RA: Persepolis

Author: Marjane composed this text. She also composed how her family coped with how Iran was dealing with the hostage crisis.

Audience: The text's audience is assumed to believe that people should have an empathy to what Marjane was coping with the problems she faced, particularly those with education or family.

Statement: The text is saying that people have different problems and attitudes involving the U.S and send a message. It is supported by showing how hostage crisis in Iran showed little to no empathy.

Purpose: The purpose of this text is to show what people saw in Iran as a minor event. Marjane hopes to show what her family was going through and how they were dealing with it.

Point of view: Marjane adopts this from a 1st person point of view. What makes it evident is her eyewitness accounts of how the Islamic Revolution changed her country.

Historical influences: The historical influences I discern are when Marjane points out how Persia (now Iran) had faced war and rebellion for over 1400 years.

Text features: The features of this text are used in the style of a graphic novel and a memoir mixed together. The language features and appeals are evident and significant by showing how people in Iran or Europe have a different language barrier and how they can communicate with one another.

Text style: I would say the style of this text would be academic, hip, and formal.

Text tone: I would characterize the text's tone as serious, yet somewhat humorous.

Reader Response #2

So far, Persepolis is becoming quite a good read. I think that people should all read this book. This book is quite descriptive in how Marjane had experienced her childhood in Tehran and how the book set the stage for Marjane's teenage years when she later goes to Austria. When Marjane was growing up in Iran, she saw how people started getting on the bandwagon for new culture change after the Shah was driven out. Marjane also saw how popular culture from the West started to have an effect on her when she got posters featuring Iron Maiden and Kim Wilde. Overall, I think this book is a brilliant subject to read up and or brush up on.

Research project (revised) blog

Research project: Zahra Rahnavard

Riley Patterson

3/12/13

Eng. 1A

S. Knapp

            Zahra Rahnavard, 64, a committed artist, inspired educator and tireless equal right advocate (Ebadi). She is also the wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi who ran for the presidency of Iran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. And with her husband, Rahnavard advocated fiercely for equal rights for every Iranian, especially for women. Rahnavard’s charismatic personality and courageous actions resembled Marjane Satrapi, the main character in Persepolis. Like Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis, Rahnavard is a brave woman who grew up during the Iranian Revolution, broke away from the traditional roles of Islamic women and became more embracive of different cultures. Even more so, Rahnavard also utilized her popular presence to influence Iran’s national policies for the better. 

            When Rahnavard stared her political career, she had experience as a university dean which allowed her to express authority. This in uncommon in Iran as women were not allowed to express themselves. Using this experience, Rahnavard was able to assist her husband to run in the 2009 election for the presidency of Iran. Yet, Rahnavard’s involvement in her husband’s campaign effort was not well received by the Iranian public: some even ridiculed Mousavi for having a woman advisor in his campaign. Unfortunately, Iranian president Ahmadinejad is one of those disapproving voices. At one of the presidential debates, Ahmadinejad, in an attempt to discredit Mousavi, claimed that Mousavi constantly takes orders from Rahnavard. This public claim not only caused great embarrassment for Mousavi, but also caused enormous trouble for the campaign.

Despite the troubles and the embarrassment Rahnavard caused for Mousavi’s campaign, Rahnavard was still viewed as the reason for her husband’s rise to political power according to the New York Times. Both Rahnavard and her husband wanted women in Iran to have equal rights and political clout since women in the Middle East weren't allowed to speak their own minds. For example, even Rahnavard, the wife of a powerful politician, had faced restrictions in matters such as inheritance and court testimony because of her gender. She also had to face opposition from Islamic traditionalists who were convinced that what Rahnavard was doing is corrupt. A couple of examples of how Satrapi had faced the same oppositions was when the female branch of the Guardians of the Revolution said that Satrapi’s Nike shoes were “punk shoes” and her veil was not covering her hair all the way (Satrapi 133). They also thought Satrapi’s denim jacket symbolized decadence (Satrapi 133).

            In Persepolis, Satrapi and her parents were supportive of the Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Shah and opened up Satrapi’s view on the world. As Satrapi grew older, she started to feel that what her people were doing was ill-advised as she began to adopt western materialism. However, the Guardians of the Revolution’s female branch thought that what Satrapi was doing was immoral. The guardians brought her to their headquarters to contemplate on how to punish her, but Satrapi managed to cook up a sob story involving her family to convince them to let her go. In Persepolis, Satrapi said when she went with her parents to protest the veils the women had to wear; another group of protesters that supported the scarf started to get violent and attacked them, causing her and her parents to run away (Satrapi 76). Similarly, Rahnavard had faced opposition from tens of thousands of Iranians when she and her husband proposed to allow the women to vote in national elections and to eliminate discrimination based on gender roles. Rahnavard believed that if women in Iran had equal rights as men, the women wouldn’t be discriminated against for their upbringing. Rahnavard wanted to have Iran become a new nation where both men and women have equal rights and are treated like individuals. Feeling threatened by Rahnavard’s progressive policy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused her for entering a graduate program without taking an entrance exam, in an attempt to discredit her policy.

                        Overall, Rahnavard and Satrapi are similar as they both broke away from tradition and adopted new customs which allowed them to express their individuality. In the NYT article and Persepolis, both women explained how they wanted to express themselves in a country that didn't allow them to think otherwise. At a rally, Rahnavard said “Make up your files, but the file-makers will be defeated” (New York Times; Zahra Rahnavard). It meant that despite the various political setbacks, women in Iran will have equal rights and take part in politics. An example of how Satrapi’s actions are similar to what Rahnavard faced is that Satrapi saw on the news that the ministry of education decreed to have all universities be closed for two years as the leader of Iran believed that if people went to school, it would lead them astray from the path of Islam. Satrapi took this as an attack on her education as she wanted to learn chemistry.

                                                               Works Cited:

            Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 1^st edition New York: Pantheon, 2007. 76. Print

            “Zahra Rahnavard”. New York Times 16 June 2009, n. page. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/r/zahra_rahnavard/index.html.         

            

Reading response Persepolis

In Persepolis, Marjane explained how people in Iran began to change how they lived their lives when the Islamic Revolution brought about the downfall of the Shah. Some examples were that the kids in her classes were separated from one another and began wearing veils. She mentions how her mother was involved in demonstrations for people who were against the veil. Her mother feared for her life when she saw her photo on a magazine, so she had to dye her hair to change her appearance. Marjane explained that when she was born, she believed herself to be the "last prophet".

I find this section meaningful as the book describes how Marjane and her family had been involved in Iran's cultural revolution. The book also explains how she started to become a supporter of the revolution at a young age and how she wanted to help bring change to Iran. I also feel that the book expressed how the people of Iran felt with the Shah in power. They saw him as a tyrant since he was supported by the U.S. The book also expressed how religion played a part in Marjane's life by letting her express how she wanted to be a prophet.

My opinion on the reading is that I think it is brilliant as the reading in the book describes how Marjane lived her life in Iran at a time when people started to think that they need more independence from those that would oppress them. I think that the book tells quite a vivid story on how Marjane's childhood was presented and how the Iranian government wanted her to live her life. I also think that people need to read more of this book to get an understanding on how Marjane wanted to send her message to people.