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Reception

The graphic novel was generally well-received in western countries following its release. For example, TIME included the first part in its "Best Comix of 2003" list.^[1] Andrew Arnold of TIME described the Persepolis as "sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always sincere and revealing."^[2] Kristin Anderson of the The Oxonian Review of Books of Balliol College, University of Oxford said "While Persepolis’ feistiness and creativity pay tribute as much to Satrapi herself as to contemporary Iran, if her aim is to humanise her homeland, this amiable, sardonic and very candid memoir couldn’t do a better job."^[3] In a critical article published in the academic journal Comparative American Studies titled 'Reading Azar Nafisi in Tehran', University of Tehran literature professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi points out that in Persepolis representation is regularly interwoven with other aims and projections, which militate against accuracy. He states that the book and movie are the works of one who has 'Westernized' her outlook. He goes on to say that Satrapi, like Azar Nafisi, constantly confirms what orientalist representations have regularly claimed: the backwardness and inferiority of Muslims and Islam. The works, he states, have produced gross misrepresentations of Iranian society and Islam and quotes and references are used which are inaccurate, misleading, or even wholly invented.^[4]