable and crushing. She meets with boys back from the front; there are explosions. After a particularly moving meeting with a veteran, she notes, “We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it.” It is at once a glimmer of hope – how to live life after tragedy – and of depression.
In Satrapi’s story there are glimmers of religion, glimmers of how religion can help or hurt people, how people use and view religion. Although not explicitly religious in practice, she turns to God in times of crisis as she grows older, and identifies as muslim. Similarly quotes from her book are not explicitly religious, but they carry with them moral weight, and convey parts of the culture and context surround that particular kind of practice of religion. I hope this minute audio just adds one more noise to an already loud soundscape of context for the practice of this form of Islam.