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Persepolis, the views of culture through different eyes

By Anonymous
In the late 1970's and throughout the  80's ( even today they still have unrest) Iran was going through revolution and internal crisis within the nation. Persepolis gives us the view from the eyes and experience of a young women who lived there during these times. As you read the book there are things that could be foreign and familiar to the reader. For me,  the story is very real, but with a different perspective. My family and  I lived in Iran for 3 years and 3 months so a lot of this story resonated with me.  It was very interesting to hear the view point through the eyes of a young Iranian woman living during the same time. As an American in Iran, the things that are familiar to me may be a bit different from most as I am a bit familiar with culture. One thing that may be a familiarity was the depiction of the "modern family" on page 33 you see a dinning room table ( a western piece of furniture) as the family sits around it. There was much western influence in Iran, though a lot of Iranians did not like that. I remember one time being out in our back yard playing with my sisters. We had a large rock wall that went around the back of the yard and the neighborhood in which we lived. An Iranian man climb the wall one day and began shooting at us, yelling and calling us names. As I read the book, I wondered if the man that shot at us was someone Marjane knew.  Most Iranians hated Americans and they hated us being there and spoke it often. The American supported the Shah,  he had a bad rap to many of the Iranian people, but  he did  westernize Iran. Women had more freedom under the Shah  then they did after he was overthrown. Another things that could be considered familiar to readers is other western icons such as American music, like Iran maiden and Michael Jackson ( page 130 and 131) Also American apparel like her 1983 Nike's and denim jackets ( page 131) cassette tapes and songs like "We're the kids in America" ( I love that song).  Things that could be foreign are many, like wearing head coverings. The beatings and torturing of people. The Guardians of the revolution. On page 133 Marjane gets stopped by the women's branch of this and was hassled by them for what she was wearing. They called her a whore and told her to lower her scarf to cover more of her face. These are things as a free nation we do not understand or accept, nor should we. On page 96 it talks of the ritual of hitting yourself  during religious ceremonies sometimes with chains this is a total foreign concept to anyone with any amount of freedom at all. One thing that really stood out to me was on page 97 it talks of how the girls would make fun of things and rebelled against them. On page 98 she explained why this was, they were modernized and had gone to secular schools. To see the view of the Iranian revolution through the eyes of a young Iranian woman there at the same time we were is an eye opening event. Though we see some things differently ( like the position and stance of the Shah) there are similarities also. Though we were not there very long, we managed to get out just before the Ayatollah took over, I understood her story because I saw some of it. 








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