Persepolis Analysis

Women in our society have been treated as a sideline, not included, and muted across our generations. In the graphic novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi shows religion and authority to portray that women in the text are marginalized, excluded, and silenced. This graphic novel takes place in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, which influenced a lot of how women were treated. The women in Persepolis are marginalized, excluded, and silenced by restricted communication, forbidden to wear what they want, and not always having control of their actions.

After the empowerment of the Islamic Regime, the treatment of women turned tables in Iran. Before the Regime, Iranian women were much like the average American woman during that time. They were able to dress in modern clothes, associate with male counterparts, and have a role in society. But most of this was drastically changed, especially the dress code. Around 1980, the women of Iran were forced into the wearing of a veil. A veil is a piece of cloth used to cover the hair and part of the face. Many women were against the veil and took to the streets to protest. After many protests, the women were still forced to wear the veil. In the graphic novel Persepolis, Marji goes the store and bought some modern clothes. She decided to wear them out to go buy tapes. In the last frame, Marji is approached by two women wearing chadors: “They were the Guardians of the Revolution, the women's branch. This group had been added in 1982, to arrest women who were improperly

In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, the protagonist, Marji, faces hardships and conflict as a woman in Iran. When discussing conflict that Marji faces, politics is one topic that stands out the most. Growing up in a war torn and corrupt country, Marji is exposed to violence at a young age and is forced to mature quickly. As she grows older she experiments during a period of rebellion and temporarily leaves her home country in an effort to find herself. However, much later, she circles back to Iran and comes home to the same crumbling and oppressive system she has always resented. Even though Marji may change as she travels to new places, grows older, and experiments with her self expression, her constant strife with the Islamic Regime’s political ideology remains.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that provides insight into a young girl living in Iran during the hardship of war. Persepolis takes place during the childhood of Marjane Satrapi. It gives a background of the Islamic Revolution and the war in Iran. Satrapi attempts to guide herself in a corrupted world filled with propaganda. She tries to develop her own morality concerning religion, politics, and humanity. Satrapi was blessed enough to have high class status and parents who had an open mindset about the world around them. Thanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterparts, has shined a negative light on cultures all around the world - particularly Islamic women. The essay shows how women who don’t conform to American societal structures are labeled as women who urgently require saving. Through this essay one can develop a thorough understanding of the veil itself and the many representations it holds to different entities. Although in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Satrapi

Once the war started, there was no going back. People’s lives were changed forever. With the hijab’s they had to wear, it was difficult to bare. They knew they could be living a better life somewhere, out there. In Iran life wasn’t always the easiest. There were riots that went on in the streets, bombs demolishing buildings, and friends being lost. These people had to stay strong for themselves. The Iranian people showed lots of nationalism, even when their county was taken over. They also proved to everyone that, no matter how hard life problems may be, there is always a solution. On this roller coaster of good and bad decisions, it all comes down to what can happen when something is putting you life at risk.

Clothing helps define people. What people wear can help express their characteristics. When a government takes away people's right to express themselves by requiring them to wear fundamentalist clothing, like in the graphic novel, Persepolis, it forces people into conformity and tears away individuality as a standard in people's mind. Once civilians are forced to wear specific clothing, the government can force citizens to do anything because people will often assimilate to society’s standards, thinking that it is the right thing to do. Satrapi’s depiction of clothing in the graphic novel, Persepolis, helps portray the victimization of Iranian citizens.

Young children always read picture books. Because their reading skills are not developed yet, they need a picture to help them understand what is going on in the story. As children grow older, books have fewer pictures in them, and they eventually contain none. But why? Because older readers are “too old” to read a picture book?

Telling women what they can wear is the first step toward limiting their rights as individuals. Forcing ideas onto a society with unknown reasons is not a justifiable action. You can not justify an action based on the “because I said so” method. The Islamic government is essentially using the Shari’a to control the lives of men and women—being more strict with the women. Iran and Saudi Arabia are both living in constant states of oppression towards the women, young and old. It is important for women to comfortably live their lives without the constant need of a husband, or a council mandating their lives.

This does not only include constant put downs by not being able to express themselves in an every day setting, but it also includes physical violence. Women were not seen as people during this revolution, they were tortured both physically and mentally. On page 145, the severe degrading of women is seen especially in the second pain on the far left. It shows how society only has specific roles for women and if they don’t do as they are supposed to such as taking care of their families there is no place for that in the Iranian society, so their revolts may cause in things such as severe as death. As the wars continued in Iran I feel the views of women only got worse and they were treated less and less like people.

Did you know that women’s hair emits rays that men find irresistible? In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis, this is the explanation for why women wust wear veils in public. After the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s, the regime that took over ruled as a theocracy. Satrapi’s memoir displays the strength of the regime’s grip on society, and how the severity of the punishments for anyone who opposed or resisted them caused mass unrest. This sense of instability is exemplified through the political prisoners, the extreme oppression by laws, and the constant dishonesty of the schools and the media.

The memoir Persepolis shows the oppression of women through the character Marjane. Marjane wore western culture clothing before the Iranian Revolution, but during the revolution she did not want to change her appearance. The Guardians of the Revolution however, had different plans and were enforcing the new clothing laws. Like Pakistan, Iran was forcing women to wear a burqa or veil. Since Marjane’s family was in between the conservative and liberal side they allowed Marjane to choose.

Persepolis Photo Analysis Some say pictures say a thousand words, but how accurate do those picture show what really happens? In the book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Iran is represented from the perspective of a young teenager whom does surprisingly well. Satrapi accurately depicts the revolution, imperialism, nationalism, social class, and even what rule religion was playing at this time in Iran.

I can honestly say, that this graphic memoir opened my eyes to the female perspective in Iran during the time of the Shah to the revolution and beyond. Before reading Persepolis, I had a single worldview of the Middle East. I thought that women would be treated the same way in most countries-as unequal to a man as it can get. I pictured women unable to have respectable jobs and never being able to show much more skin than their hands and face. When Satrapi says, “The basic culture is not that the woman is nothing—Iran is not Saudi Arabia—the women, they are educated, they are cultivated, they work. You have women that are judges, they are doctors, they are journalists, they work.

For this written task I have chosen to write a magazine article that is based off a question and answer series for Marji. The question and answer session will take place many years after the finish of the graphic novel, Persepolis. The purpose of the magazine article is to take a better look into Marji’s life post war and how the experiences in her life truly shaped her as a person. The magazine article will consist of an array of different questions asked by readers/followers of Marji’s story throughout the world. Each person selected to ask a question will have all liberty to ask Marji whatever they desire. The questions will allow to see a look into Marji’s life and how it is developed since last updated with the book. Some questions

Persepolis tells the story of a young girl named Marjane who grew up in Iran in the 1970’s. Iran at the time was a dictatorship that experienced a period with a new leader as well as a war with Iraq. Throughout Part One of Persepolis women and young girls are marginalized, excluded, and silenced in order show the oppressive dictatorship of their religious society. Some examples of this are how they are forced to dress, the jobs they are allowed to have, the way they must act, as well as what happens to them when they are arrested. These are just some of the many examples of how women in Persepolis are marginalized, excluded, and silenced particularly by a religious dictatorship.