Goodbye Marjane
Today, Marjane Satrapi passed away. She was 56 years old, and according to the statement from her family, the primary cause for this extremely sudden death was the depression from the death of her husband last year. She was in Paris, so far from her hometown, Rasht, in Iran.
Last year, I did a presentation on her celebrated film, Perspolis, for the cinema society of our university. I tried to show them why many Iranians have immigrated to Europe in the last half-century, the numerous issues within the borders of the country for women, and how some of us have never accepted the diaspora as our home. Satrapi describes it better than anyone; you feel you don't belong to your country, and you don't belong to the other country you live in now. For her, there's a lifelong identity crisis that you cannot overcome, but can get along with only by accepting the fact that you'll never see anywhere as "home" in the way that many people might see. The sentiment of being a stranger for the rest of your life in an atmosphere where you have to carry the survivor's guilt of knowing your family's life is in danger; A familiar feeling that I’ve been often dealing with since last summer when Israel invaded Iran, and later in January with the mass protests. When I was doing my presentation, talking about this part made me nearly cry, and I tried my best to avoid a public self-humiliation by crossing my fingers and clenching my fist behind my back. The idea that I'm literally living this terrified me, and not knowing what might come next is even worse. What if I never visit my hometown again? What if I can never hug those that I used to call "friends"? What if I die anywhere but in Iran, like Marjane? I had no answer for them back then, and I still don't have one either.
Marjane Satrapi helped me realize I’m not alone in these feelings. Through her work, I caught a glimpse of my own experiences and learned to find meaning in them. Satrapi’s legacy is her ability to reflect those struggles and make us feel seen. I hope she is finally at peace alongside the love of her life, and I wish her spirit finds its way home to Iran after all she endured.