Marjane Satrapi's Embroideries: Women in Arab-Islamic Society

Though there has been revolutionary success of women’s rights within the socio-political setting, allowing women of different backgrounds more opportunity for education, suffrage, employment, and freedom; in the Arab-Islamic world, most areas of the public sphere are still reinforced by strict religious beliefs and old static traditions. The age-old belief that the family resides in the conduct of its women is greatly respected in this part of the world. Honour is a virtue that has stood the test of time, the Arab-Islamic tradition holds honour to knowing what morals are and holding to tradition, not for oneself but for the greater good This they believe resides in a woman’s obligation to be chaste until marriage, the public concealment of their looks via “the veil” and their ability to upward climb the social ladder. Author Marjane Satrapi delightfully relates all of these Islamic societal norms in one tea-party afternoon spent with her grandmother, mother, aunt and neighbours in her graphic novel called Embroideries.

Satrapi takes an unconventional route in the way she forefronts the role of Iranian women, she offers us, the reader, a behind-the-scenes look into love, sex, marriages and infidelity of the private lives of the females in her family; in doing so Satrapi turns the public oppression of these women into domestic social opportunity and female independence. However, the question remains, are these women that Satrapi displays free? Are they liberated from male bondage and can do whatever they please?

The first page of Satrapi’s Embroideries provides an excellent example to understand how women in society are second to that of their male counter-part. In this opening scene a gourmet meal is prepared by Marjane Satrapi’s grandmother, Mr.Satrapi (Marjane’s grandfather) grants Mrs. Satrapi a compliment, she replies with “Satrapi flatters me.” (Satrapi 1). Marjane Satrapi offers the reader a footnote stating “My grandmother called my grandfather Satrapi, never by his first name. She said one must respect one’s husband” (Satrapi 1). This scene immediately demonstrates the subordinate role women play in this male dominated society. By simply footnoting the text in a conceptual gutter, the author leaves the reader to reflect on this opening panel and doing so the culture dynamics of the Arab-Islamic world.

“While the world/image dichotomy may be false or oversimple, learned assumptions about these different codes –written and pictorial –still exert a strong centripetal pull on the reading experience” (Hatfield, 2), the simplicity of images within this opening scene keeps the reality of it at an understanding level, so that the reader is easily able to identify with this situation and the culture. The words further perpetuate and reinforce ideas of dominance and inferiority that is easily identifiable when connected with the images. By Satrapi introducing the reader to the stark black and white hues of her novel and the free flowing dialogue which is carried throughout the book, she expands on the reality and the veracity of the Arab-Islamic culture, in a very thorough manner. Furthermore, this opening scene sets the precedence of an asymmetrical relationship between men and women, an unequal one such that women cannot communicate with their husband on a first name basis. As an introductory scene, one cannot help but assume that the women in this society and this novel are captive within the text and society; this right away forces the reader to assume that these women are the second sex, a feeling that reverberates throughout the novel.