Mossadeq
While Persepolis is never set in the U.S., our country looms throughout. So much so that the graphic novel often felt like it was meant for American readers. Maybe that’s just me being U.S. centric in imagining that (I always assume that great British bands live in the U.S. . . . Doesn’t Mick Jagger live here?), but Satrapi does write for the New York Times and the New Yorker, and we do have a long history of interfering in Iran, so it doesn’t seem too unreasonable to make the assumption. The introduction mentions the C.I.A. involvement in the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq, Marjane’s father mentions the U.S. selling guns to Iran and Iraq during the war, anarchists burn an American flag in Marjane’s fantasies of a revolution, many of her relatives and friends studied, live, or wanted to move here. I know that in the work most often the U.S. is mixed in with the West in general, so I may be off here, but that is how I read the book– “Americans need to read this!” We were talking about attacking Iran not too long ago, and part of the fight against such talk is a better understanding of the country (as well as our weariness with the other 2 wars we are fighting in the area).
I wonder how many Americans know the name Mossadeq. It seems terribly important that we should know the story of our involvement in ousting him (or the similar Allende story) and supporting the Shah, leading eventually to the Islamic Revolution, but I didn’t know until around 7 years ago. Iranians can’t help but know the history of U.S. involvement in their country. I had an Iranian student in a world lit class years ago who made this point very clearly. She explained once during class that every family she knew had a son, husband, or father that had been killed most likely by a U.S. manufactured weapon in the Iran Iraq war. This was during the last few years of Bush when the administration was contemplating attacking Iran. After class we were talking and in comparison to the hundreds of thousands dead in the Iran Iraq war she said that so many people around the world die because of actions and policies of the U.S. and “two buidlings fall and you think you can do anything.” At the time, though I agreed with her, her bluntness shocked me. Her point was simply a statement of fact.
