Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Marjane Satrapi Was Once a Feminist Icon, Now She’s Reviled as an Avatar of Fascism - Chloe Ezzo

 

by Chloe Ezzo

Marjane Satrapi survived Iran’s theocracy only to be condemned in death by Western radicals who excuse the very oppression she spent her life exposing.

 

On Friday, June 4, Marjane Satrapi died of a broken heart a little over a year after the untimely passing of her husband, Mattias Rippa. Satrapi was a writer, artist, and filmmaker who came of age in the turbulent years following the Iranian Revolution and the wave of repression that followed. Practically overnight, women’s freedoms were heavily restricted, and they were made to wear the veil. Her portrayal of life in Iran was both nuanced and deeply personal. However, the perverse reaction to her death by the radical Left signals a disturbing trend towards extremism and intolerance.

Satrapi was from an aristocratic family, and her parents were Marxists who took part in protests against the Shah. Her uncle, Anoosh Ebrahimi, was a political dissident who was exiled and later imprisoned and sentenced to death by the state upon returning after the revolution. Satrapi visited him in prison on the eve of his execution. Satrapi herself fled Iran as a teenager due to her rebellious nature and brushes with the law, as she loved Western clothing and heavy metal music, both of which were banned by the Iranian regime.

Satrapi chronicled this period of her life in her memoir, Persepolis, which took the form of a graphic novel (although Satrapi herself preferred the term “comic book”) characterized by the stylized black-and-white illustrations she would become known for. Satrapi’s art style was simultaneously minimalistic and expressive, capturing a range of emotions with only a few lines.

Both beautiful and tragic, Persepolis blends political narrative with evocative storytelling; her depiction of Iran includes scenes in which Satrapi experiences revolution, challenges authority, falls in love, and struggles with grief and isolation, told in such a way that underscores her charm and sardonic wit. Satrapi wrote about the disorientation and loneliness that come from existing between two cultures but belonging to neither and lent a voice to a people who have been heavily censored and are often reduced to political talking points. She said, “If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian; we don’t know each other, but we talk together, and we understand each other perfectly.” More than anything, Satrapi believed that the universality of the human experience transcends borders.

In Satrapi’s lifetime, she was lauded, and her work was critically acclaimed. She directed the film adaptation of Persepolis, which won numerous accolades, including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and two César Awards for Best First Film and Best Adaptation the following year. Satrapi refused the prestigious Légion d’honneur, the highest civilian award in France, over the country’s “hypocrisy” in its dealings with Iran, stating, “I can’t continue seeing the children of Iranian oligarchs come to spend their holidays in France, even become naturalized, while at the same time young dissidents have difficulty in obtaining a tourist visa to come to see what the country of the Enlightenment and human rights looks like.”

Satrapi remained an outspoken critic of the Iranian government and a passionate advocate of women’s rights. She was a prominent supporter of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing the hijab. She died in custody, sparking nationwide protests. Though Satrapi’s depression kept her from making statements about the most recent wave of protests that took place in Iran this past winter, she strongly believed it was imperative for members of the Iranian diaspora to speak out on behalf of citizens as human rights abuses continue, and they are cut off from the rest of the world.

Therefore, given the artistic merit of Satrapi’s work and her history of advocacy, she should be remembered as a feminist icon. Yet in a bizarre turn of events, thousands of leftists took to Twitter to celebrate her death, slandering her as a “racist” and a “genocidal Zionist sh-tlib scumbag” over her depictions of female members of Iran’s morality police and her criticism of the hijab as well as Iranian imperialism.

 

The fact that Satrapi, of all people, has become reviled as an avatar of fascism indicates not only the increasing radicalism and intolerance of leftist ideology but also the fissure that has been emerging in the tenuous alliance between Islamists and Western feminists over the last decade. They view Iran, an oppressive theocratic regime, as an axis of resistance against the West, giving them license to reduce Satrapi to an anti-Iranian propagandist in an attempt to diminish her legacy.

However, this is sadly not an isolated incident; rather, it mirrors a much larger ideological shift. In recent years, as liberal principles have given way to radicalism, the Left is willing to make light of brutality and violent oppression when it suits them. After the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranians in diaspora took to the streets to celebrate, while American leftists held a memorial in New York City to mourn the man who chanted “Death to America.”

Popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, self-described “Ayatollah of Woke,” has been consistently downplaying the atrocities committed by the IRGC. He famously said that “America is still obviously far worse than the Iranian government,” and promptly blamed the country’s economic struggles on U.S.-imposed sanctions. In response to a viewer who criticized Piker during a livestream for showing support for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei despite him killing thousands of people, Piker simply said, “Listen, sometimes, you can find poetry in the strangest places” (timestamp 9:20). The cognitive dissonance is quite jarring, as Piker considers himself a feminist and has even sold merchandise denouncing the patriarchy. Like many leftists who forgo their previous convictions when they clash with their current cause célèbre, Piker is no exception. He has attempted to explain the ideological basis for his views on foreign policy, stating (timestamp 6:20) that “imperialism is far too important as a mechanism to continue capitalism, and America is the defender of global capitalism, finance capitalism, and imperialism is a necessity under that structure.” For Piker, resisting what he views as malevolent American imperialism is the framework that justifies violence and oppression when it’s being committed by his preferred victimized class.

The pro-Iran demonstrations on the Left are closely linked with the “Free Palestine” movement. They stand in solidarity with the Iranian regime in part because the regime funds proxy wars in the region and “resistance fighters” such as Hamas. In March of this year, at a “Hands off Iran” protest in Philadelphia, one of the organizers, masked in a keffiyeh, articulated this idea in his speech while cheering on the deaths of American service members. He said, “For every US military base that crumbles and for every US soldier who returns home in a casket, we cheer. Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansar Allah, all of the resistance forces we celebrate. These popular voices on the ground spend every waking moment in direct confrontation of Zionism, and they rely on a strong Iranian state to maintain their fighting capacity.”

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman called the remarks “appalling” and asked why his colleagues in the Democrat Party refused to condemn the violent rhetoric. Preferring to avoid any backlash, typically vocal members of Congress remained silent because they knew that such a response would anger a substantial number of their constituents. It’s another indication that this deranged and inherently contradictory ideology is becoming increasingly widespread.

However, this kind of intolerance should not be tolerated. These are the same people who denounce the largely democratic West as authoritarian while turning a blind eye to the injustice of a country in which women and girls are threatened with rape and imprisonment for what they choose to wear, a country in which thousands have been slaughtered in the streets for protesting their government. While the Left may direct its selective outrage at the West or channel it in a desperate attempt to betray Satrapi’s memory, it’s our obligation to set the record straight. Unlike these radical leftists, Satrapi stood for humanism, freedom, and democracy over dictatorship.

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Chloe Ezzo graduated in 2023 as valedictorian from Dartmouth, where she studied French and Russian. She has a particular interest in diplomacy and international politics.

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/16/marjane-satrapi-was-once-a-feminist-icon-now-shes-reviled-as-an-avatar-of-fascism/

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