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Persepolis Research Paper

938 Words4 Pages

Everest Chew
Mrs. Edelstein
Honors English 10
17 May 2017
The Impact of Religious Extremism on women in Persepolis Growing up in the 1980’s within Iran as a female, Marjane Satrapi struggled with the new culture and old world she was subject to. She showed her coming of age and state of mind in her popular graphic novel Persepolis, particularly through the events, actions, dress, and symbolism shown in her novel. These images help us readers carefully analyze the mind and culture of religious extremism in Iran as well as the “American” way some young adults started swaying towards. The novel brings into debate many questions about tradition versus progression and how cultures and individuals struggle with this topic both internally and externally. …show more content…

Due to the rules of Islam, a married woman living in Iran in the 1980’s was practically controlled by her husband. He could divorce his wife just by stating he was going to do so, and was able to claim the children as his no matter what. (USIP, The Women's Movement) Women were forced to follow the traditional Islamic dress, this being the hijab, and were beaten in public if they did not cover up enough. (USIP, The Women's Movement) Since Marjane Satrapi grew up in these times, she firsthand witnessed the oppression of women, making sure to include it in her graphic novel There are, however, women in the Islamic culture who truly believe in wearing the …show more content…

Growing up, girls were, of course, forced to wear the Hijab and traditional clothing to school. (Women’s lives in Iran) Lies from the teachers also came along with that, as they told their students fake things about their country in order to make it sound better. This was shown on page 144 when Marjane challenged her instructor's teachings about political prisoners. They were forced to perform odd rituals to “mourn the war dead” (Satrapi, 95) as well. Displayed on page 95, Marjane and her classmates were forced to beat their breasts in the area of their hearts with their right hands while listening to a song from a loudspeaker. In 1980, universities were closed. (Iran shuts down higher education) Although women and men were not able to go to college and pursue their dreams, but men were allowed more jobs than women were. (Women’s rights in Iran) All this is due to the traditional ideas that sunk back into Iranian culture in the 1980’s, weighing down the freedoms of women and making their lives more

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