After reading Persepolis, its hard to believe that Satrapi said that the book isn't a political statement, or have anything to do with women's rights. Reading through the book, almost every other chapter had some different political agenda. I think Satrapi saying it wasn't a political statement, was just her trying to make controversy rise over the book. In the above graphic, Marji is talking to her parents about going to a protest, and her mother says "She is coming too, she should start learning to defend her rights as a woman right now!" The protest was taking place because of the strict laws requiring the women of Iran to wear head dress. Throughout the book, it is strictly enforced and a heavily discussed topic, whether it be when Marji is in school and she and her friends make jokes about having to wear the head dress. Or on the street when Marji is stopped by the guardians on the street, "They were guardians of the revolution, the women's branch. This group had been added in 1982, to arrest women who were improperly veiled, their job was to put us back on the straight and narrow, by explaining the duties of Muslim women."(p. 133) Satrapi has made a point, that she doesn't believe that women should be required to veil. The fact that she writes this isn't the only reason why, this book is based on her life and what actually happened in her life. Clearly, this is her point of view, the protest the veiling of women, and to help in the revolution to overcome to government that has taken over Iran. The novel is political, in almost every page you read. The topic she wrote about, is nearly impossible to write about, without getting political, especially since it was a based on events that actually happened in her life, that clearly included protests and a political agenda.
I don't think she wrote it as a political statement, like you said it is impossible to write about the topic without being somewhat political. The women's rights message was also unavoidable because of the perspective of the story. From a little girl's perspective during the Iranian Revolution, women's rights and the war were all that was going on around her. The war was the topic on TV, the radio, her parents talked about it all the time, and it was discussed in school. Also, how is one supposed to write about the Iranian Revolution from the point of view of a family who did not support it without bringing up how strict the rules were for women? I see it more as a realistic story where those two topics were all that was going on in Marji's life because of the time and place.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. Satrapi brings up political issues a lot through out the graphic novel. Although she says the graphic novel was intended to be "humanistic" several issues that she focuses on are political questions. Whether it is about the veil or the issues her father talked about, the problems mentioned in the book are issues that involve the policies implemented by the government of Iran or of other nations so they are inherently political.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your blog post, and Nick and Nicholas. Although the content of the novel was primarily focused on her childhood and development the events of the revolution are weaved and intertwined into her experience growing up in Iran. The two are inseparable, which makes it difficult for us as readers not to look at it as a relatively political work. Like our classmates mentioned in class, I think that Satrapi does not want to admit that her book is political because she possibly wants to avoid repercussions of a backlash from her fellow citizens of Iran.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have to draw a delicate line between "intention" and "interpretation" when discussing whether or not a work such as Persepolis should be taken as a political statement. You're right in saying that almost every page seems to take some sort of stance on a political issue, and that this is at the end of the day a very politically charged novel. However, as Nick alluded to, I don't think we can say that this was entirely intentional on Satrapi's part; she was just telling her story and making HER views and opinions known, without necessarily arguing that they are irrefutably the "correct" views. Persepolis can, of course, be interpreted as a political work, and is in fact very valuable in this context. However, or it to be a politically-oriented piece, it would have to ONLY be able to be read in such a context. Instead, it's the story of Marji's life in Iran, instead the politics of it.
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