Did you ever feel the sweetness of growing up in a peaceful environment? Could you possibly imagine what and how your life would be like if it were missing the most essential element during your childhood. Perhaps you wouldn’t have dreamed to live in the land of opportunity, The States. As we have become to learn from experience, peace is the key ingredient of life. A stable and comfort life is impossible to exist without the flavor of peace. When peace happens to disappear, revolutions begin and people start to protest against those whose they see as the hijackers of their rights, the right to live in peace and freedom. This was what Marjane and her family had been going through during the Iranian Revolution. Marjane saw and witnessed the Iranian Revolution that came into being as a result of the then Shah regime. In those hard times, she became a dedicated young girl who cared about others thought in the process she lost her faith in God and things that had religious tones such as the veil.
Marjane Satrapi, born in Iran, was compassionate little girl. She was very young when the Iranian Revolution started, which finally overthrew the Shah regime. Marjane’s earlier life was pretty much inspired by the Revolution. When the Revolution started there was already a widespread social unbalance. Some people were very affluent while others were poor. It was a time when the rich looked down upon the poor. For example, Marjane, who was born to a rich family, witnessed how the poor were treated by the wealthy. Before she even went to elsewhere, she realized the social inequality within her own family after having seen how a very young poor maid was dealt with. Mehri, the maid’s name, was not allowed to eat food with the family on the same table. She had to eat on a different table (6). In another incident, which further awakened Marjane’s conscious on the subject of social differences, was when Mehri, the maid, felt in love with a boy who hailed from a socially upper class family. Because of her poorness, her love was impossible to accept unless she pretended to be Marjane’s sister. And she exactly did that. Unfortunately, Marjane’s father disheartened when he heard the intimate love between his Mehri and her lover. To clarify the situation, he wanted straight to the boy who the maid was in love with and informed him about the reality of the maid, that she was not actually his daughter, but his maid who just works at his house. That was when Mehri lost her love forever. On the other hand, Marjane felt disappointed to hear and see how her own family was treating the girl who was there to work for them. She tried to argue and reason her father with this issue. Her father said, “You must understand that their love was impossible”. And he added, “Because in this Country you must stay within your own social class”. Still, with her good sense of compassion towards the poor, and to that of Mehri in particular, Marjane was dissatisfied by her father’s response, and she cried in frustration (37).
With all these vexations in her mind, she soon started to loose one vitally important thing, her faith in God. For instance, in Persepolis, Marjane proclaimed she already knew that she was a prophet when she was only six years old (6). As a last prophet, according to her, she had the desire to make and bring a change that was beneficial to her society. Then all of a sudden, something came that broke her heart and psychologically affected her. It was when her beloved Uncle Anoosh got executed by the then Islamic Revolution in Iran. Anoosh was everything to Marjane. He was the only person that she consider as a hero in her entire family. She profoundly cared and adorned this man. In a way, her Uncles was her teacher, for he taught her some historical roots about himself that also have some connections with her family, which was why she was so proud to have a man like that in her family (55). When Anoosh was executed, Marjane dismayingly depressed. It felt as though a beacon of light that was guiding her through a dark night was shut off. It was the biggest impact that struck her heart so hard that she eventually disclaim her trust in God. She supposedly got mad and shouted at God as if God was indeed responsible the death of her Uncle (70). That was the last time she mentioned God in her book.
Another major problem Marjane has had was the veil. This pieces of clothes that women use to cover up themselves was introduced by the Iranian Islamic Revolution as part of their effort to re-enforce the religion. Marjane didn’t appreciate the idea of covering herself with veil, however. Instead of accepting the veil as part of her own religion, she despised it in an indirect way. For example, the comic pictures found in Persepolis indicate how Marjane isn’t feeling comfortable with the veil like her school friends. While others seemed to enjoy it, Marjane was complaining against it. Apart from its religious tone, another problem why Marjane disliked the veil was that she believed it was too ugly. As a matter of fact, she depicted herself as the, “monster of darkness” at one scene in Persepolis where she is wearing the veil. In reading Persepolis, especially the part that pertains to the “veil’, I discerned that in her refusal of the veil, Marjane’s intention was to point out that wearing a veiling during a hot day is like a torture. But Marjane did fail to provide other peoples’ perception on this issue. She appeared to think only about herself. For example, Maysan Haydar who also uses the veil, have had a it different opinion than Marjane when it comes to the veil and its purpose. In her essay, “Veiled Intentions: Don’t judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering”, she described the veil to be modest. Haydar is now 25, and she has been wearing the veil for “half of her life”. While Marjane abhorred it saw it as a burden, Haydar appeared to have enjoyed it because if she were in the same position as Marjane, she wouldn’t have been able to cover herself with the veil for half of her life.
Thought Marjane faced some difficulties in her effort to make some changes, she was still too young to do anything as we have seen from her age and the sort of struggle he faced. But because of the sense of motivational guidance she received from her revolutionary spirit, she continued to be steadfast in what she believed.
Works Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York. Pantheon Books, 2003.
Haydar, Maysan. “Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering.”
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