How Does Satrapi Use Religion In Persepolis

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi uses religion as an overarching theme throughout her graphic novel. Usually religion is a set of beliefs and how people may personally connect with some sort of higher order than themselves. Religion usually involves someone entrusting in that higher order to help their lives run better. Satrapi’s view of religion does start of like this, but her view eventually changes about halfway through the novel. Although religion starts as a symbol of hope for young Marji, religion eventually switches to become a symbol of oppression and despair for Marji as she grows up. At the beginning of Persepolis, Marji starts as a young child who is very connected with her religion; in fact, she even wants to be a prophet. Marji

She is so upset with the fact that the regime kills her new favorite Uncle Anoosh and decides to longer be one of God’s. She meets Anoosh who gets caught by the police, later to be executed after his final visit with Marji. She believes that God was going to keep them all safe, that God will help them create change in their society. But after Anoosh’s death, she realizes this belief was wrong, and no longer has faith in God himself. In this scene, she also stands up to him and yells. In the previous scenes, Satrapi doesn’t depict Marji and God eye-to-eye like in this scene here. Before, the placement of God in each scene makes him look larger than Marji, as if he has more dominance over her, or as if he is protecting her. But now in this scene, Marji positions herself in such a way that puts her eye level with God himself. Putting herself eye-level allows her to appear as an equal to God. And with that, and how she yells at him portrays how much anger and disappointment she has with Him. She loses all her hope with him and removes him from her life. Later down the road, Satrapi depicts herself listening to the news and she hears, “the educational system and what is written in school books, at all levels are decadent. Everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam. That’s why we’re closing all schools for a while” (Satrapi 73). All Marji wants at this point

They are symbols of capitalism, Of decadence’” (Satrapi 4). The closing of non-secular schools and replacing them with Islamic schools mark the beginning of an oppressive regime, who uses the “word of God” to back up their aggressive actions. Throughout the novel, the Islamic leaders use the word “decadence” a few times discussing idealist or modern concepts. The Islamic regime made it so men couldn’t wear neckties or short sleeves, and women had to wear veils. Although men had a few rules to follow as well, women were oppressed even more; they were harassed and threatened by both men AND women. Marji’s mother experienced first-account harassment; her mother says, “two guys…two bearded guys! Two fundamentalist bastards… They insulted me. They said that if women like me should be pushed up against the wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage…. And that if I didn’t want that to happen, I should wear the veil” (Satrapi 74). Then a few pages after this, Satrapi draws a group of angry men who look just how Marji’s mother describes them beating a group of men and women with bats, yelling “the scarf or a beating!” (Satrapi 76). Marji saw that the actions of these Islam-endorsing men made her mother “sick for several days” (Satrapi 74). And to prevent events like this and “to protect women from all the potential rapists,