Persepolis is a novel that is about the life of Marjane Satrapi as she grows up in Iran during the 1970’s and 1980’s and as she travels abroad. During her childhood, the Shaw revolution takes place and the Iraq-Iran war starts. This war and its effects are depicted many times throughout the novel and shape Marjane’s character and life.
The neighboring Iraq had agreed to a border agreement in 1975 that relinquished control over both sides of the Shatt al-Arab, therefore turning over control of Iraq’s access to the Persian Gulf. Iraq’s Sunni president, Suddam Hussein, also sought to gain rule over Iraq to avoid a Shi’ite revolution similar to the Shaw revolution that had just occurred. (History.com 2009)
Persepolis describes the Shaw revolution and why it took place. In summary, a pro-western culture dictatorship is dismantled and replaced with a fundamentalist government that enforced strict religious laws. With this revolution came the weakness of the military. Iraq saw this weakness and launched an attack in September of 1980.
The Iraq-Iran was claimed many lives over its 8-year duration. Although many sources give conflicting numbers on the casualties, almost all agree it was over 1 million. According to Slavin & Kadhim from the Alantic Council, “Iran lost at least a quarter of a million people, and its soldiers were the victims of weapons of mass destruction—Iraqi munitions laced with deadly chemical agents.” One thing that makes this war so gruesome was the use of those Chemical weapons which were banned by the Geneva protocol in 1925 (OPCW.org). Another horrifying fact of the war was Iran’s use of children in the war, something that Marjane depicted in the novel. A Washington Post article from 1988 talks elaborates on this:
Our sources also agree that the boy soldiers get little training and are used as a shield for Khomeini’s fanatical Revolutionary Guards Corps fighting at the front or as mine sweepers whose lives are expendable. (Anderson 1988)
The article goes on to estimate the number of children to be used this way to be 64,000 in about the 12–13-year-old range. The way ended with a cease-fire in 1988 after many failed offenses from both sides.
Citations:
Slavin, B., & Kadhim, A. (2021, September 30). Iran ‘won’ the war with Iraq but at a heavy price. Atlantic Council. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/iran-won-the-war-with-iraq-but-at-a-heavy-price/.
Anderson, J., & Atta, D. V. (1988, January 18). Children Khomeini’s cannon fodder. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/01/18/children-khomeinis-cannon-fodder/8b7673b3-c701-484c-955c-0bd4c3ea1d70/.
History.com Editors. (2009, November 9). Iran-Iraq War. History.com. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war.
Hi, nice job on this post. I enjoy how you were able to discuss what was going on prior to the revolution and transition to how the revolution ended up beginning. Not only were you able to discuss how the war began, but how disastrous the impacts were on men, women, and especially children.
Hello!
Great context presentation! I appreciate the background you provided about why the Shaw Revolution actually occurred and what impact it had on society. I didn’t realize how many young boys were sent off to fight in this war, and it really is eye opening when you stop and think about it. Great presentation again!
Hi, I enjoyed your context presentation! It was very interesting to read about the Shaw revolution. The summary of why this revolution took place helped deepen my understanding of this reading. Especially when you explained that the weakness in military from the results of the fundamentalist government replacing the pro-western culture allowed Iraq to launch a successful attack.
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading your context presentation! I didn’t know much about the Shaw revolution, so reading your post about it really helped me to understand what goes on in Persepolis. I think you did a good job of explaining the background of the Shaw Revolution, as well as tying it into the story of Persepolis. Really good job overall!
Great presentation! I like to history of the war of Iran that you presented to gain more understand of the situation that Marji others endured. The use of that many children is very said to hear to me, I knew they used children but not that many.
Hello, I really enjoyed reading your context presentation on Persepolis. I like that you chose to expand on the Iraq-Iran war and the Shaw revolution. You helped to provide me with more insight on how significant this time period was and the impacts it had.
Hi! Really great job on your context presentation. I really liked how you connected some history that is very modern. I was surprised to read about events that occured in 2009. It feels so recent and helped me gain a deeper understanding. Hearing about the amount of deaths was very sad and made the situation much more sad than I could’ve imagined.
Hello, this is a great presentation. I really enjoyed reading this and it gave a great background to the history of what was happening during the film and book. I really enjoyed that you included an explanation as to why the war started. I think you did a great job and it really expanding my knowledge.
Hello! Your post was very informative. I think it is very important that you mentioned all sources said the amount of deaths was over 1 million. Especially in this class, we are consistently learning that the oppressor often tells the story of history, so it is very interesting that this is a detail all stories agree on. It is also sad that the young soldiers were used because this shows how serious and desperate the situation was.
Hello, I liked your contract presentation and the way you were able to compare the novel to real events that has happened in Iran. I cannot believe the number of children was around 64,000! That really made me look at the novel differently. It also makes more sense now that the war was so gruesome like you said since they were using the dangerous chemical agents.
Hello,
I liked how your context presentation gave more background information on the severity of the topic that Satrapi wrote about. It put it better into perspective and I know at least mad me reflect more on the novel.
Loved this post! This gave helped me understand more about the horrors of the war Marjane was living through, and also furthered upon things she was not able to witness in the book. This also helped myself understand more of why the war took place.
Hi, I enjoyed reading your presentation. I thought it was interesting how you took a different approach and talked about casualties in the war and how children were used. It is very sad that young children are taken from their families and used in the war without any training to defend themselves. It is also devastating how many casualties there were from the war.
Great drop with you context presentation! I am truly appalled to see the amount of kids that were used in battle. I liked the way you presented the information and thought you provided great insight to what else was happening during the time Persepolis was written
Hi! Very interesting presentation! You did a very good job at explaining what went on in Iran during this time and comparing it to Persepolis. It is really sad and horrifying to learn that they used kids as shields and that it was so many of them.