Marjane Strapi

Marjane is the narrator of the story, as well as the author and the protagonist of the novel. In her first novel Marjane leaves Iran for Austria to escape the miseries of the war. She studies at a high school devoted to the French language in Vienna. She has many interesting experiences while in Vienna. She moves frequently to many different places. In Vienna Marjane meets different types of people and gains a firsthand experience of Western culture. Marjane also gets to experience what people in Europe think of Iranians and others from the Middle East. Marjane grows extremely homesick, after four years in Austria, she moves back to Iran. She loves seeing her parents again, but misses some parts of Western civilization. She feels that she does not have the freedom that she has had in Austria. She hates to wear a long veil in public and she considers Iranian men to be very arrogant. By the end of the novel she has had enough of the East and decides to move to France, where she will study in Strasbourg.