379 Blog Post #3 Persepolis

Persepolis is a graphic novel based on the Islamic revolution. The story is focused on a young girl’s life as she is growing up in the revolution. Satrapi is a female growing up in an upper class Muslim household. Her challenges are not the same as a boy who is growing up in the same time or that of a girl who is lower class. Satrapi’s gender has influenced her narrative of this story. When observing the gender bias of Satrapi, we can see the central issues and concerns towards women living in this time of crisis such as the war. In the beginning of this graphic novel, Marjane describes the veil and how it impacted her life. The veil, otherwise known as the hijab, impacted her childhood, especially her life at school. When the veil is first represented it is made to seem like the women’s issue. The female teachers at Marjane’s school were the ones who made her wear the veil. There were protests for and against the hijab in the streets. Some women were chanting “the veil!” and bareheaded women were chanting “freedom!” This makes it seem like women have the choice whether or not to wear the veil. Although women are wearing the veil, they are not responsible for their own oppression. A man on the tv stated that “womens hair emanates rays that excite men. That’s why women should cover their hair” It was decided that to save women from potential rapists, wearing the veil was mandatory. Marjane realizes that men are the ones forcing women to wear the hijab and they are the ones responsible for their oppression. Rape is blamed away from men and blaming the women for it. Mens actions are NOT the responsibility or fault of women. This angers me deeply. To force women to cover up their hair in order for men not to want to rape them is absolutely disgusting.

Though many women such as Marjane and her mother saw the Hijab as a sign of oppression and would refuse to wear it or wear it improperly, many women today chose to wear the hijab as it represents pride and defiance in their culture and religion. I think that viewing this as a feminist, I do not like the original reasoning for women being obligated to wear the veil. Women should be treated equally as men and women should not have to oppress their own image for men. We do not see men covering up anything to save them from women potentially raping them. This is because we always have and still live in very patriarchal, male driven society. I believe that women should have the right to choose weather or not they want to wear the hijab. If it is important to their culture and religion, then wear it. If they are only wearing it because they are afraid of being raped, then i say, do not wear it. When you are wearing it for that reason you are giving men more power over women than they already have.