Marjane Satrapi, the author of the much beloved Persepolis, has insisted that she's done with comics—and she is, mostly. But she's also the editor of, and a contributor to, a forthcoming anthology of graphic nonfiction, Woman, Life, Freedom, on "the unprecedented and inspiring revolution happening in Iran today."
The book, translated from the French by Una Dimitrijević and coming from Seven Stories Press this spring, depicts, the publisher said, the historic protests that followed the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian student arrested by religious police in Tehran for not properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic, who beat her so badly that she became comatose and died three days later. The book, the publisher added, "shows in comics what would otherwise be censored in photos and film in Iran."
Woman, Life, Freedom will be released on March 19 and 20 in the U.S. and U.K., respectively, to coincide with Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. Featured artists include Shadnam Adinam, Bahareh Akrami, Bee, Patricia Bolaños, Catel, Coco, Deloupy, Hippolyte, Mana Neyestani, Touka Neyestani, Pascal Rabaté, Rahi Rezvani, Paco Roca, Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Nicolas Wild, and Winshluss, a frequent film collaborator of Satrapi’s; other contributors include the writers Abbas Milani, Jean-Pierre Perrin, and Farid Vahid, and Satrapi said she “contributed a handful of drawings, including the cover, as well as a few written pieces."
In her interview with PW this summer, Satrapi said that she's moved from comics to other mediums in order to continue to raise awareness around the issues in Iran.
"I’m making clips, going to demonstrations, radio, TV. If you have a voice, if you are somebody who people will actually listen to, then you have to." She added, praising the youth of her home country—"the way they are brave, the way they stand"— that "there is nothing more beautiful than freedom except fighting for freedom."
