Wearing The Veil In Persepolis

The Middle East has long struggled to show their women the rights and freedoms offered to most other women of the world. The struggle to gain equality amongst men has been unsuccessful as women today are still oppressed. They’re forced to cover the bodies and sometimes their faces, they can’t leave their homes without the company of a man, and they aren’t allowed to receive an education usually past middle school. These are just some of the things women are forced to deal with. Despite these restrictions seeming cruel and pointless, there are people who support this, including women. The Middle East’s reaction has been mixed.

The article “Reinventing the veil” by Leila Ahmed discusses how the concept of hijabs has changed over time. Back then many people had the assumption the veils would

In “Shrouded in Contradiction,” Gelareh Asayesh compares and contrasts her life in Florida with her life in Iran. While in Florida, she wears westernized clothing, but when she returns to Iraq, she must put on the scarf and long jacket that many Iranian women wear instead of a veil. The essay begins by telling the readers that Asayesh “grew up wearing the miniskirt to school, the veil to the mosque” (187). Instantly, we become aware of her double life; she changes her appearance and demeanor depending on her surroundings.

“If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.”, (Alfie Kohn). In Persepolis, Mariji’s parents create a safe and free environment within their household to allow her to express herself freely. While she is growing up, she understands the meaning of the revolution through stories, books, and personal events because they provide her with knowledge and can affect her in the future. Some people might say, that her parents are not creating a particularly safe environment, because if the government were to discern their western actions, Marijis family would be punished for going against the extremists values, yet this is incorrect because her parents are upbringing Mariji to be a respectful and intelligent woman within western values.

“But I’m a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?”(Hosseini 63).

When Persepolis begins, Marjane’s mother, Taji is first seen at at an anti-veil demonstration protesting against the headscarf and other oppressive laws that the Islamic regime has placed upon Iranian citizens. This characterizes her as a mother who cares deeply about the social issues of Iran at the time and her emotional strength, forward mind and unwavering loyalty for her family has a great impact on Marjane’s life and reflects on her later on in the novel. As the story progresses, the reader learns that Taji is not just a hot-headed protester, rather, she is constantly aware of the hazards of protesting that she even changes her appearance, such as dyeing her hair blonde and wearing sunglasses to conceal her identity and protect her family. Despite this, young Marjane is proud of her mother and admires her courage in the face of danger, which is expressed on page 5, “I was really proud of her, her photo was published in all the European newspapers.” (Satrapi 5) Satrapi uses direct characterization in this quote to emphasize young Marjane’s feeling of pride toward her mother and displays a tone of innocence. Another instance of Taji’s character is in The Letter, where Marjane and her friends meet up one day and plan to torture Ramin, a neighborhood boy whose father was part of the Shah’s Regime and “killed a million people” (Satrapi, 44) Marjane agrees to “teach Ramin a good

Samah recounted her journey with the veil and explained how she started wearing the veil when she was fourteen years old, as she felt connected to her identity as a Muslim woman and wanted to wear it, making it clear that she was in no way forced to. K on the other hand explained that she does not feel that the hijab represents who she is as a person, and how she works around the mandate in her country by sporting hats, or shear scarves, both of which could result in her arrest. This movie showcases two different Muslim women, whom carry different views on veiling, one finding it empowering and the other suppressed. With the different examples of Muslim women exhibited throughout the course readings and their different views on veiling, it’s clear that this is a personal decision that only Muslim women can form for themselves as individuals. One element that these women all share is their expression of autonomy and self-determination, by making that choice for themselves and speaking up about what the veil means to

In the graphic novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi incorporates the theme of rebellion throughout the novel. She emphasizes that rebellion is key to her coming of age story and is important to everyone’s coming of age story. The first sign of rebellion is when she wants to be a prophet, women didn’t work, let alone become prophets, she establishes in this moment that she was different from everyone else. Her parents play an important role in her rebellion, they encourage her to rebel, to be “avant garde” (6/1). For example, they buy her nikes, and jean jackets and allow her to reveal hair out of her hijab, they are pleased with Marjane wanting to be modern rather than a fundamentalist woman.Growing up I rebelled, I did so in a positive way I disliked to go outside and play like other kids, I enjoyed going to school and learning unlike the other kids. My mom grew up getting into fights and being a troublemaker in her neighborhood, she was surprised to see that I refrained from getting into trouble or getting involved with drugs and alcohol at a young age. Just like young Marjane I rebelled, and everyone looked at me different for being who I was. However, they do not always encourage her rebellion, her mother forces her to pray, “If anyone ever asks you pray during the day, say you pray, you understand?” (75/6) in this case her mother wanted her like everyone else to keep from being killed or taken away. In another instance she starts smoking

The necessity of Iranian girls wearing veils indicates the regime taking over Iranian society further effect Marjane’s belief towards her identity. The first part of the book presents the background history of this graphic novel by saying, “In 1979 a revolution took over place. It was later called The Islamic Revolution” (Satrapi 3). The readers see right away that every students entered school was asked to wear veil due to the fact that “1980: The Year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school” (Satrapi 3). The veil symbolizes the restriction of social liberties for

Have you ever read a graphic novel with a variety of worldwide problems? From: racial issues, economic issues, women’s rights, political repression, social issues etcetera. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the authors memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Marjane Satrapi tells her story through black and white comic strips of her life in Tehran from her childhood ages six to fourteen. Persepolis portrays a memorable portrait of daily life in Iran, as well the perplexing contradictions between home life and public life. The graphic novel shows how we carry on, with laughter and waterworks, in the face of absurdity. Satrapi clarifies the complications she had altering her typical ways and getting in trouble for articulating herself with the things she enjoyed. Although we see Iran’s way from young Marjane’s eyes; as we learn about Marjane, we also learn about: her mother, father, grandmother, uncle Anoosh, and more. There were many changes for the people of Iran during the Revolution. Marjane just wants to grow up as a normal teenager, listening to rock music and doing what she wants. Yet she cannot live like this under the Shah’s rule, although her faith is in god. In Persepolis, there is a substantial impact on social classes, education, women, and military.

Most nations can be identified with a particular culture; this is evidently important. A country establishes a culture which allows other individuals to understand the background on a country like Iran. Within the bearings of certain cultures, individuals can face dilemmas. In addition, these dilemmas can turn into social differences within a society. In the country of Iran Marjane Satrapi encountered many social discrepancies in her youth. Those discrepancies established in Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood includes differences in treatment for women and men. The culture in Iran during the Iranian revolution showed a diverse way of treating women unequally. Certain laws for women were established in Iran for example, women must appear with their husband or a male member of their family. However, men were not put order such vigilant eyes of other men. Other delegations were placed to show that men were placed on a higher pedestal than women. The way women were supposed to dress was also determined by men. In the literary work, Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi illustrates what was acceptable for women in Iran to

Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again.”(70). Equally important to the theme of loss of innocence, nationalism also plays a big part in Persepolis. This picture shows a nationalist, this is relevant to the novel Persepolis because nationalism played a big part in Marjane 's family household, despite most of Marjane’s friends fleeing Iran due to all of the bombings and terror attacks, Marjane and her family stayed because they were Iranian nationalist. Marjane 's parents loved their country, and they went to many demonstrations and protest to make it a better place, they played such a big part in the Iranian protest that, “Her photo was published in all the European newspapers.”(5). Another key factor contributing to the nationalism in Marjane 's family is that, her great grandfather was an Iranian emperor along with her grandfather who, “..was a prince.”(22). Since there were royal blood in Marjane 's family, this persuaded her family into being nationalist. There were two sides to this. Many fled families fled Iran and others like Marjane 's family decided to stay in Iran. This is another way Satrapi integrates perspective with a given theme.In like manner, theme discussed throughout Persepolis is the role and influence of Iran 's social class system. The picture shows the different levels of social class which play a big role in the book Persepolis. Marjane best displayed social class when her maid fell in love with their family 's neighbor. The text says, “You must

One of the most important symbols throughout Persepolis was the veil because it largely symbolizes Marjane satrapi 's coming of age. It symbolizes this because as a year old child she gets it the first time she doesn 't understand why so she plays with it. As a child many of the schoolchildren play games and don 't take it seriously. It was just given to her by the teacher in 1980. At that time under the new rule it became an obligation for girls to wear them to school. The veil wasn 't introduced to them at this time and separated both genders. Marjane didn 't like this and it seemed unfair to her that all of her friends now had to become separated. However this was only the very beginning of the events to come.

The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an animated ‘identity crisis’ showing how she has trouble reconciling the Eastern and Western values that she has been influenced by. By ‘identity crisis’ I mean Marjane is uncertain about who she is and where she belongs to. The Eastern values would include hierarchy, restraint, collectivism and deference, whereas the Western values would include equality, freedom of expression, individualism and self-assertion. A graphic novel can be defined as a book containing a long story told mostly in pictures but with some writing. I intend to investigate why Satrapi has chosen to use the graphic novel instead of using other styles to present Marjane attempts to reconcile the different values and find

To what extent is the literary devices shown in Persepolis increase the impact of the novel and show the culture of Iran in the 1970s? In the novel Persepolis by Majane Satrapi, she tells the story of her life living in Iran in the 1970s. In this novel she discusses the atrocities committed by both sides of the bloody Iranian revolution and how both sides truly were. In the novel, Satrapi uses several literary devices to enhance the meaning of the novel to a much greater degree than directly telling the reader. Still, these literary devices also allow the reader to peer into the very culture of Iran in the novel and how certain objects can mean certain things both from within the culture and the context of the novel. From cigarettes being smoked by only adults, to veils being representative of a harsh and dictatorial regime.