Feminism: The Advocacy of Women´s Right

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Feminism, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Persepolis Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Feminism is both a human rights movement and an ideal that has been gaining steady momentum for centuries, and a major theme throughout Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, in which her coming-of-age occurs during one of the most oppressive historical moments in modern history for women: the Iranian Revolution. The protagonist, Marjane, experiences this oppression first-hand, through forced religion and heavy restrictions on things as simple as clothing choice. Marjane, as a self-proclaimed defender of human rights, protests this oppressive and unjust way of life, placing emphasis on female equality, identity, and independence. These ideals are similar to those of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and feminist who today spreads knowledge and awareness of feminism, including through her acclaimed TedxTalk, “We should all be feminists”. She, like Marjane, is aware of the lack of basic human rights accessible to approximately fifty two percent of the population, merely because they are female, particularly in non-Western countries such as Nigeria and Iran (Gray, The Huffington Post, 2014). Although documents like “The Declaration of Human Rights” intend to enforce equal rights for all humans (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948), the rights of women are often undermined because the idea that women are subordinate to men is so ingrained in most cultures that it goes unnoticed. The reaction to the negligence of the rights of women, be it their safety, dress, or sexual identity, is the emergence of human rights activist like Satrapi and Adichie, who promote th... ... middle of paper ... ... as human beings has been an enormous part of most cultures for centuries. Whether it be in late 20th century Iran, where women were forced to cover their bodies and faces out of fear of abuse or exclusion, and made to be ashamed of their sexuality, or in 21st century Nigeria, where women were still blamed for their rapes and assault, still told to silence themselves so as not to threaten a man’s ego, and still told they are subordinate to men from the moment they are born, the widespread repression of women has shaped culture as we know it. However, the work of activists like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Marjane Satrapi, books like Persepolis, and documents like “The Declaration of Human Rights” are working to ensure that this culture is constantly evolving every second, every minute, every hour, every day, until the promise of universal human rights is upheld.

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