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French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56

france24.com

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Re: French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56

#5

What's the connection with France? Even Khomeini was in exile in France until the shah was deposed.

> Born Nov. 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran, and grew up in Tehran. Sent to live in Austria at 14 during the Iran-Iraq war. Returned to Iran after her high school years and attended art school in Tehran.

> Left Iran for Europe again at 24 and continued her art studies in Strasbourg, France.

> Now lives in Paris as a French citizen. Since publishing "Persepolis," has not been back to Iran.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/0...

Re: French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56

#7

[flagged]

>Did you ever notice you almost never read anything good about Iran?

You can read plenty of good about Iran if you read something other than geopolitical news. It's a very interesting country with an incredibly interesting history and language. The news is a pretty poor source for much of anything except for "events are happening" or "politicians have an agenda in [area]" -- I don't mean to belittle those. Both of those matter, but really no one should consider the news to provide thorough treatment for any large topic.

Re: French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56

#8

What's the connection with France? Even Khomeini was in exile in France until the shah was deposed.

France was historically very interested in the Near and Middle East, though colonially somewhat less successful than the UK; Napoleon sailed to Egypt in 1799, and later the French Republic protected Lebanese and Syrian Christians, up to some point in history. People from the Levant still like to study in France (incl. Nassim Nicholas Taleb). Hence, France is considered a strong and culturally developed country in the region.

And unlike the UK and US, they had no historic bad blood with Iran (Mossadegh et al.)

Re: French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56

#9

What's the connection with France? Even Khomeini was in exile in France until the shah was deposed.

There were two large exile groups subsequent to the Iranian revolution: France and Albania. MEK has a large presence in both. I don't know enough of the history to say whether France was chosen because there was _already_ an affinity or not, but interestingly "merci" is one of the common ways to say "thank you" in Persian.
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