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
The introduction to Persepolis gives a great deal of background information to the unrest in Iran leading up to the Islamic revolution. Iran had been in a state of unrest for “2500 years” (page11). Iran was ruled by foreign nations and exploited by the western world for its rich expanses of oil. In 1951 the prime minister of Iran tried to take back his country’s wealth by nationalizing
When it comes to culture, different views can cause major conflicts, and these said conflicts occur in the novel Persepolis. The book is a memoir about Marjane Satrapi, also known as Marji, growing up in Iran under the Shah’s rule and the Islamic rule. Even with the many different cultures in Iran, she stuck up for what she believed in and rebelled against the things she thought were wrong. In Persepolis, Marjane’s growth is affected by various aspects of culture including religion, government, and social organization.
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
The way they dressed quickly changed as shown when Marji asserted that “In no time, the way people dressed became an ideological sign. There were two kinds of women. The fundamentalist woman [and] the modern woman. There were also two sorts of men. The fundamentalist man [and] the progressive man” (75). Satrapi uses the two frames on page 75 to illustrate the idea associated with the two different ways in which both men and women chose to dress whether it be tradition, or not. Satrapi expounds how their choice of dressing then depicts their view on the Islamic Revolution. She explains how the modern women rebelled by wearing heard scarves, instead of the traditional full veil, along with letting some hair slightly fall out to show opposition against the Iranian regime. She continues with how the progressive man also showed their opposition by tucking their shirts in and shaving their facial hair, in contrast to the fundamentalist man who leaves his shirt hung out, along with a full beard. Satrapi denotes that both genders of characters take the risk of not dressing like a fundamentalist, in order to show their form of rebellion in a settle way, knowing of course that there is always a possibility of
Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, is not a run-of-the-mill comic book. It is written with purpose. Satrapi wrote and illustrated this book to show Americans that their perspective of her home country, Iran, is askew. She believes Americans are too focused on the “fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism” (Satrapi ii), of the nation and that they forget to notice the normality and humanness of it. Since these two perspectives have vast differences, Satrapi wants to change their minds.
She felt strongly connected to God, even showing on tier one of page eight that she would have nightly conversations with God, who referred to her as “My last and my best choice” (Satrapi 8). For Marjane, her religion
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.
She is asking God where he is because he did not show up that night. Even though the reader cannot physically see God, the light shown on Marji’s face lets the reader conclude that God is with Marji. God always visited Marji at night time, but this night he was nowhere to be found. God is not present because Marji had been whining to go to the demonstration, but her parents were not allowing her to go.
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.
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.
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.
At first glance (or first read), Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is about revolution, war, violence, and how it all affects the Satrapi family. However, it’s really much simpler than that, and at the same time, more complicated. At it’s core, Persepolis is a story about a young girl forced to grow up. Satrapi shows her abrupt transition out of childhood through the Iranian Revolution, her becoming more politically and socially aware, and how it all leads to a great loss of innocence.