Persepolis Characters

An early confidant of Marjane’s. At the end of the novel she gives Marjane important advice about how to live and survive in a world with people who wish to cause other people suffering.

Was emperor of Persia before the Father of the Shah overthrew him.

He was a Persian Prince, and though at first Marjane gets excited by this fact, the truth of the matter is that he was often imprisoned and tortured for his communist beliefs.

Ramin’s father is a member of the secret police under the Shah. Marjane and her friends at first blame Ramin for his crimes.

Ramin’s father is part of the secret police and Marjane and her friends decide to punish him for his father’s crimes, though later Marjane tells him that she forgives him.

For a long time he is a political prisoner of the Shah’s regime. He is released but later targeted for assassination. His assassins do not find him and kill his sister instead. He flees across the border hidden among a flock of sheep with his family.

He is for a long time a political prisoner of the Shah’s before being released after the ousting of the Shah. He is then murdered in his bathtub by the Revolutionaries.

The daughter of Siamak.

Friend of Marjane’s Father, Siamak, and Mohsen, who is tortured and executed.

Cousin of Anoosh and the man who declared Azerbaijan as independent from Iran. He gets executed by the Shah’s regime.

Marjane’s friend whose father dies while a fighter pilot bombing Baghdad. Paradisse writes to Marjane, “I wish he were alive and in jail rather than dead and a hero.”

Marjane’s Mother’s childhood friend who stays with Satrapi family after their house in destroyed in southern Iran during the start of the Iraq-Iran War.

Mali’s husband, who also lives with the Satrapi’s for a while after his own house gets destroyed. Marjane’s Father considers him very materialistic.

Mali’s children. These young boys are materialistic and not very aware of their family’s losses and deprivations incurred during the Iraq-Iran War.

The Satrapi’s family maid, whose son receives a plastic key painted gold in school, which is a tactic used by the regime to tempt boys to become martyr’s during the Iran-Iraq war. She loses her faith due to the way the regime uses religion to manipulate its people.

A schoolboy who receives a plastic key painted gold and is very unaware of how the government and the school are manipulating him into wanting to become a martyr during the Iran-Iraq war.

Marjane’s cousin who, while on leave from the army, describes the way young men turned into soldiers are convinced by the army that martyrdom will bring glory in the afterlife.

A man who spent time with Anoosh in prison and agrees to make a fake passport for Marjane’s uncle Taher but must flee the country before he can do so.

Marjane’s friend and the daughter in the Baba-Levy household. After the Baba-Levy home is destroyed in fighting, Marjane discovers Neda’s bracelet—and the arm attached to it—in the rubble.

The Jewish family next door to the Satrapi’s who gets killed by ballistic missiles. They refuse to leave Tehran because their family has lived in the city for 3000 years.

Marjane and her family take the time to celebrate his birth with the rest of her family even though sirens ring throughout the city day and night.

She hands her baby to Marjane and flees without him as a siren interrupts the party commemorating his birth.

Marjane’s childhood maid and friend.

A neighbor who sends Mehri letters.

Marjane and Mali’s family overhear these two women denigrating refugees from southern Iran.

The hospital director once was Taher’s family’s window washer. He has, since the Revolution, become very devout and reached a high position in society.

These are two members of the women’s branch of the Guardians of the Revolution who accost Marjane about the western clothes she is wearing and her improperly veiled hair.

He accosts the Satrapi family one day on their way home and threatens to search their house for illegal goods, but he quickly vanishes after Marjane’s Father offers him a bribe.

Marjane’s friend who holds a party in his house.

A neighbor who is arrested after someone informed the police about his holdings of forbidden Western party objects.

Marjane’s friend who left to live in America.

Marjane’s childhood friend.

Marjane’s childhood friend.

Marjane’s childhood friend.

Marjane’s childhood friend.