Trump Is Rebuked! Finally.

This brief post is about Iran in two ways. First, Trump is being taken to task for starting his war with Iran. And ground-breaking Iranian artist and author of Persepolis, Majane Satrapi has died at 56.

The House of Representatives decided to hold Trump accountable. I am amazed. Yesterday, they put forward the War Powers Resolution, and voted to require Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from the conflict with Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war. Four Republicans sided with Democrats in a “striking sign of growing opposition to a military campaign now in its fourth month.”

What the House voted on has to go to the Senate next. Trump and his cronies say this is unconstitutional. Of course they do. Also, Marco Rubio claims the war is over anyway. Haha.

Some sad news: Marjane Satrapi has died at the young age of 56. She was a very influential Iranian-French graphic novelist who penned the autobiographical novel “Persepolis,” about a young woman growing up during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Published in 2004, Persepolis was an exciting addition to the burgeoning graphic novel genre; exciting because it depicted a woman’s story. Even in 2004, this was uncommon in cartoons, and for me it was huge. Historically, I would argue it was ground-breaking.

The NY Times reported that French president Macron announced her passing in a statement:

“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim.”

I loved Persepolis, originally two volumes. It is an important book about a girl’s/woman’s experience, which we taught at Vassar in Women’s Studies courses when I was a professor there. It is about life in Iran in the late 1970’s, a political revolution and the new regime’s oppression of women. Persepolis shows us the political/cultural/personal dynamics of such control. The ideas in Persepolis can be extrapolated to the experience of women globally, which is partly why it is such an important book. It also gives readers insight into the fierce independence of the Iranian people.

The story was made into an animated film, which is very good, but I recommend reading he book first.

Here is an article I wrote about the 2022 at a time of uprising of women in Iran, during which some burned their headscarves and proudly showed their hair. The resistance was in response to the arrest by Iran’s “Guidance Patrol” of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, for not wearing her hijab properly. She was killed while in detention.

Below is another version of my drawing at the top of this piece.

Thanks for being here. Stay strong, stay together, stay loud.

I hope your Thursday is a good one, and I will see you tomorrow for some live-drawing!