I always enjoyed the first half of Persepolis. Told from Satrapi's perspective, it was a very relatable story about a young child who was swept up by the world events around her, and tried to rebel in very normal, child-like ways. It was very relatable in that abstract sense, even if most of us have not been through a violent revolution. (and even more violent subsequent war with a neighboring state)
The second half of Persepolis was much more difficult for me, and I never know how to feel about it. I think above all else Satrapi deserves a lot of credit for describing herself realistically rather than trying to paint herself as a good person. (not that she was a bad person, but that she didn't shy away from parts of the story that show her in a poor light) I have a lot of respect for her honesty in the second half of the story, however her time in exile in Europe seemed to be one of self-indulgence, meandering, and minor self-destruction. All of which are understandable for someone who has been through such a traumatic turn of events, however it was a bit sad that the young, rebellious child that was so likable did not seem to survive the conflict.
fidotron 14 minutes ago [-]
> All of which are understandable for someone who has been through such a traumatic turn of events, however it was a bit sad that the young, rebellious child that was so likable did not seem to survive the conflict.
Great literature does not exist to be heartwarming but to speak fundamental truths, however uncomfortable they are. Persepolis cleaned up as you implicitly desire would cease to be the great work that it is.
colechristensen 2 hours ago [-]
Do all stories need to be of virtue and success?
It seems like you're disappointed it wasn't a modern "noble savage" myth, that it was realistic instead of a fairy tale about a person coming from a bad place to a good place and being happy, wholesome, and free.
This kind of mythology is a pretty big problem in the western world right now as is the kneejerk reaction to it.
p-e-w 2 hours ago [-]
That’s a rather uncharitable take on what the poster you’re responding to wrote.
I read Persepolis a few years ago, and it’s hard not to come away with a similar impression. The first part often does resemble a fairy tale of sorts, while the second part is a pretty dark story of teenage alienation. The contrast is jarring, and it goes well beyond “duh nobody’s perfect”.
Both parts are excellent in their own right, and quite unlike any other book I’ve read, but there is indeed something strange going on in part 2. Most readers will remember this, I think.
colechristensen 1 hours ago [-]
What's jarring to many people is it isn't the three act hero's journey of a noble savage. The "something" going on is that it isn't a copy of just about the only narrative in western mythos:
1. Departure - from a humble background the subject leaves amid struggle
2. Growth and Initiation - the subject discovers who they are building themselves into the hero they'll become
3. Heroic Return - the now hero makes a return to their beginnings to great success
Instead, Persepolis is a much more realistic story and each act is around three very different kinds of strife experienced by our hero and only in the very end a kind of coda where things go well.
My criticism of the criticism is that Persepolis is tremendously more realistic than the hero's journey and people are jarred by it because it doesn't represent their imagination of what real world struggle is like, the fact that it upsets people is one of those deep core societal issues because of the wrongness of the lens people see the world through.
everdrive 1 hours ago [-]
I think you make a fine analysis, but I would just offer that real life can be quite jarring and uncomfortable. So a story which paints a very real picture of life (rather than constructing a narrative) might just be unpleasant. I don't think her story is poorly written, and I think it is quite memorable.
For reference, I also really enjoyed the Catcher in the Rye, and there are some superficial similarities: a young person is scarred by events in their lives and succumbs to depression. (there are a myriad of differences between the two stories -- I'm not drawing an equivalence, just making one comparison)
Catcher in the Rye is probably best read as an angry teenager: you meet Holden Caufield and he's witty, cynical, funny, defiant, etc. You might fall in love with the character, but what you ultimately learn is that he's a miserable failure; he lost the battle with his depression and so many of the people he was cutting down were just normal, decent people trying to enjoy their lives.
Crucially, we never meet Holden when he is young, bright eyed, and innocent. The narrative structure shows us who he is right away, and we the reader learn that this is actually quite a bad thing throughout the course of the story.
Persepolis works a bit differently: we spend the first half of the book with innocent, bright-eyed Marjane and we fall in love with that character. The character we fall in love with is taken from us by the events of the story, by living unsupervised in exile, etc. It's nothing but sad. It's well-written, it's very memorable, but I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling unhappy about an unhappy turn of events.
srean 1 hours ago [-]
> So a story which paints a very real picture of life (rather than constructing a narrative) might just be unpleasant.
May be, but to someone going through similar life experiences an honest story might give their internal emotions some validation. Art can do wonders in that "I am not the only one" aspect.
p-e-w 1 hours ago [-]
Persepolis absolutely DOES use the “hero’s journey” narrative archetype you’re claiming it avoids. The second part even ends by explicitly stating that she has grown into a different person, and is now ready to “face the world” when she leaves her family for the second time.
Indeed, the story is quite Western overall, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that the author had already been living in the West for over a decade when she wrote it.
watwut 17 minutes ago [-]
I kind of resent that "western" started to be used as synonym for "America". Specifically this particular schema along with insistence with happy ending is specific feature of American book writing and cinema. Non American literature is much more likely to go out of that schematic.
To whoever is downvoting this: it is not even a criticism. Just a description. When you discuss stories, Americans will frequently insist on the "hero story is the only one possible fun story" and simultaneously interpret bad ending as punishment for moral failure. French wont argue that all that often. And European literature is in general more likely not be that.
And second, using "western" as synonym for "american" wherever the author knows a lot about American and just assumes everything in Europe is exactly the same is something I noticed multiple times on HN.
p-e-w 2 hours ago [-]
I’ve always wondered how much of the second part is truth and how much is fiction. That a teenage girl from Iran, living by herself in Central Europe with essentially no local connections, would become a drug dealer to her classmates, and on top of that somehow be let off the hook for it by the headmaster, stretches credibility a little bit.
dkarl 12 minutes ago [-]
A foreign student who is afraid of returning to her home country sounds like an ideal low-level drug dealer. They are legally vulnerable because they are afraid of being expelled from the country, and they have access to lots of potential buyers in their fellow students. And someone who is new and is looking for friends is more easily approached and recruited.
conductr 1 hours ago [-]
Idk, I didn’t read this book. But I lived a similar version of that reality in a conservative southern US town. My home life was challenging. I sold drugs and generally was a rebellious troublesome teenager. All the officials in my school and local law enforcement gave me kind slaps on the wrist compared to what they could/should have. I had to assume they were trying to get me to a point of adulthood without having life ruining consequences weighing me down. I straightened up by around 17-18 but there were certainly a few times between 14-17 I could have been charged for adult felony crimes and was let off the hook, never even spent a night in a juvenile detention facility but I was made to flush a lot of drugs down some toilets a time or two. I think it used to be more common to let kids figure things out for themselves. I don’t think the similar levels of leniency would occur, it’s all zero tolerance.
shermantanktop 1 hours ago [-]
The lenience you enjoyed presumably resulted in problems or harm for others.
I got a few breaks as well as a kid too. I think teenage boys end up being a community investment and people are cleaning up broken windows, stolen cars, graffiti, and worse as we hope the kids grow up.
chmod775 2 hours ago [-]
I've personally encountered some stories that were pretty much exactly that.
Vulnerable young people becoming low level drug dealers (often for lack of other options) isn't exactly a rare story.
catigula 2 hours ago [-]
For some reason immigrant drug dealers in Europe doesn't really strain credulity very much.
p-e-w 2 hours ago [-]
This was a very different era, and the author belonged to the educated elite of Iran. Hardly comparable to whatever you’re referring to.
srean 1 hours ago [-]
Has there been any study that analyses the frequency of natural death of one shortly after death of his/her partner. How different is that compared to what one would expect considering mortality curves based on age and health.
rustyhancock 42 minutes ago [-]
Does it say what happened?
Died of sadness did make me wonder about something self inflicted.
gedy 6 minutes ago [-]
Yes, I also took it to be a tactful-as-possible way to say that.
Poor woman. Somehow despite growing through hardships, it’s the loss of her husband that broke her.
May she be at peace now, and her work cherished.
NoSalt 1 hours ago [-]
Died of "sadness" ... that's incredibly sad. I mean, I know it's possible, but it seems so surreal to hear.
wslh 1 hours ago [-]
It's incomplete without the rest of the sentence: "a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life"
Grief is not just metaphorical, severe bereavement can affect health in very real ways.
1 hours ago [-]
eatonphil 4 hours ago [-]
The movie was really beautifully done and I've wanted to read the book itself. Rest in peace.
frankieg33 2 hours ago [-]
I didn't realize there was a movie. Thanks for posting so I can check it out.
I will second, the graphic novel is excellent. Up there with Maus in terms of showing you a new perspective.
the_af 4 hours ago [-]
The book is beautiful too, I recommend it.
fidotron 2 hours ago [-]
One of the most surprising things about the movie was how precisely it captured the artistic intent of the book. A serious achievement by those animators.
rurban 23 minutes ago [-]
Besides her groundbeaking Persepolis, I was at the world premiere of The Voices, a wonderful black comedy, and got angry that the stupid distributor buried the film. We all loved it. Fuckers. She had a lot of problems to get her next films financed then.
internet_points 3 hours ago [-]
The graphic novel was very good, showing what Iran must have felt like to iranians before the revolution, and the sadness at having lost that way of life. I highly recommend reading it.
p-e-w 2 hours ago [-]
At least to the kind of Iranians who were sending their children to French schools, yes.
But of course the other kind of people very rarely have someone writing international bestsellers on their behalf, so this is all we’ll get.
ndiddy 7 minutes ago [-]
I think it's a very well written personal memoir that shows what the revolution felt like to someone growing up in the Iranian urban upper class. It portrays the revolution as there being a hope for change, prior to religious men with beards and guns inexplicably showing up because that's what did happen from her perspective. I don't see anything necessarily wrong with this. The revolution was split between college-educated urban secular leftists and a much larger portion of religious conservatives, and the latter eclipsed the former so quickly that her viewpoint is probably legitimately what it looked like for her and her family. It doesn't try to do any political analysis of what motivated the Islamists or why they gained power because it's her personal story, it's not trying to be some sort of objective history of the Iranian revolution. I think it does what it set out to do very well, and it's an excellent story of the tragedy of just trading one oppressive dictatorship for another.
draw_down 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
sometimelurker 2 hours ago [-]
Persepolis was really good, read it a few years ago. really recommended
harperlee 2 hours ago [-]
"Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life"
The simple humanity in this candid description brought a small tear to my eyes. I'd say that the classical approach to this is a dry, clinical description of a depression stage, or a description of a how and not a why. Very welcomed in the age of AI slop!
aaron695 3 hours ago [-]
[dead]
EB-BarringtonII 3 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
everdrive 3 hours ago [-]
>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.
EB-BarringtonII 3 hours ago [-]
I have spent half of the last decade or so on the ground in Iran. You're right the "news" is a very poor source for much of anything about Iran.
philipallstar 2 hours ago [-]
I think this is talking about the hyper-oppressive, aggressive government of modern-day Iran, and not how it was pre-Islamic rule.
2 hours ago [-]
everdrive 2 hours ago [-]
Agreed, and there really is nothing positive to say about the modern-day Iranian government. The Persian culture has not been fully stamped out, though, and I think there is a lot of good there even if proper regime change may not be realistic.
philipallstar 10 minutes ago [-]
Of course - glad to hear that. The news of all the protest deaths in January is devastating.
MSFT_Edging 3 hours ago [-]
I'm part of a small forum that has a very world-wide audience.
It's always a joy to talk shop with a guy in England, a guy in Iran, and a guy in Poland in the same thread.
> Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran (2006) is a travel book written by British travel writer Jason Elliot.
And a fascinating history of mathematics as well.
rjsw 2 hours ago [-]
There have been fairly recent descriptions of the kinds of Iranian architecture that provide passive cooling in hot weather.
shermantanktop 1 hours ago [-]
I have had the privilege and pleasure to work with some great engineers and scientists from Iran. Same with Turkey, and of course India, and so many other places in the world. People are individuals, no matter where they are from.
I do recognize that the type of person who I might encounter in the workplace is an educated, accomplished, English-speaking person who has likely gone through cultural adjustments to operate in an American workplace. So there’s a filter there.
But when you get to know people, especially when they talk about their family and childhood, the idea that a nation is full of bad people full of hate is just laughable.
Tade0 3 hours ago [-]
I believe there is a qualitative difference between the governing systems in the west and a place where there are seven official allowed haircuts for men, aside from other things.
EB-BarringtonII 3 hours ago [-]
I believe there is a qualitative difference between the governing systems in a country that tries to regulate personal appearances, and one that would shift it's military to the other side of the planet, bombing and murdering Iranian school children and civilians en-masse for no particular reason.
I also believe that your claim of seven "official allowed" haircuts is bs, as with almost everything I ever read about Iran.
Source: I see that Tehrani men have the same variety of haircuts and facial hair styles as in any other city on the planet.
philipallstar 2 hours ago [-]
> and one that would shift it's military to the other side of the planet to bomb and murder Iranian school children and civilians en-masse for no particular reason.
It didn't send its military for that reason, if that helps.
Tade0 2 hours ago [-]
If you talked with actual Iranians or people who've been in Iran, they would corroborate what I said. The IRGC truly aims to control every aspect of people's lives - it's less pronounced in places like Tehran, but it's definitely there.
Hell, if you read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, you would find plenty of similar examples. The haircuts are just the cherry on top of that authoritarian cake.
Also, the west is not just the US. Trump failed to find anyone willing to join him in his military adventures.
EB-BarringtonII 2 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
Tade0 41 minutes ago [-]
The haircuts were an official announcement from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance:
A few of my friends went there and I talked with a few Iranians whose families moved out. Yeah, the people are welcoming and you can have an amazing experience there, but it's still a theocratic regime. All the things you did happened because those who want to control everyone simply can't be everywhere at all times.
You don't see people in the west getting the death penalty for their political activity like you do in Iran.
My country also tried to interfere with people's private lives decades ago, but fortunately that system collapsed.
You can't make the argument that the common person enjoys the same freedom in Iran as they do in the west.
EB-BarringtonII 3 minutes ago [-]
> there are seven official allowed haircuts for men
> The haircuts were an official announcement from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance
(you just moved the goalposts from "officially allowed" to "an official announcement")
In your link to a BBC article from SIXTEEN YEARS ago, the closest it comes to saying "officially allowed" or "official announcement" is...
"published a guide".
There is no "officially allowed" list of seven haircuts in Iran.
It literally does not exist, and yet you are now trippling down on your disinformation.
NopIdoN 1 hours ago [-]
join the club, pal
loeg 2 hours ago [-]
> EDIT: I have been shadowbanned, again, by HN. I check this by opening this thread in a private tab, not logged in, and notice my most recent comment is not visible.
> I wasn't personally insulting nor aggressive in any comment I have made. I didn't spread disinformation. This thread is inherently political by nature, and I have been objective.
> It just goes to show, even here on HN, if you don't stick to the "THIS SIDE GOOD THAT SIDE BAD" narrative, your voice WILL be restricted.
> Again, RIP Marjane, you taught me a lot about Iran and the world.
You're not shadow banned, but comments peddling objectively false conspiracy theories and whining about downvoting do not play well here.
cmrdporcupine 2 hours ago [-]
I don't see you shadow banned.
But complaining about upvotes and moderation is bad decorum and will get you downvoted out.
fidotron 17 minutes ago [-]
He's totally being deliberately buried.
Which ironically enough proves the precise point.
NordStreamYacht 3 hours ago [-]
What's the connection with France?
Even Khomeini was in exile in France until the shah was deposed.
KomoD 3 hours ago [-]
> 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.
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.
rurban 21 minutes ago [-]
The Vienna group was bigger. That's why she was sent to Vienna. Esp. the ex aristocrats and generals are all living in Vienna. Only the religious nutheads in Paris.
qnpnpmqppnp 3 hours ago [-]
That she's French-Iranian?
It says so right in the title so I may have misunderstood your question.
mc32 2 hours ago [-]
I guess kind of like Gabriel Garcia and Mexico, though I don't think Columbians would like anyone to describe him as having been Mexican (ex as Mexican-Columbian) in any way though he lived there for the majority of his life and had become very well integrated into the elite circles of Mexico city -that said, he never renounced his Columbian citizenship and I think he also considered himself Columbian and not Mexican --which makes sense, he was not born there and none of his parents were from there.
estebank 35 minutes ago [-]
Nitpick: it's Colombia, not Columbia. And the last name is Garcia Marquez. Splitting half of the last name is not generally done. It sounds like calling somebody called McDonald just Mac.
inglor_cz 3 hours ago [-]
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.)
SSLy 3 hours ago [-]
And French is still language of educated class in some places in Levant, esp. Liban.
Triphibian 3 hours ago [-]
When I lived in Tehran in the late '70s people said "merci" to express thanks.
armenarmen 2 hours ago [-]
Armenia as well
lstodd 1 hours ago [-]
yup. shnorhakalutyun is a bit of mouthful :)
tralarpa 2 hours ago [-]
They still do.
rjsw 3 hours ago [-]
A more recent influence came from the Sykes-Picot Agreement [1].
The second half of Persepolis was much more difficult for me, and I never know how to feel about it. I think above all else Satrapi deserves a lot of credit for describing herself realistically rather than trying to paint herself as a good person. (not that she was a bad person, but that she didn't shy away from parts of the story that show her in a poor light) I have a lot of respect for her honesty in the second half of the story, however her time in exile in Europe seemed to be one of self-indulgence, meandering, and minor self-destruction. All of which are understandable for someone who has been through such a traumatic turn of events, however it was a bit sad that the young, rebellious child that was so likable did not seem to survive the conflict.
Great literature does not exist to be heartwarming but to speak fundamental truths, however uncomfortable they are. Persepolis cleaned up as you implicitly desire would cease to be the great work that it is.
It seems like you're disappointed it wasn't a modern "noble savage" myth, that it was realistic instead of a fairy tale about a person coming from a bad place to a good place and being happy, wholesome, and free.
This kind of mythology is a pretty big problem in the western world right now as is the kneejerk reaction to it.
I read Persepolis a few years ago, and it’s hard not to come away with a similar impression. The first part often does resemble a fairy tale of sorts, while the second part is a pretty dark story of teenage alienation. The contrast is jarring, and it goes well beyond “duh nobody’s perfect”.
Both parts are excellent in their own right, and quite unlike any other book I’ve read, but there is indeed something strange going on in part 2. Most readers will remember this, I think.
1. Departure - from a humble background the subject leaves amid struggle
2. Growth and Initiation - the subject discovers who they are building themselves into the hero they'll become
3. Heroic Return - the now hero makes a return to their beginnings to great success
Instead, Persepolis is a much more realistic story and each act is around three very different kinds of strife experienced by our hero and only in the very end a kind of coda where things go well.
My criticism of the criticism is that Persepolis is tremendously more realistic than the hero's journey and people are jarred by it because it doesn't represent their imagination of what real world struggle is like, the fact that it upsets people is one of those deep core societal issues because of the wrongness of the lens people see the world through.
For reference, I also really enjoyed the Catcher in the Rye, and there are some superficial similarities: a young person is scarred by events in their lives and succumbs to depression. (there are a myriad of differences between the two stories -- I'm not drawing an equivalence, just making one comparison)
Catcher in the Rye is probably best read as an angry teenager: you meet Holden Caufield and he's witty, cynical, funny, defiant, etc. You might fall in love with the character, but what you ultimately learn is that he's a miserable failure; he lost the battle with his depression and so many of the people he was cutting down were just normal, decent people trying to enjoy their lives.
Crucially, we never meet Holden when he is young, bright eyed, and innocent. The narrative structure shows us who he is right away, and we the reader learn that this is actually quite a bad thing throughout the course of the story.
Persepolis works a bit differently: we spend the first half of the book with innocent, bright-eyed Marjane and we fall in love with that character. The character we fall in love with is taken from us by the events of the story, by living unsupervised in exile, etc. It's nothing but sad. It's well-written, it's very memorable, but I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling unhappy about an unhappy turn of events.
May be, but to someone going through similar life experiences an honest story might give their internal emotions some validation. Art can do wonders in that "I am not the only one" aspect.
Indeed, the story is quite Western overall, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that the author had already been living in the West for over a decade when she wrote it.
To whoever is downvoting this: it is not even a criticism. Just a description. When you discuss stories, Americans will frequently insist on the "hero story is the only one possible fun story" and simultaneously interpret bad ending as punishment for moral failure. French wont argue that all that often. And European literature is in general more likely not be that.
And second, using "western" as synonym for "american" wherever the author knows a lot about American and just assumes everything in Europe is exactly the same is something I noticed multiple times on HN.
I got a few breaks as well as a kid too. I think teenage boys end up being a community investment and people are cleaning up broken windows, stolen cars, graffiti, and worse as we hope the kids grow up.
Vulnerable young people becoming low level drug dealers (often for lack of other options) isn't exactly a rare story.
Died of sadness did make me wonder about something self inflicted.
May she be at peace now, and her work cherished.
Grief is not just metaphorical, severe bereavement can affect health in very real ways.
I will second, the graphic novel is excellent. Up there with Maus in terms of showing you a new perspective.
But of course the other kind of people very rarely have someone writing international bestsellers on their behalf, so this is all we’ll get.
The simple humanity in this candid description brought a small tear to my eyes. I'd say that the classical approach to this is a dry, clinical description of a depression stage, or a description of a how and not a why. Very welcomed in the age of AI slop!
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.
It's always a joy to talk shop with a guy in England, a guy in Iran, and a guy in Poland in the same thread.
> Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran (2006) is a travel book written by British travel writer Jason Elliot.
And a fascinating history of mathematics as well.
I do recognize that the type of person who I might encounter in the workplace is an educated, accomplished, English-speaking person who has likely gone through cultural adjustments to operate in an American workplace. So there’s a filter there.
But when you get to know people, especially when they talk about their family and childhood, the idea that a nation is full of bad people full of hate is just laughable.
I also believe that your claim of seven "official allowed" haircuts is bs, as with almost everything I ever read about Iran.
Source: I see that Tehrani men have the same variety of haircuts and facial hair styles as in any other city on the planet.
It didn't send its military for that reason, if that helps.
Hell, if you read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, you would find plenty of similar examples. The haircuts are just the cherry on top of that authoritarian cake.
Also, the west is not just the US. Trump failed to find anyone willing to join him in his military adventures.
https://www.bbc.com/news/10527088
And it didn't stop here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-32587418
A few of my friends went there and I talked with a few Iranians whose families moved out. Yeah, the people are welcoming and you can have an amazing experience there, but it's still a theocratic regime. All the things you did happened because those who want to control everyone simply can't be everywhere at all times.
You don't see people in the west getting the death penalty for their political activity like you do in Iran.
My country also tried to interfere with people's private lives decades ago, but fortunately that system collapsed.
You can't make the argument that the common person enjoys the same freedom in Iran as they do in the west.
(you just moved the goalposts from "officially allowed" to "an official announcement")
In your link to a BBC article from SIXTEEN YEARS ago, the closest it comes to saying "officially allowed" or "official announcement" is...
"published a guide".
There is no "officially allowed" list of seven haircuts in Iran.
It literally does not exist, and yet you are now trippling down on your disinformation.
> I wasn't personally insulting nor aggressive in any comment I have made. I didn't spread disinformation. This thread is inherently political by nature, and I have been objective.
> It just goes to show, even here on HN, if you don't stick to the "THIS SIDE GOOD THAT SIDE BAD" narrative, your voice WILL be restricted.
> Again, RIP Marjane, you taught me a lot about Iran and the world.
You're not shadow banned, but comments peddling objectively false conspiracy theories and whining about downvoting do not play well here.
But complaining about upvotes and moderation is bad decorum and will get you downvoted out.
Which ironically enough proves the precise point.
Even Khomeini was in exile in France until the shah was deposed.
> 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...
It says so right in the title so I may have misunderstood your question.
And unlike the UK and US, they had no historic bad blood with Iran (Mossadegh et al.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement