Essay On The Veil In Persepolis

In the book Persepolis, Satrapi uses the veil to show women's rights and how she was a rebel when she was young. In the beginning of the book she tells the reader about veil and how she didn't understand why she had to wear them. As she grows up she begins to understand how the world works and adapts to growing up and saying goodbye to her childhood. The veil is closely tied to Iran religion and why women have to wear it. She soon realizes the importance of the veil as she grows up and accepts it as a part of her life. Marjane uses symbolism in her book such as cigarettes, the golden key, the books she read, and the veil to show her rebellion against the regime and the rebellious side in her. In the beginning of the book we are first introduced to Satrapi as a young girl in school. Right off the bat Satrapi uses some symbolism (3/2) with her not

Satrapi talks about the struggle of being Iranian with all of the bombing that occur and how Satrapi shows some stereotype in her book with displaying Iran people and Islamic religion. She portrays Islamic and Iranian people somewhat horribly with pictures of them doing horrible actions to their citizens (14/4-7) and what types of gruesome torture they do to them in jail (51/1-5). Another stereotype that I saw in the book was how Satrapi tried to breakdown the idea of agency. Usually in Third World countries they are portrayed as lacking in agency where they are often in need of help rather than active agents in helping themselves. However I felt that Persepolis had tried to breakdown this stereotype by showing that there were actually many heroes in Iran who had tried to fight for change. (50/1) I see Mohsen more as figure to look up to in the book because of how he was in the revolution but got captured and tortured. Ahmadi could also be seen as a hero that died to protect the other members of the Guerillas.