Review Of Azar Nafisi's Things I Ve Been Silent About

In the novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the lives of Iranian citizens is interrupted by war. A young girl named Satrapi is growing up in this tough period where religion, politics, gender are all in question and being a kid isn’t as easy as it used to be. The Iranian revolutionary war began___ and had major effects on the lives of Iranians. As a result of the war, the culture of Iran was threatened. Oppression, conservatism, segregation, all new concepts being introduced to the population by the war. The youth were not left unaffected. Boys and girls were being segregated in schools, something Satrapi found strange and was opposed to. Religion played a major role in the war. Iran is a country that heavily practices the Muslim religion, Satrapi herself, dreams of being a religious prophet. Growing up around the violence and terror of the war gave Satrapi a sense of realism most children her age lack. The schools becoming segregated was just the beginning. Women and girls were soon forced to wear black veils to enforce conservatism laws.

Women’s rights in Iran or the Middle East has always been an arguable issue. Although there rights have been changed throughout the centuries they were never really compared equal to men or noone really accepted them. Specially for women in Iran, they barely had any rights in culture, marriage or other aspects of their lives. In the following essay you will read about the everday lives of Middle Eastern women.

Women's rights in the Middle East have always been a controversial issue. Although the rights of women have changed over the years, they have never really been equal to the rights of a man. This poses a threat on Iran because women have very limited options when it comes to labor, marriage and other aspects of their culture. I believe that equal treatment for women and men is a fundamental principal of international human rights standards. Yet, in some places like Iran, discriminatory practices against women are not only prevalent, but in some cases, required by law. In this essay I will explain to you the every day life of an every day Islamic woman living in Iran. You will be astonished by what these women have endured through the

Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.

Iran was now unprotected, and a new power came into being. The Arabs invaded and the quality of life changed. “People fell into poverty as the greedy court imposed ever-increasing taxes. Tyranny tore apart the social contract between ruler and ruled that Zoroastrian doctrine holds to be the basis of organized life” (21). The Iranian people couldn’t survive with a ruler who had no sympathy or respect for them. Their life was being over run by foreigners.

Historical information about the Setting: The major events in this book occurred in the last decade. After the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, the lives of many Middle Easterners (Iraqians, Iranians, etc.) and South Asians (Afghans, Pakistanis, etc.) were changed. Many people, especially women, were brutally slaughtered for disobeying the Taliban, a terrorist group that worked closely with al Qaeda. Not only were the Taliban extreme religious fundamentalists, they were also strict with enforcement. The US and many other countries have tried to end these terrorist organizations, but they hurt a great deal of innocent people, which this book goes further in depth about. In these recent years, there has been great progression in basic rights for women, as well as men, which most likely could have never happened prior to this time.

In Nahid Rachlin’s memoir, “Persian Girls”, the author describes her life in Iran and later in America as a woman, refusing to accept both Muslim and Iranian cultural norms. This plays an important role in the lives of many characters, choosing the sometimes hard decision to break apart from cultural standards. Characters that are faced with this difficult choice include her brothers Cyrus and Parviz, her older sister Pari and Nahid herself.

Women’s rights in the Middle East have always been a controversial issue. Although the rights of women have changed over the years, they have never really been equal to the rights of a man. This poses a threat on Iran because women have very limited options when it comes to labor, marriage and other aspects of their culture. I believe that equal treatment for women and men is a fundamental principal of international human rights standards. Yet, in some places like Iran, discriminatory practices against women are not only prevalent, but in some cases, required by law. In this essay I will explain to you the every day life of an every day Islamic woman living in Iran. You will be astonished by what these women

Society is introduced to new situations, ideas, advancements, and technologies that can change lives in the blink of an eye, but also can change a person’s identity. For instance, Nafisi writes about her country’s ideal culture and the way the people have “…become the figment of someone else’s dreams” (296). The Iranian society has fallen under an introduced idea presented by the government, shifting the daily lives of women who live there. In Iran, women do not get to create an identity they can live by, instead they “…had both a real history and a fabricated one. Although they came from different backgrounds, the regime that ruled them had tried to make their personal identities and histories irrelevant. They were never free of the regime’s definition of them as Muslim women” (Nafisi 296). Women in Iran are not allowed to present themselves in a personal and unique style; instead they must wear what society pictures the Muslim woman in. Not only did this idea change the lifestyle of these citizens, but it also made women lose their identity and ability to present their imagination. Nafisi and Sacks concur that imagination plays a major role in building one’s own identity since it provides a person with the ability to put their personal attributions to

To many Westerners, the overall plight of females in Iran appears tenuous. It is illegal for females above the age of 9 to appear in public with out their heads veiled and bodies entirely covered. Women cannot serve in certain occupations, such as the military. It is difficult for a married woman to divorce her spouse, yet for men the right to divorce is unquestioned and done with ease. Married women in Iran who wish to leave the country for any reason must first obtain the permission of their husbands.

By now Iran is in a bad position, where everything is starting to shut down. They shut down the U.S. embassy and the universities and all women were forced to wear the veil. This chapter includes a few different points of othernig, but one major one would be about women having the ability and power to control their rights within their own society. Women are constantly being judged by what they wear. Iran is making a strict dress code for women. They are also told how to act, how to think, and how to raise a family. For instance, "If anyone ever asks you what you do during the day, say you pray, you understand?" (The Trip 28), Marji's mother told Marji that if she was asked by anyone what she does during the day, she must say she prays multiple

Benjamin Cardozo, an American jurist, said “Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.” In The Complete Persepolis, it is clearly seen that when a standard is set for women’s attire, restrictions of other freedoms come along with it. Throughout the book, the author, Marjane Satrapi, recounts her life in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the difficulties she encountered. She struggled with restricted freedoms, strict religious rule, and a sense of statelessness. In the opening illustrations, she describes her childhood and her transition from a secular school to one that was religious and separated by gender. At this time it had become law for a woman to wear the veil, or head scarf when in public. Satrapi talks of how she “didn’t like to wear the veil, especially since [she] didn’t understand why [she] had to”(Satrapi 3). The wearing of the veil is part of the Islamic faith that became enforced by the government and the Guardians of the Revolution, after the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi relates the story of her life and give the reader much insight into the life of an Iranian woman. The Complete Persepolis serves as a narrative of Iranian history from the eyes of a common citizen, and through these narratives the link between “women” and “religion”, along with its construction and political significance, is exemplified.

In today’s vast, democracy-fueled world, the concept of feminism has gradually taken on a significant role when it comes to modernity. The advocacy for equality of all women proves effective and boasts an undying faithfulness from women everywhere. Within the boundaries of the United States of America, feminism has grown since the establishment of the nation and continues to grow today, an issue that has especially risen in light of the recent election. However, beyond this great nation’s borders, feminism does not die in even the slightest way. Women all over the world are fighting for their equality and right to complete and total fairness. Despite the worldwide movement, it’s often overshadowed by other issues going on. Iran, the focus of Jasmin Darznik’s The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life, played (and continues to play) host to perhaps one of the greatest flawed societies when it comes to feminism. Through her powerful, poignant memoir, Darznik brings us into the midst of a particular lifestyle and the reality behind treatment of women in Iranian society.

Iranians and people from the east are often look upon as terrorists and extreme fundamentalists. Before reading this book, I even saw Iran and the culture from that viewpoint. I saw the women of Iran as being passively oppressed and as Muslim women who had no voice.

Some governments use Islam to take full control of their people and use it as a reason for their actions. Not only do some Islamic governments misuse their power, but women are a minority in Islamic societies. The autobiography and pictographic novel, Persepolis, describes the change from the Shah’s regime to the Islamic fundamentalist regime and its oppressive and abusive rule. During the fundamentalist regime the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s is portrayed from Marjane Satrapi’s experiences during the time in which she lived in Iran. In contrast to the fundamentalist government, Mohammed, the founder of Islam, opposed oppressive governments and believed that women should have a higher social status. The Islam depicted in Persepolis differs to Mohammed’s original vision of Islam by giving women a worse social status and having a government that abuses its power.