Woman, Life, Freedom (Seven Stories Press) is an urgent, groundbreaking and visually stunning new collection of graphic story-telling about the present Iranian revolution, using comics to show what would be censored in photos and film in Iran.
Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, returns to graphic art with this collaboration of over 20 activists, artists, journalists, and academics working together to depict the historic uprising, in solidarity with the Iranian people and in defense of feminism. Translated by Una Dimitrijevic.
On September 13th 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn’t properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to the hospital, where she fell into a deep coma. She died three days later.
A wave of protests soon spread through the whole country, and crowds adopted the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”—words that have been chanted around the world during solidarity rallies.
In order to tell the story of this major revolution happening in her homeland, Marjane Satrapi has gathered together an array of journalists, activists, academics, artists, and writers from around the world to create this powerful collection of full-color, graphic-novel-style essays and perspectives that bear witness:
- Contributing artists: Joann Sfar, Coco, Mana Neyastani, Catel, Pascal Rabate, Patricia Bolanos, Paco Roca, Bahareh Akrami, Hippolyte, Shabnam Adiban, Lewis Trondheim, Winshluss, Touka Neyastani, Bee, Deloupy, Nicolas Wild, and Marjane Satrapi.
- 3 expert perspectives on Iran: long-time journalist for Libération and political scientist Jean-Pierre Perrin; researcher and Iran specialist Farid Vahid; and UC Berkeley historian Abbas Milani, Director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University.
Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrates that this is not an unexpected movement, but a major uprising in a long history of women who have wanted to affirm their rights. It will continue.
Here are illustrations from Woman, Life, Freedom.
THE ANTHEM OF THE UPRISING – Shabnam Adiban & Farid Vahid
REBELLING AT TWENTY – Paco Roca & Farid Vahid
A DEMONSTRATION IN IRAN – Pascal Rabaté & Jean-Pierre Perrin
An Iron Regime — this section opener is by Marjane Satrapi
THE ART OF REBELLION – Deloupy & Farid Vahid
DIALOGUE WITH THE DEAD – Paco Roca & Jean-Pierre Perrin
© Mattias Ripa
MARJANE SATRAPI was born in Rasht, Iran. She now lives in Paris, where she is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers throughout the world, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. She is the author of Persepolis, Persepolis 2, Embroideries, Chicken with Plums, and several children’s books. She cowrote and codirected the animated feature film version of Persepolis, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Her most recent film was a live-action version of Chicken with Plums.
