TURKEY PERSPECTIVE

Istanbul reads Satrapi through two lenses: BBC Türkçe for the general public and Bianet for the critical feminist left. BBC Turkish produces a long portrait centered on the exile trajectory — the Vienna French Lycée, the return to Tehran after a severe bronchitis revealing a city "deeply changed," the Strasbourg education, French citizenship in 2006, the 2025 refusal of the Legion of Honor for "hypocrisy." The portrait quotes Studio Canal UK on the dimension of "identity, freedom, exile and resistance." Bianet, more political and brief, foregrounds a fact most other newsrooms forget: Satrapi had received in 2024 the Princess of Asturias Prize for Communication and Humanities — a prestigious Spanish award that contrasts with her refusal of the Legion of Honor the following year. For the Turkish press, that contrast is eloquent: Satrapi accepted recognitions that did not commit her politically and refused those that might have silenced her. The Turkish context is implicit: in a country where power regularly represses feminist artists and free press, making Satrapi a model of coherence is itself a position. Bianet closes soberly with the list of her books available in Turkish.