Persepolis

In July of 1982, Satrapi and her parents visit her uncle Taher. Taher is in bad health and continues to smoke despite his doctor’s warning. He sent his son to Holland but despairs that he cannot visit him due to Iran’s closed borders.

Satrapi’s parents feel for Taher and his son, who is alone in Holland with no parents while unable to speak the language. Satrapi notes that at 14, her cousin does not need his parents anymore—his parents need him. Satrapi’s mother worries about her daughter wearing nail polish, which is in direct opposition to the regime.

A few days after they’ve returned from visiting Taher, the family receives a phone call that Taher has had a third heart attack. In the hospital, Satrapi wordlessly passes the many injured soldiers being treated; she illustrates them in various places throughout the building. Satrapi’s aunt weeps when they arrive at Taher’s room, saying a grenade detonation near their home caused his heart attack. They were waiting on special permission from the health ministry so that Taher could leave the country and receive medical care elsewhere.

When speaking to the director of the hospital, Satrapi’s aunt realizes he is their former window washer, who got the job of hospital director by aligning himself with Islamic fundamentalists. Doctors tell Satrapi and her family they are doing all they can but that the hospital is short-staffed and dealing with an influx of soldiers with chemical weapon injuries. Satrapi’s aunt becomes frustrated and distraught.

Desperate for help, Satrapi and her father visit a friend named Khosro who offers to make an illegal passport for Taher to leave the country. Khosro introduces them to Niloufar, a young communist woman whom Khosro is hiding in his house. Back at the hospital, Taher tells Satrapi’s parents to cherish their time with her and that his last remaining wish is to see his son one more time.

Two days later, Niloufar is caught, arrested, and executed, forcing Khosro to flee the country before he can make Taher’s passport. A few weeks later, Taher passes away—the same day his passport finally arrives.

A year after Uncle Taher passes away, the borders reopen and Satrapi’s parents decide to take a trip alone to Turkey. They offer to bring her back Western items, and Satrapi asks for several things, including a poster of Iron Maiden and Kim Wilde. Her parents buy the posters in Turkey but realize they are enormous and will be difficult to sneak past customs. Satrapi’s mother decides to sew them into the father’s coat so that it appears that he is wearing a coat with shoulder pads. They succeed in smuggling the posters past customs when they return to Iran.

Satrapi is thrilled to wear her new sneakers, denim jacket, and Michael Jackson button. She hangs the posters in her room. She decides to wear her new jacket and button out to buy a cassette tape off the black market on Gandhi Avenue. After she buys the tapes, two women from The Guardians of the Revolution stop Satrapi on the street for immodest dress. The women wish to take her to The Committee, a group that detains those who do not follow the regime’s laws. Terrified, Satrapi lies and says if she is detained, she may end up in an orphanage. The women let her go. When she arrives home, her mother asks why she is crying, but Satrapi will not tell her. She knows that if she tells her mother what happened, she will never be allowed to go outside by herself again.

Iraq begins to use ballistic missiles called “scuds” on Tehran. Hearing sirens warning them to get in the basement becomes normal for Satrapi’s family. Many flee the city, but Satrapi’s parents hope there will be a future in her French education in Tehran. The Satrapis and their neighbors, a Jewish family called the Baba-Levys, remain in their homes.

One day when Satrapi is out shopping with a friend, they hear a missile explosion in the distance. On the radio, they learn it exploded in Satrapi’s neighborhood. When she arrives home, there is a crowd in front of her street. Her parents are alive, but the Baba-Levys’ house next door is hit. At first, Satrapi’s mother will not say what happened to them, merely remarking that since it was a Saturday, the Jewish sabbath or “Shabbat,” they were supposed to stay home. However, they were not a very observant family. Despite her mother trying to change the subject, Satrapi knows something bad has happened.

Satrapi passes the Baba-Levys’ ruined house, which is drawn in a very different style from the rest of the book, with more shades of gray and shadows than Satrapi’s typical black-and-white scheme. Satrapi sees the Baba-Levys’ teenage daughter’s arm, identifiable by her favorite bracelet, sticking out from the rubble. The chapter ends with a black panel and Satrapi’s scream.

In 1984, Satrapi is a rebellious 14-year-old. She hits her school principal for trying to take her illegal jewelry, and her family struggles to find a school in Tehran that will accept her. When Satrapi gets in trouble at a new school, her mother grows angry and tells Satrapi what really happened to Niloufar—she was arrested, forced into “marriage” with an Islamic fundamentalist, raped, and then murdered. She fears Satrapi will also end up executed. Satrapi reflects upon Niloufar’s death and realizes women like her are the real martyrs.

A week later, Satrapi’s parents sit her down and tell her they plan to send her out of Iran to attend a French school in Austria, where she will be safe and near her mother’s best friend in Vienna. Her parents will join her there in a few months. They tell her they trust her and that they trust the education they gave her.

Satrapi suspects her parents may not meet her in Vienna in a few months and realizes how much they love her to make this kind of sacrifice. Satrapi spends her last night in Tehran sleeping beside her grandmother, who smells of jasmine flowers she places in her bra and who gives Satrapi the advice to always stay true to herself.

When the family arrives at the airport the next day, there is a long line of people leaving the country. Satrapi’s parents tell her they will visit her in six months, but Satrapi knows they will likely never live together again. They have a tearful goodbye, and Satrapi goes through a security line. When she turns back one more time to see her family through a glass wall, she sees her mother has collapsed in anguish. She expresses regret for turning around at all.