Friend

=Home= Friends

Throughout the novel our main character, Marjane, meets several people that she speaks of as her friends, these people include:


 * Siamak Jari** is one of the revolutionary heroes (in Marji’s eyes) the Satrapi family knows. He was arrested in 1973 for writing subversive articles and released together with many other political prisoners in 1979 after the Shah left the country. He is a communist, and a role model for Marji. He tells the family of all the torture he received in prison and Marji is overwhelmed, and she and her friends torture each other to feel what it’s like. Siamak escapes from Iran by hiding among sheep to get across the border.


 * Mohsen Shakiba** is another political prisoner the Satrapi family knows who was released in 1979. Like Siamak, he is a communist and he was arrested for being revolutionary. Later in the book he is murdered by the new regime.

Marji’s maid Mehri has worked for the Satrapi family since she was 8 years old because her family could not afford to have more children. She thinks of Marji as her little sister. Marji is ashamed of having a maid, so she wants to do something good for her. When Mehri falls in love with the neighbor’s son, Marji helps her to write letters to him because she cannot write herself. She comes from a poor peasant’s family so she has not gone to school. Mehri is a supporter of the republic and she demonstrates with Marji.
 * Mehri, the maid**


 * Khosro** is a friend of Marjane's family. They ask him to make a fake passport for Marjane's Uncle Taher because he needs open heart surgery abroad, but he fleas the country before completing the job the job because of government persecution.


 * Mali** is a close friend of the Satrapi's. She comes to live with them for a while after their border town is bombed by Iraqi forces. She and her husband had been wealthy, and they are portrayed as quite materialistic, but they lost everything in the bombing.