Embroideries Sparknotes

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Recommended: An introduction for an essay on women in islam

At first glance at the book, Embroideries I thought it was going to be boring. This small book is very deceiving, the uncolorful pages without numbers, the simplistic drawings without gutters and non-traditional page layouts packs a powerful message. The author and artist Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran to a middle-class family and educated in France. She introduces you into her hysterical family that any culture could relate to. Embroideries is a satirical graphic novel of the women of an Iranian family. The author addresses the issue of virginity, sexuality, marriage, divorce, body image, and religion. Satrapi’s opens with the matriarch of the family, grandma the opium addict and her youthful stories. Embroideries argued the feminist perspective of agency between the patriarchy traditions of the Iranian culture and the female body. I focus my respond to common thread throughout the book, agency verses tradition. Satrapi presents thirteen-year-old Parvine, who is told she has to marry a 69 years old man, General Mafakherolmolouk. Her mother informs her, she has no choice and Parvine becomes child bride. On the next several pages, you see the agony Parvine is faced with as she escapes on her wedding and seeks refuge from her aunt. Satrapi creates a visual …show more content…

What is significant about Parvine’s story is her aunt was a widow, therefore she was allowed to think for herself. Consequently, many child brides are not that fortunate as illustrated in Embroideries. In Feminist.Com, Jennifer Buffett, president of NoVo Foundation interviewed several women who were child brides and explained one woman’s plight as she was to be married at the age of four, “She ran away crying in terror and heartbreak, only to return to her village after realizing she had no options

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