Gender Lens In Persepolis

Gender Lens CSE:

While looking at Persepolis through a gender lens, we can see how the women are objectified in their society, through the fundamentalist regime. The forcing of the veils causes the Iranian women to be seen as the lesser gender, with pleasing men as their sole purpose in society. It says that “To protect women from potential rapists they decreed that wearing the veil was obligatory. ‘Women’s hair emanate rays that excite men. That’s why women should cover their hair!’” (74, 7). They are requiring women to cover up their bodies because it is a distraction to men. That shows that they are putting men before women, as they are taking individuality away from the women, to apparently help men focus. They do put restrictions on men’s

This idea can be seen throughout the book but becomes very apparent at and after the assault on Marjane’s mom. She recalls that “They insulted me. They said that women like me should be pushed up against a wall and f***ed. And then thrown into the garbage, and if I didn’t want that to happen, I should wear the veil” (74, 4-5). This demonstrates how fundamentalist men thought that since she wasn’t wearing a veil she was dressing “provocatively”, and therefore she should be used as an item and afterward would be useless. Later on, while hearing about the soldier’s keys, Marjane learn that “they told him in paradise there will be plenty of food, women, and houses made of gold and diamonds” (100, 1). Even at this young age, these boys are already beginning to see women as prizes instead of a people, with the excuse being “Yeah, well, he’s fourteen years old. That’s exciting” (100, 2). They blame it on the youthfulness and immaturity of the boys, but in reality, the schools are the ones telling the boys this, and we see examples of all ages in their society seeing women as sexual objects and inferiors. In conclusion, while focusing on differences in the treatment of the genders, we can see that women are objectified

At the beginning of the narrative, we learn about the strong connection that she has with God. Marjane reveals this to us right away, saying “I was born with religion. At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet” (6, 2-3). She is very forward about how important her connection to God is, telling about her frequent conversations with him. But, it goes on to say “This was a few years before the revolution”, revealing that these beliefs occurred before the revolution, and not necessarily afterward (6, 3). Then, she says “My faith was not unshakeable. The year of the revolution I had to take action. So I put my prophetic destiny aside for a while” (10, 2). During the revolution, she decided to put her religious beliefs on the back burner as she tried to decide what to believe, in reference to the revolution. When their country divided into two groups, the fundamentalists and the modernists, the Satrapi’s identified as modernists. The strict rules that began to form involving the forced wearing of the veils, and the requirement of the Islamic faith, were coming from the fundamental side. With the definition of fundamentalist being “a person who believes in the strict, literal interpretation of the scripture in a religion”, the fundamentalists were bending the Islamic faith