The Government’s Mandate In 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place and along with the government, the people of Islam were changing. In Persepolis, Marji and her family experience changes in which impact both their society and them personally. The new government of Iran set a mandate saying that all women must wear a veil because they thought that wearing the veil was an essential to their religion and those who opposed were seen as unfaithful to the Muslim regime. After the mandate there became a noticeable change in the people of Islam, not just the government. Views on the government and people’s personality were a noticeable changes seen in the people like Marji. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s overall purpose was to exhibit how transformative …show more content…
As Marji grew up, she made older friends who had a lot to say about the war and that’s all they’d talk about. One day at school Marji was talking to her two older friends about how they think the government is lying to them about how they’re doing in the war, “Everyday they tell us that we’ve destroyed ten planes and five tanks. If you start from the beginning of the war, that makes six thousand planes and three thousand tanks destroyed. Even the Americans don’t have an army this big” (111). Marji is beginning to have her own talks about politics and the war like her uncle Anoosh and her father did. Marji went from just listening the those discussions, to actually leading them an contributing her own ideas. two years into the war Marji was expelled from her school for wearing jewelry after being told not to and hitting the principle, then she was accepted into a new school. Her new teacher was talking about the Islamic Republic and how there’s no longer political leaders and she responded, “My uncle was imprisoned by the Shah’s regime, and it was the Islamic Regime that ordered his execution… You say that we don’t have political prisoners anymore… How are you lie to us like that” (144)? Before Marji would have never stood up to someone giving false information about the war and politics. It is clearly seen how Marji has become more vocal about the war and is starting to have a strong opinion about it. Overall, Marji wouldn’t be talking about the war and what’s happening if it didn’t affect her personally, but it did. If the veil wasn’t mandatory then right now Marji would be ignoring the war because it’s not affecting her but it is. Therefore, from the way Marji now speaks out publicly about the war it’s clearly seen that Marji has become vocal about it than before the
In Persepolis, Satrapi develops the central idea of Marji and her parents rebelling against the social injustices held by the Shah and the government. This is demonstrated in chapters “ The Trip”, “The Passport”, and “Kim Wilde”. Early in the revolution, females were forced to cover themselves up. They were told to wear their veils because it didn’t show a sign of western American style or sexual
In Persepolis, Marjane uses European education as her way to a life of freedom outside of sexist Iran. Marjane Satrapi’s dream of becoming an “educated, liberated woman”(Satrapi 74) is impossible in her home country due to
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that depicts the life of Marjane Satrapri during the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi tells her story as a child growing up during the time of the many drastic changes forced upon women and the effects of the new laws made by the Shah. During this time people in Iran were banned from reading, or listening to music that was not approved by the regime. Schools were separated by gender and women were forced to wear veils to protect themselves from being molested or raped by men. The middle class women in Persepolis are prescribed the most important roles such as rearing their children and the duties in the home. But most importantly because they are in the home they are unable to attain legal rights for women in Iran. “In no country do women have on have political status, access, or influence equal to man” (Kazemi, 2000). The divorce of a man and woman lies solely in the hands of men. Though the women in the Satrapi family were oppressed outside of the home they continued to live two separate lives, one inside the household and one on the outside. They often had gatherings and drank alcohol even though it was not allowed. The roles that were prescribed to the women were not effective because they had no opinion, and because there were no laws in favor of women who sooner or later begin to give up and inherent the man’s thoughts.
The Iranian government is fighting a losing battle against a rapidly growing Western force. Although Iran is not physically waging war against the United States, the government is fighting to eradicate its increasing cultural influence in Iran. The young, Iranian population is currently speaking out against the Islamic Republic’s attempts to rid the country of Western culture, demanding more freedom and less censorship, similar to how Marjane Satrapi acts out against the regime in Persepolis.
Marginalization occurs when communities are prevented from participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of their society, and is a major cause for the difficult experiences the narrators must overcome. In Persepolis, the veil plays a large role in Marji’s life because it becomes a requirement for Iranian women to wear in public, marginalizing them from other women. Marji and her friends are unsure of the veil and do not understand why they need to wear it, (Satrapi 3). She says, “We found ourselves veiled and separated from our friends,” (Satrapi 4). The veil is a symbol of uniformity because the women cannot be told apart from one another. It erases their individuality and ...
Orientalism is a way of viewing the world as divided into two unequal halves: the Occident and the Orient. Occidental means Western Hemisphere, and Oriental means Eastern Hemisphere. These ideas of orientalism are challenged in Satrapi's Persepolis. A book about a young girl Marji who lived in Iran in the 1980’s, and therefore is placed in the beginning years of political and religious turmoil in Iran. Satrapi Juxtaposes the western view of Iran to Iran by showing similarities between America and Iran through Marji’s youth and adventures throughout the book.
The Islamic revolution in Iran changed the lives of many of their citizens. Along with this religious revolution came the deaths of many of the past ruler’s supporters, the revision of history books, and the Iranian women faced intense oppression while being forced to wear chadors.Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian female that lived in revolution ridden Iran. During the 1980s she was ten years old, who had little knowledge of her tyrannized society. In Persepolis written by Satrapi as an older women, she portrays her childhood as a coming of age autobiography with a strong theme of growing maturity. The process of maturity is shown throughout Persepolis with the concepts of hope and fear. Marjane Satrapi and I followed a similar pattern of maturity growth through personal experiences, responses to fear, and the effect of hope.
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 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Marji regains her rebellious side when she is confronted with the sexist dress code and hypocrisy at her arts school, as well as her life outside of school. When Marji is called to an assembly, she is told that she must be modest, avoid makeup, and wear a longer veil, to which she is depicted as standing up for herself and others against this dress code, as is seen on the images from pages 296 and 297. Satrapi does an excellent job illustrating this when she draws Marji standing up in a crowd of veils, and defying all odds. By doing this, Marji establishes her sense of freedom once again and is granted the ability to make change in the system. Moreover, she is able to prove herself once again even through harsh
“Persepolis” is a memoir written by Marjane Satrapi in the form of a graphic novel. The book is about her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution which took place during the 1980’s. These were particularly turbulent times in the history of the country and had a major impact on the day to day life of its citizens. During this time period in Iran, a theocratic form of government came into power after the Shah was overthrown. At first, Marjane like her compatriots rejoiced over the new government, as they felt that it represented the real representatives of the people of Iran instead of a royal ruler propped up by western powers. Through the novel, Marjane comes across as a curious and independent child, who is confused by the political upheaval and the mixed messages a child would get from what she saw around her. She describes the horrific incidents in the day to day life of her family, neighbors, and friends with childlike innocence but
Despite the fact that Marjane is born and raised in Tehran, Iran, she is as much a product of Western customs as of Middle Eastern customs. The younger Marjane showed how the Iranian Revolution affected her life. The Iranian Revolution was the exiling of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and its concluding substitution with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, supported by a mixture of leftist and Islamic organizations. The new government became more suppressive by enforcing Islamic laws into the constitution and prohibiting westerner influence of any kind. On the contrary Marjane is raised by Marxist parents, who believe in freedom and tend to adapt to a more westernized upbringing. Marjane is similar to any other teenager, she starts to grow up and rebel against her elders and her traditions. Her revolt takes the form of a better awareness of and interaction with western culture. Marjane have many items ...
Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi displays the vital role that the women around her have in developing her character and becoming the woman she is today. Women such as her mother, her grandmother, her school teachers, the maid, the neighbors, and even the guardians of the revolution influenced Marjane and caused her to develop into an independent, educated, and ambitious woman. Throughout the novel, Marjane never completely conforms or lets go of her roots, this is strongly due to the women who have influenced her.
War has always been something to be dreaded by people since nothing good comes from it. War affects people of all ages, cultures, races and religion. It brings change, destruction and death and these affect people to great extents. “Every day as a result of war and conflict thousands of civilians are killed, and more than half of these victims are children” (Graca & Salgado, 81). War is hard on each and every affected person, but the most affected are the children.
Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi displays the vital role that the women around her have in developing her character and becoming the woman she is today. Women such as her mother, her grandmother, her school teachers, the maid, the neighbors, and even the guardians of the revolution influenced Marjane and caused her to develop into an independent, educated, and ambitious woman. Throughout the novel, Marjane never completely conforms or lets go of her roots, this is primarily due to the women who have influenced her.
Nowadays, there are many religions that one can choose from. Religion, to some, is a guide line, but to others it’s more like falling in love. In 1979, Iran was in the midst of the Islamic Revolution. During this time, some people held tight to religion while others let it go. Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis about her life at that time. At the beginning, Satrapi grasps religion tightly; however, by the end of the book, she seems to let it go. Throughout Persepolis, religion acts like a security blanket and enhances the understanding of the graphic novel’s theme, which is “stay true to yourself.”