The Persepolis film, like the book, is portrayed in the perspective of Marjane Satrapi during her childhood and young adult days. Specifically in the beginning of the story, young Marjane saw the Iranian revolution unfold around her first-hand, and she wasn’t the only child. The film clearly shows her and other children being affected by the violent nature of the military and political warfare, like the scene where the kids playing violent games with each other that included concepts like torture and physical harming, which they they learned about listening to their parents talk about the war. The war environment also affected childrens’ social life, like school and making friends, since the war-like environment makes it very unsafe for them, which was included in the film. Children like Marjane had to suffer from the short and long-term consequences that came from this hazardous lifestyle.
Growing up in a war zone is not only very unsafe, but also harmful to children’s growth and their psychological health. There are many kids who have grown up in this harsh environment, as the Organization United Nations Children’s Fund stated in a report in 2017 that the number of children under 7 that have lived through that unsafe environment is around 87 million, and 25 million of them don’t have access to education. Not only a lot of the children are dealing with the scarcity of learning and education, they deal with an overload amount of stress for children, which has a negative effect on their brains since it’s so toxic (Halage, par. 2-4, par 12-13). All these children, whom had no choice, had to live in these dangerous places, and in result, negatively affected all around. A lot of these children also mature very early than they should just because of growing up in the war-like environment. An example of kids growing up in the war was in Yemen this past decade. At Yemen, the kids are going through very unsafe living conditions, as 1.8 million of are malnourished, 2 million out of school, and more than 11 million children that were in need of humanitarian assistance (English, UNICEF). Many of these kids will never forget growing up in these harsh environments as they grew up with nothing but violence everywhere. These effects will also be lingering on to them for the rest of their lives.
English, Joe. “Three million children born into war in Yemen” UNICEF, UNICEF, 16 January 2018, https://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/three-million-children-born-war-yemen
Haglage, Abby. “Growing Up in a War Zone Permanently Damages Kids’ Brains” Daily Beast, Daily Beast, 13 April 2017, https://www.thedailybeast.com/growing-up-in-a-war-zone-permanently-damages-kids-brains?ref=scroll
Thank you for sharing these detail on how war effects children. I think often time we look at war and don’t consider that families live there, or we feel just feel bad for them, but never truly understand how it is effecting people. The brain of a child is so strong, resilient, and moldable, but as you explained, war has a toxic effect on their little minds. It make me think, when this children grow up into adults, what sort of lives will they have? We know the effects of trauma at a young age can set up many issues in adulthood, but in the United State I think we only study this from the perspective of childhood abuse, poverty, bullying, etc. But if those issue complicate adulthood, then I can only imagine what experiencing was would do to a person. You talk about how these children live in poor conditions, hunger, and no education, and so I assume that the majority don’t have access to health care let alone mental health care. Without professional intervention to heal these traumas, war and its effects on children sounds detrimental to the overall physical and mental well-being of a person.
I think one of the things that many people in the U.S. take for granted is the fact that in our modern era/the last 150 years or so, no war has been fought on our soil. No kid in the U.S. today has had to fear their front yard being a war zone. So often, the hardships that people from around the world face are blind to us since we have never had to experience them, especially when it comes to violence from war. This can be seen in the Persepolis film and book too when Marji first talks with the group in Vienna and she tells them about how she came from Iran. Momo proceeds to ask if she’s ever seen a dead body, out of curiosity, not out of sympathy. Momo has never had to live in the conditions that Marji was forced into and therefore is unable to see just how terrible that time was for her. This also connects to your point of children having to mature too quickly because Marji too is seen at a young age learning how to protest and having to hear the stories of torture and executions from her parents and relatives. War wasn’t just a part of her life, it became her life.
This is a well-written post! I didn’t know so many children were forced to go through this; 87 million is an insanely high number. It’s horrible to know that this will cause life-long trauma for most of them.
In addition to the struggles you mentioned we are told of young boys, essentially children, being middle-school aged who are effectively brainwashed and sent onto the battlefield. Not only were children like Marji affected in quality of life ways, but many children lost their lives for a cause they didn’t really understand.
I think your posts mentions a lot of the key aspects that many people don’t always immediately think of when they hear about children struggling through a war environment. I was not aware of the vast number of children that have been observed to live through a similar war experience. I know that there can be very serious long term consequences to going through such trauma at a young age and being forced to mature so young as you mention, so it is saddening to hear that this is affecting so many kids, even today. This was a great comprehensive post that connects well to the movie!
This post is very interesting. Marji is portrayed as a very mature individual in the book, but I often attributed this to her spunky attitude, but it is interesting to consider that this may be a factor of the unrest occuring around her as a child. It is easy to understand that the conflict occurring in Iran during Marjane’s childhood caused great devastation, but the impacts of the revolution span into following decades as children grow up in a devastated environment trying to pick up the pieces. It is heartbreaking to hear that such a great deal of children have grown up in unsafe conditions.
Thanks for sharing this information! It’s very interesting and sad to reflect on the idea of child development being harmed by war and relate it to Yemen in modern times.
Most kids will never experience what Marjane experienced in her life. It is truly awful to hear about her hardships. I think you brought up a lot of great points when it comes to explaining how living in a war zone affected her. I knew that children who lived in war zones struggled with education accessibility due to their environment but I did not realize that the high stress levels of the environment would affect their brains. It makes me wonder how much more likely it is for those children to experience anxiety or depression later on in their life. I also wonder if some suffer from PTSD or other physiological issues. I would assume a lot of these physiological issues go undiagnosed in these children due to their level of accessibility within the area they live. I also think these issues may have a big impact on the success of these children as they grow older and become adults.
You also mentioned that many children are malnourished who live in war zones. I know that from the time a child is born until about eighteen years old is when they need to have the right nutrition as this is about the prime time for growth. When they do not meet their needs for energy requirements, nutrient requirements, and do not establish good dietary patterns during those years it can greatly affect them later on in life. It can increase their chances of getting a chronic disease including; obesity, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, alzheimer’s, and anemia, while also decreasing their life expectancy rate. Marjane was lucky to have lived beyond her suicide attempt and to have found the strength to get up and find joy in life again. However, unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as her. We must provide resources for these youth to help them process and grow beyond their life in a war zone.
I enjoyed reading your post! It is insane to even think about that kids have to fear living in their own home, their own country. This makes me realize how much we take everything for granted. Imagine not being able to sleep because you are so scared that your home could be blown up at any given time. The fear that these kids live in is unimaginable for us because we never had to go through anything like that and probably won’t ever have to worry about that. These kids will be traumatized for the rest of their lives.
Hello! Thank you for talking about this because it is so important to the history and the facts you used even further exemplify issues of oppression, specifically in Iran. I often think that hardships aren’t fully considered when thinking about war, especially for young kids that don’t have the ability to defend themselves.
This is an issue that is often overlooked when thinking about war and conflict. The link between war and complications due to malnutrition and negative educational outcomes is very strong. Nutrition in the early stages of a child’s life has a huge impact on their future success. When kids also have trouble attending school they can miss out on crucial education which can really have a negative effect on their adult lives.
I think this is a very real issue that many nations that do not experience war on their own territory can comprehend, not even myself. Like mentioned, children have no part in deciding where they are born and the conditions they are subjected to, which carries an immense toll both psychologically and physically. Additionally, much of the industrial military complex relies on the indoctrination of children in hopes that one day they can train to become soldiers; ultimately propagating the harm placed on the communities and populations involved (a theme commonly seen in Persepolis). The Master-Slave relationship can be tied, even expanded onto, the children of these nations as they hold less power and voice against one – if not two – “Masters” in the form of the states at war.
Hi!
Thank you for sharing a topic that many people have not gone through yet we see all the time. As these children grow up, these are day to day events that can hurt them their entire life. Children are forced to stay with their parents and endure the trauma. These kids are growing up witnessing events no adult or person should ever have to see. This can be detrimental for their mental and physical health in their future war or no war.
I really enjoyed your post it reminded me of the stories my parents would tell me about their childhood in Somalia during the civil war. they’ll talk about the oppression they saw and the effects of a warzone seeing other children die out of hungry and others’ bodies lying on the floor as the fleas eat their flesh. These events they witnessed and the trauma it caused them still exists with them until this day.
I enjoyed your post a lot and it was very eye opening. I am so grateful for the environment I was privileged to grow up in. What these kids are witnessing everyday in their homes is horrifying. There are so many long term effects this can have on their mental health and their future all together. Due to how I grew up it is very hard for me to comprehend and imagine what they are going through at such a young age when they’re still developing.