A real revolution is cultural, says Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi

‘For me, the book is more for the Westerner. When you have hundreds of thousands or millions of people in the street, then you talk about a revolution,’ says Marjane Satrapi. Photo: AFP

Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel series, Persepolis, about growing up in and leaving Tehran, Iran, won her international acclaim and millions of book sales, turned away from the form two decades ago and hadn’t looked back since.

Then, in the fall of 2022, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini was detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law, which requires women and girls to cover their hair.