PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Islamabad relays Satrapi with a freedom of tone unusual for an Iran-related political topic: The Express Tribune publishes not one but two articles on the same day, one of which quotes verbatim Satrapi's critique of visa denials. Pakistan has an ambiguous relationship with Tehran — a Shia-vs-Sunni Muslim neighbor with sometimes electric ties — and the Pakistani press visibly feels no obligation to protect the image of the Islamic Republic. The obituary reproduces AFP-Reuters and emphasizes the post-Mahsa Amini commitment, the Paris 2024 Olympic triptych and the Legion of Honor refusal. Satrapi's sentence is quoted in full: "I cannot continue to see the children of Iranian oligarchs come to spend their holidays in France, even become naturalized, while at the same time young dissidents have difficulty obtaining a tourist visa to come and see what the country of the Enlightenment and human rights looks like." The second article, shorter, mentions the Mattias and Marjane Ripa-Satrapi Cinema Foundation she created to support foreign students wishing to come and study filmmaking in Paris — a human gesture that prolongs the political critique. For the Pakistani press, Satrapi becomes a figure of universal feminine resistance whose example may resonate locally.