Marjane Satrapi, writes to portray the role of women and their femininity during the New Regime. Persepolis is written during the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. The novel illustrates how the Islamic Revolution leads to change in culture and society within the country of Iran. “In 1997 a revolution took place. It was later called The Islamic revolution” (Satrapi 3). Satrapi address the difficult problems families endured during this time, but Satrapi focused on the pain women felt. Persepolis shows how in 1979 Iran’s monarchy was overthrown and led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The major economic and social change in Iran led to the emotional pull on the people due to the revolution.
Within Iran's society, all Iranian people were impacted
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With God Marjane knew she could become anything she ever dreamed of. “I was born with religion.” (Satrapi 6) Marjane’s family raised her to believe in prayer and the power of God. Marjane’s early life conceited of nightly talks to God for his advice. “Every night I had a big discussion with God. God gives me some more time I am not ready yet. Yes, you are celestial light, you are my choice, my best choice.” (Satrapi 8) Marjane was grown to trust in God, and God would lead Marjane in the right direction. Now with the revolution taking place Marjane begins to question God and his actions.
The new regime leads to new developments in religion throughout Iran. The ruler of Iran was influenced to reverse the ways of religion, government, and the way people would live. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wanted to restore the image of Iran and seize control. Khomeini used the power of Shia in turning Iran around. “Together we will try to march towards democracy.” (Satrapi 40) With this new ideal set in Khomeini mind, nothing would remain the
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Women were required to wear conservative clothing, nothing that show cases the body or skin. Women must wear their veil with long sleeves shirts, long pants, or long dresses. The new commander set rules where women would be punished for being in public without their veils or skin coverings. Daring women tried to find loop holes in their dress code laws, while other women would cover as much skin as humanly possible. “In no time, the way people dressed became an ideological sign. There were two kinds of women. The fundamentalist women. The modern women. You showed your opposition to the regime by letting a few strands of hair show.” (Satrapi 75) Once women were out of
In the 1970’s Iran, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a very centralized military state that maintained a close relationship with the USA. The Shah was notoriously out of touch with working class Iranians as he implemented many controversial economic policies against small business owners that he suspected involved profiteering. Also unrestricted economic expansions in Iran lead to huge government expenditure that became a serious problem when oil prices dropped in the mid 1970’s. This caused many huge government construction projects to halt and the economy to stall after many years of massive profit. Following this was high rates of inflation that affected Iranians buying power and living standards. (Afary, 2012) Under the Shah, political participation was not widely available for all Iranians and it was common for political opposition to be met with harassment, illegal detention, and even torture. These measures were implemented by the Iranian secret police knows as ‘SAVAK’. This totalitarian regime combined with the increasing modernisation of the country paved the way for revolution.
She says, “I was born with religion” (pg 6). Unlike other children, Marji wants to be a prophet when she is older. This idea is not normal for a child or anyone under the Muslim religion since prophets have always been men. Her classmates laugh at her dream of becoming a prophet and her teacher speaks to her parents, but Marji stays true to her passion. Marji believes religion should be used to create good things and change anything bad. Growing up, Marji doesn’t understand why her maid cannot eat at the dinner table with her family or why her friends do not drive a Cadillac like her father. Marji is a child and does not understand the concept of social classes. As a result, Marji sees religion as a way to change these things. She believes that in the name of God she could make sure everyone is treated equally. Marji’s opinion is untainted by any other connotations of religion. She is forming her own opinions and they are good. Satrapi uses her perspective of religion as a child to show how pure religion could be in the eyes of someone young. The perspective of a child is appealing to the reader because it is innocent and naive. Satrapi is trying to make the point that if everyone saw religion in a good way it could be used for good
Throughout everyone’s life, they are sure to experience some kind of conflict that dramatically changes their perception of the world. This conflict can be mentally, physically, and emotionally trying, causing the feeling of being lost and alone, unable to control your own life. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi experiences a conflict of faith that sends her spiraling when her uncle Anoosh is arrested and executed. At the beginning of Persepolis, Marjane wanted to be a prophet, following in the footsteps of others like Jesus and Muhammad.
people outside the middle east see the area different from people who live there. In the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi,, is about her when she was a little girl in Iran during the iranian revolution starring in 1979, when everything started to change for her starting with “the veil.” Satrapi was ineffective in showing that the middle eastern stereotypes does not reflect the majority of iranian people through single story's meaning, talks about one person's point of view. Marjane Satrapi was a different kind of little girl than the rest of them in Iran at the time she went through a 80’s american rebel stage, and a stage of wanting to be “justice, love and wrath of god all in one.”
The 1979 Iranian Revolution represented a resistance to westernization in efforts to restore Islamic principles. Iran during the 1970s was plagued by corruption, despotism, and repression. Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi faced massive resistance specifically by a coalition led by Muslim fundamentalists and Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini believed that “As for those who oppose us because of their opposition to Islam, we must cure them by means of guidance, if it is at all possible; otherwise, we will destroy these agents of foreign powers with the same fist that destroyed the Shah's regime.” Iran shifted from a pro-Western monarchy to an anti-Western theocracy.
Marji and her family support the revolution against the westernized Shah’s regime, since they believe life will improve after he is deposed and a democratic government will follow. However, they are decisively incorrect in this assumption because the so-called “Islamic Republic” is really a democratic institution in name only because their is a non-elected supreme leader who has control over most Iranian affairs. This Islamic Republic instills harsh Islamic rule disallowing secular life in Iran, like Marjane’s family have enjoyed in comfort prior to 1979. Marji’s family’s very comfortable lifestyle is quite ironic when juxtaposed with their communist and leftist ideologies since they call for reform and equality, when they live the lifestyle of the bourgeois. Marji and her family’s support of the 1979 Islamic revolution is ironic since it causes a drastic change in their secular lifestyles for the
Throughout the book author Marjane Satrapi tries to show us that not all Iranians are extremist and that not all Iranians want to hurt other cultures. She offers a viewpoint on a subject matter that most people come in with a fixed mindset about. The challenge that stood and still stands in her way today, is that the view that has been reinforced over and over again in people's minds from the media’s portrayal of the actions of a few religious extremists is so powerful. Satrapi is trying to separate those extremists from the rest of the Iranian people in our minds. “This is why writing Persepolis was so important to me.
Structuring a memoir as a comic book to tell her life story in Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi gives a compelling account of what it was like to grow up in revolutionary Iran. Throughout the work, Satrapi focuses on herself as Marjane as she accounts for the violence that is inflicted upon the people of her community as a regime takes over her home country. At the age of 6, Marjane finds herself dreaming of becoming a prophet to save the world of the violence that threatens it. Aging out of childhood optimism, into adolescence, Marjane’s idea of social innovation is modified as she becomes aware of the violent forces that control her community—the forces that ultimately control her. As an older-aged teen, this violent reality pulls Marjane away from her dream of becoming a changemaker and more towards a lifestyle of violence.
She sees herself as the last prophet—even though supporting the idea of social equality, aid for the weak, and the end of suffering of Iranian people during the war. The Revolution, which many Iranians supported because they wanted freedom, ended up bringing to power a regime of conservative religious who saw modern Western-style culture is against Islam. Moreover, by the law, they regulated all behavior seen as Western, such as American music or clothing. Further, Persepolis shows how things became more religious under the Islamic Republic, the government's attempts to force their religious practices cause Marjane and others to lose their personal religions.
Readers are able to clearly understand what the context of the book is and what Marjane Satrapi's real message is within the book. The images assists the readers in emotionally connecting the events and how Marjane describes them. The images reinforce what Marji experiences as a child and an adult caught in the Iranian revolution. The simple yet strong an clear images show the hardships people face during these times and how people cope with these situations both in a a personal and the public and general level. Marjane Satrapi's message within her novel is a small but an important step towards not only breaking the labels put on not only Iranians but also labels put on genders, religion and
The Iranian Revolution is one of the reasons Marjane Satrapi is forced to grow up so fast. With school, the media, and even her parents getting involved, Marjane is thrown into the middle of a conflict she doesn’t entirely understand. Below is a picture of protesters
The religion of Islam was imposed upon Iranians, whether they liked it or not. Marjane and her classmates “...didn’t like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to”(Satrapi 3). The young girls were against wearing the veil because they were not practicing
In the Ruins The complete Persepolis is a glamourized depiction of the atrocities occurring during the Iranian Revolution. Most people are never formally educated in modern Middle Eastern history, and they do not know any better than to take this story as the truth, the end all be all, but Marjane Satrapi’s account of the revolution is only one story of many and its not the worst of it.
Persepolis by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi includes many symbols and images that make an overall statement about the condition of the world during the later part of the 20th century. In the film, protagonist, Marjane struggles to strictly follow the restrictions and limitations set by Iran and enforced by the Religious Police. It is evident throughout the movie, that Marjane’s surroundings affect her and the way she interacts others. Overall, through the use of selective lighting and symbols Paronnaud and Satrapi highlight the problems of Iran to make a statement about the severity of tensions amongst Iranians as well as how women are required to respond to such tensions. Lighting plays a key role in how the citizens of Iran are
Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French novelist, who wrote Persepolis. Her novel is a graphic autobiography about her life growing up during the Islamic revolution. Her novel talks about her relationship with God, her family, her struggle to cope with the new laws, and her religion. Marjane’s novel requires the reader to analyze the images because the text will not completely give away her meaning in the novel; in other words, there is a deeper meaning to everything in her novel.