Embroideries

Embroideries is the latest graphic novel from Iranian writer-cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, author of the critically acclaimed two-part graphic novel-format autobiography, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Satrapi, a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times who now lives in Paris, enlightens the reader, in Embroideries, as to what it’s like for an Iranian woman to straddle the two different worlds of Iranian and Western society, particularly concerning sex and marriage. The deeper meaning of the book’s title is revealed as we learn, through Satrapi’s engaging black-and-white drawings and conversational story line between her grandmother, mother, aunt and their friends, of the Iranian practice of “full embroidery,” a discreet surgery to “restore” the virginity of a woman. The female characters reveal much of the behind-the-scenes goings-on of being an Iranian woman as they exuberantly discuss over tea served from a samovar everything from nose jobs to being a mistress.