Iranian Love Stories

How Do You Find Love in an Anti-Woman Theocratic State?

As the United States descends further into dictatorship, I am drawn to accounts of life in other tyrannies. Earlier this year, I wrote about Marjane Satrapi’s comics anthology Women Life Freedom about the 2022 movement by Iranian women against the lethal enforcement of morality laws. I am very fond of comics anthologies like Women Life Freedom, not just because of they embody important themes, but also because they introduce me to new artists. I was impressed by a story “The Art of Freedom” by Farid Vahid and Deloupy included in Women Life Freedom. Deloupy is a cartoonist with a sleek, attractive drawing style. Based on the works he has listed on his website, he draws both highly stylized “cartoony” comics and slightly more realistically-drawn comics. As in the fine art world, there is a tendency for a comics artist to settle on a particular style or technique and make a career of it. After all, if your drawing style brings you success, why change it?

Several of Deloupy’s books are journalistic, often dealing with the Middle East, including the one I want to look at today, Iranian Love Stories. Iranian Love Stories was written by a pair of journalists who write under a pseudonym, Jane Deuxard.

“Jane Deaxard’s” biography on the back cover of Iranian Love Stories is quite mysterious: “Jane Deuxard is the pseudonym of a real-life couple—both journalists. They use an alias to protect their sources and their ability to work.” The only reference to Jane Deuxard that I could find online is in reference to this graphic novel—I wonder if the couple work on other journalistic projects together under their real names. Deloupy gives us some clues about Jane Deuxard in how he draws them. They are depicted as a young couple in their 20s or 30s. The female partner has blond hair and blue eyes, while the male partner has dark hair and eyes and a wispy beard. Of course, if they were concerned enough to employ a pseudonym, I can imagine them asking Deloupy to disguise their visual representations as well.