Personal is Political

Personal is Political The graphic novel The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a masterful memoir and coming of age story that captures that historical events and cultural shifts through the Iranian Revolution through the eyes of a child. This story provides a contrast to the commonplace misconceptions that are held about the Middle East, and, specifically, Iran. This perspective of these events through a citizen, let alone a woman, helps challenge people’s tendency to essentialize the Iranian people based off of the actions of their government. In other words, this autographic novel how the action of one or few people, in this case the government, and defined a wide population of diverse, unique people. It is now possible to see how each political shift throughout Iranian history ultimately changed the zeitgeist, and changed the citizen’s day to day life significantly. Furthermore, this is done by providing the reader with a personal account of how they were affected by what was happening. All in all, Persepolis epitomizes the phrase “the personal is political” by how it chronicles the political and cultural shifts of Iran through firsthand experiences, and the progress made by the country can be gauged by the treatment and role of women in society. First, Persepolis proves to be such a profound piece of work because of the amount of expression that is allowed through graphic novels. To digress, historical fiction is such an effective mode of writing because it helps the readers understand the context of the story. In order words, the reader is able to see and feel the emotions expressed and felt by the characters in the story. As described by Amineh and Eisenstadt in the “Iranian Revolution”, “in order to understand full the Iranian Islamic revolution’s place in world history and on the contemporary world scene, it is necessary to put it in several comparative contexts” (134-135). Furthermore, it is even more insightful in order to gain this perspective from a woman. First of all, as men it is difficult to understand how to perceive the world as a different gender. Additionally, graphic novels represent the ambiguous, inexpressible moments and emotions in life. You cannot always describe a look of despair on somebody’s face, but you absolutely not misconstrue what that would look like. The reader would not understand the overall picture of condition of Iran before, during and after the revolution. Moreover, informational text only gives one brush stroke while the graphic novel paints a full, expressive picture for the reader. This next level of expression is only possible through the use of graphic novels. It is clear how this mode of writing is essential for portraying the personal effects of political events. The history of Iran has been complicated, tumultuous and, at times, violent. Iran has experienced a perpetual shift of power. This power always, ultimately, leads to systems of oppression. As noted by Marjane Satrapi, “Iran was rich. Because of its wealth and its geographic location, it invited attacks”, which goes to show why there were so many invasions, and, therefore, a long line of tyranny (Satrapi 1). Furthermore, these political leaders were clearly motivated by greed, and had little regard for the people or culture of Iran. This oppression is best expressed by the people living through these shifts. As the author’s father describes how Iran and its people have lived through, “2500 years of tyranny and submission…First our own emperors, then the Arab invasion from the West, followed by the Mongolian invasion from the East, and finally modern imperialism” (11). This description perfectly describes the turbulent history of this country. And now more than ever, with the discovery of oil in Iran, the potential of exploitation has expanded greatly by grabbing the interest of Western nations. The chronicle of Iran’s history sets the stage for the story of Persepolis. After centuries of oppression and exploitation, the people are agitated and ready to take action to protect their personal freedoms. After the last Shah was expelled from his throne, and gave up power over Iran, a new era of oppression was initiated. As Islamic fundamentalism blew into Iran like a nasty storm, the culture and political aspects of Iranian life changed forever. A dangerous culture developed around the prevalence of extremist religion on a daily basis. For example, in this new regime the progress of women’s rights regressed significantly. Throughout history, women have made amazing strides forward in gaining personal freedoms in Iran. Moreover, women had the freedom to dress the way they pleased and experienced many other aspects of independence. In the story, Ebi, the author’s mother, is verbally assaulted by a group of fundamentalist men. They threatened violence and rape towards her because she was not wearing the veil (Satrapi 74). This misogynistic viewpoint was held by those in power, and spread like wildfire across the country. Shortly after, laws passed declaring women were required to wear the veil. Now, as you can see, this practice was not just enforced culturally, but through legislation as well. It is evident now how the personal is political. As a result of these fundamentalist ideals, Ebi was assaulted and absolutely traumatized by her experience. Furthermore, it is evident in the graphic novel how much she is affected by this event. In fact, she was sick over it for days, and refused to leave her bed (74). This goes to show the emotional toll that these political decisions have on the people of Iran. Later in the story, the results and affects that war have on a particular area is expressed through the experiences of the author. Especially in today’s society, people become jaded to the idea of war, and even more so in the Middle East. What people don’t understand, for the most part, is what it is like to grow up in a warzone. The overwhelming fear, paranoia, and low sense of worth are prevalent every moment of your day. This is expressed in the autographic novel Persepolis when Satrapi was shopping when she discovered her neighborhood was the next target of a savage bombing. You can see the sheer terror in her eyes when she comes to realize her family might have been afflicted by this most recent attack. After running home and desperately pushing through a crowd, and searching for her family Marjane’s fear is palpable. Even though her family is safe, she is still traumatized by the fact that her neighbors, and friends, were killed in the bombing. Her utter despair can be captured when she says, “no scream in the world could have relieved my suffering and my anger” (Satrapi 142). The raw, unadulterated emotion expressed in this scene epitomizes the idea that personal is political. There was a decision made to declare war, and normally this is viewed as simply political. But Persepolis is the perfect example of how people’s personal lives are drastically changed by a simple political decision. Now that the fact of personal being political is established, the analysis of the political implications of women is essential to understanding the everyday effects of these political and cultural shifts in Iran. All in all, the cultural progress of Iran as a society can be measure or indicated by the treatment and roles of women in the country. The greatest example of this, which is a gauge of independence, is the use of the veil to oppress and maintain control over women. This religiously motivated practice is a creation of a patriarchal, fundamentalist society. In other words, women must adhere to these strict practices because men are not expected to control their sexual urges; so, instead, the women in society have to accommodate and change their daily lives. An example of this is clearly shown when Ebi, Satrapi’s mother, is verbally assaulted. The men clearly stated that if she is seen without a veil in public, then she is subject to sexual assault (Satrapi 74). The personal results of the fundamentally influenced shifts in Iranian politics can be described by Esmaeil Jelodar, “ in Iran, veiling, as a practice, carried with it political agency and authority. Iranian women have been veiled, unveiled, and reveiled in different periods”, which goes to show the massive amount of cultural changes and shifts that occurred throughout the country during this time in history. Furthermore, Jelodar continues, “Urban Iranian women were veiled at the turn of the century, unveiled from 1936 to 1979, and then reveiled after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Veiling has been a controversial issue over a century, and it transformed into an alternative model of female identity. The decrees by top Iranian authorities have demanded and forbidden the veil, and so veiled and unveiled women were not allowed entry into public transportations” (Jelodar 1). The fact that the story is told through the perspective of a child adds an additional element of emotion to it. In other words, it helps the reader build an even closer connection to the personal effects of these political shifts. Satrapi’s introduction to the veil was as a child, and she analyzed the situation as such. Her description of the advent of the requirement to wear the veil is described here: “Then came 1980. The year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school. We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to. And also because the year before, in 1979, we were in a French non-religious school where boys and girls were together. And then suddenly in 1980, all bilingual schools must be closed down. They are symbols of capitalism, of decadence […]. We found ourselves veiled and separated from our friends” (Satrapi 3-4). As westerners from the modern age, viewing women from the Middle East with a veil has become a norm. That institution was established by the time we had any idea that people in the world were required to wear a veil. On the other hand, the idea of the veil was introduced to her as a child. She needed to be indoctrinated into that practice, which widely differs from how the rest of the young world views that practice. As you can see, the political decisions and shifts that happen in Iran throughout time have very personal implications for its citizens, especially women. The autographic novel is the perfect insight into how the everyday life and overall culture grow and evolve with the political shifts that occurred in Iran. As outsiders, it is hard to view history more than superficially because we don’t have the personal experiences of those living there, we don’t understand the culture and, most importantly, we don’t feel the emotion. The power of perspective of immense at exemplifying the phrase the personal is political.