Portrayals of Iranian Women in Marjane Satrapi’s “Embroideries (2005)”: A Multimodal Analysis

Abstract

Since the lives of veiled women especially in Iran have become academic interests regarding gender stereotype and sexism, several studies have purposed various perspectives on how they live, struggle and negotiate their power in the society. To extend this line of research, this study therefore aims at investigating the portrayals of Iranian women in Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries by employing Multimodal Analysis (MA). Words and images were takeninto account for analysis that were then divided into five main issues to discuss: colors, symbolic embroideries, Satrapi’s grandmother, speech bubble and panel frame and universal topics. The findings revealed that women’s rights in Iran are oppressed by patriarchal and religious tradition, which ideologically align with the Middle East women stereotype. Interestingly, this memoir also portrays the images of Iranian women that contradict the traditions by presenting the pictures of unveiled women and the issues of plastic surgery and surgical procedure of women’s virginity restoration discussed among them. In addition to this, the author presents the hidden part of Iranian women, behind the closed door when men are away, where they straighten their power by using the universal strategy just like all women in the whole world do – gossip –to survive the hardship. However, the limitation of this study is recognized as the story was narrated through only the author’s lens. Therefore, the results and interpretations were specific and limited and might not be generalized to all women in Iranian society.