Welcome to Banned Book Week! A lot of BBW posts will give you a list of the most banned books, but instead I am going to feature a banned author. Marjane Satrapi was an Iranian and French comic book author and director. She grew up in Iran and was educated in Austria and France. Her work, especially her memoir, was very controversial in her home country. 

This is a graphic novel memoir of Satrapi’s life in Iran and Austria and then back in Iran. You can get this in either two installments - parts one and two or you can get The Complete Persepolis that has everything. That’s what I did because I was lucky enough to find a copy without any holds. I can see why this book would make her not popular in her home country. There were several points in the story where she was incredibly outspoken. You could argue that she was just naive at a younger age. However, I think, having grown up in the restrictive culture that she did, she was just very brave in speaking truth to power. I also think it’s a big reason why she went to school in Austria and later moved to Europe (after the scope of this memoir). If you read nothing else of hers, don’t miss this one. It’s also a movie that won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize. The success of Persepolis established Satrapi as one of the most widely read Iranian authors, and she was the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

This short graphic novel feels like it picks up where Persepolis leaves off. Only now, we are sitting with the women of the family after a big meal together and they are sharing stories as only women with other women can. This was an interesting look at family dynamics in a country where women have been marginalized but still manage to have lives of worth.

This one features Nassar Ali. He’s a musician who is looking for a new tar (instrument). I thought Marjane wasn’t going to be in this one, which was weird because she’s in all her other books. But rest assured she shows up about half way through at a family meal. I like how this story was laid out, but I’m not sure I agree with all the main character’s choices. This one won the Prix du Festival d'Angoulême for Prix du meilleur album in 2005. 

When I first checked this one out, I thought it was all Marjane’s work. But, it turns out that this is a collection of short stories than Marjane edited (in the same way that Ruth Reichl became editor of Gourmet). Marjane say this book has two aims: 1) to explain what is going on in Iran and 2) to remind Iranians that they are not alone. It also commemorates the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death - the young woman who was beaten to death for not wearing her veil properly in 2022.

During her life, Satrapi was very vocal about her support of women and she often spoke out against the Iranian Fundamentalists. This meant that she had to leave Iran and after going to school in Austria, she lived most of her life in France. Satrapi’s husband died from cancer in 2025 and according to her family, Satrapi was very sad and understandably depressed. She herself passed away from what her family said was a broken heart this past June - not unlike Nassar Ali in Chicken with Plums.

Satrapi’s work has been banned in the US because of its depictions of political violence, torture, and mature social and biological topics. The book has also been banned internationally, especially in Iran because of its critical depiction of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian Revolution.

To read more about the history of Iran and to get a context from the world of Satrapi’s works, see the titles below.

Happy Banned Books Week!  I hope you find some good ones to read.

Happy exploring…
:) Amanda