By Meredith Photis
Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is based on Satrapi’s childhood during the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War. Satrapi explains how individuals’ way of life were altered as the government structure and rules changed. In order to understand the book it is vital to understand these wars, specifically the role of government in the wars. Both the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War were in response to power struggles in government.
Iran was primarily a monarchy, but due to the Islamic Revolution it became a theocratic democracy. As a monarchy, the government, specifically Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had too much power. This allowed the wealthy to thrive at the expense of the middle and lower class. The Islamic Revolution sought change. There were protests and marches against the Shah, resulting in violence and death. On September 8th, 1978, there was a major protest, known as Black Friday. The government put down the Black Friday protest with full force military tactics. While this killed hundreds of protesters, it also caused the rebellion to grow dramatically. More people began to see the government’s faults and began to switch sides of the war. Ultimately, members in the Iranian army began to refuse to attack the protesters. The Shah tried to make a compromise, but the people were no longer willing to compromise. They decided Ayatollah Khomeini deserved to be in control, with Iran as a theocratic democracy. A theocratic democracy allows a supreme leader and president, which abide by the constitution like a democracy; however, it does not separate the church and state. This political structure provides religious clerics and forefathers with substantial power within the government, while keeping power distributed.
Ayatollah Khomeini believed that more countries should have the same government structure as Iran. Khomeini wanted to end strong powers such as Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, and establish a democracy. The fight over government in addition to border disputes, started the Iran-Iraq War. The Iran-Iraq War began on September 22, 1980. Iraq had hoped that this would be an easy battle, being that Iran had just ended their revolution and were weak. When Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein, sent a missile attack to Iran, the war officially began. At first, Iraq was successful in taking over major cities; however, Iran, under the leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini began to regain their territories, creating a stalemate in the war. While the war ended with no winner, it still had great cost to both sides. Iran and Iraq used trench warfare, chemical weapons, and ballistic-missile attack. These tactics resulted in a great loss of money and civilian lives. In the end, both countries agreed to remove their troops from each other’s land and returned the prisoners of war.
Works Cited
Bruno, Greg. “Religion and Politics in Iran.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 19 June 2008, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/religion-and-politics-iran.
History.com Editors. “Iran-Iraq War.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war.
“Iranian Revolution.” Iranian Revolution – Academic Kids, academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Iranian_Revolution.
“Iran–Iraq War Facts for Kids.” Iran–Iraq War Facts for Kids, 14 Sept. 2020, kids.kiddle.co/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War.
Woods, John E., and Gerald Henry Blake. “The Iran-Iraq War.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 May 2020, www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/The-Iran-Iraq-War.
Thank you for writing an informative background description of the Iran-Iraq war and how the structure of government changed in Iran. Learning this helped give more context to Satrapi’s story. It was interesting to read that the people of Iran revolted because the Shah had too much power within the government, but after the change in leadership, there was direct control on citizens life with how they can act and what they can wear.
Hey Meredith, this is an awesome research presentation! I really like how you chose to write about the history of Iran and it’s various leaders. It is paramount to understand these aspects when trying to understand someone’s personal account along these historical lines. The whole history of Reza Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini is so fascinating and saddening but it is important to understand the power struggle and how the installation of a theocratic democracy affected the people, especially the female populous. All in all, this was written really well and there were also some really good sources in here! Thank you!
It is interesting to be able to learn about a historical event both through a the personal lens of Marji and through a broader lens that you provided us with. This conflict of course brought a lot of strife to Marji’s life and many of those around her, but to be able to see how many people were brutally affected by this war and learn more about the role of the U.S. is really informative and connects Marji’s story to so many others. Thank you for giving this background and providing several other sources to help me learn more.
Hey Meredith, thank you for this presentation, it is very enlightening for what was going on during this time, and useful for the reading. While the results of the protest were unfortunate, due to the deaths that occurred, this revolution goes to show the importance of something like this is, to achieve what you believe in against a government you don’t like. Overall, a well written blog post detailing the events of the revolution, and a good preface to our weekly reading.
Hi Meredith, I really enjoyed reading your presentation. I really didn’t know much about either of these conflicts, so it was refreshing to learn more about them. I feel like the background that you provided here really helps when it comes to reading Perseplois, and overall having a better understand of the reading. I also find it disheartening to read that many civilians lost their lives over a border dispute and government dispute, it’s really sad that the governments are the ones upset yet civilians pay the ultimate price. Overall, I really enjoyed learning more from your presentation and I found it very helpful in terms of understand our reading more.
Meredith, I think learning the details on the Iran-Iraq War will help understand the context and background of what happened during Satrapi’s childhood and the fear that circled the society. I also think that learning about the leaders during the time can attest to their war tactics they displayed in times of hardship. I think Marji’s story allows us to realize how fortunate we are as a country to have the military personnel and protection on a daily basis. The systemic injustices of womanhood, warfare and power faced during Satrapi’s life are apparent as well bringing more deeper conversation to her story.
Thank you so much for the presentation Meredith! Learning about the government structures and the effects on the people is very interesting. This provided great context and an overview for the reading this week. It was also interesting that while the Shah tried to compromise to help the people, the people disagreed and therefore decided to have a theocratic democracy. This enforced religion and government to be together and have different people for each role. Thank you again for the helpful information for our reading this week.
This was very good Meredith! I think that it is important to understand the concepts and events that are taking place objectively within a book like Persepolis. This grants us readers the insight on what is going on and what could be effecting characters. Insight like this is especially important so that we can understand the massive amounts of death, the political turmoil, and the overall degradation of like around Satrapi.
I really liked you description of the conflicts Iran endured throughout the late 20th century! This explanation was a great precursor for our reading for the week. Being able to fully understand the context of the world that Satrapi was living in not only helped to understand the plot, but it also amazed me that she had such a great grasp on what was happening at a young age. It’s hard to believe that a child could fully comprehend the conflict and make an informed opinion on it; it really shows the strength of her character throughout her childhood. I also liked that you mentioned how, even through military action during Black Friday, the rebellion was able to grow stronger, showing just how important change was for Iran.
Thank you for the information and article, I think you have organized this very well. I am so impressed by reading this that to know how the war affected the people in Iran and Iraq and also how the United States involved in. Also for the protest to the government was very impressive. Thanks again for sharing!
Hi Meredith,
Thank you for providing detailed information on Iran and the Islamic Revolution. Like most countries in the world, the Islamic Revolution has experienced a large gap between the rich and the poor, and the protest marches of the people against the government, which can ultimately make Iran a country with a more reasonable distribution of power.
Thank you for all of this information! Without specific details in the story of why there was a war at all, it’s hard to understand the severity and really empathize with the characters in this graphic novel. You explaining the major details of the war helps us to do that.
Thank you so much Meredith, like many countries in the universe , the main reasons as to why wars breakout is because of the structural inequalities , whereby sides fight to gain freedom and sense of belonging to what is claimed to be theirs, this is why we see the poor fighting the middle class, the middle class fighting the rich and many other case. At the same time fighting for power, dominancy has caused countless wars in the universe that is why we see like the Iran-Iraq wars.
Hello Meredith, I think that your blog post for this week was extremely insightful. It really puts into perspective the time period and events during the book. It shows that revolutions are sparked when governments don’t give the people what they need. Your blog post gave me a more in depth take on Persepolis.
Hi Meredith,
Reading this article it gave me more insight on what the setting of how they were living during the Islamic Revolution. It was an era that many people and women in general had little to no rights. Women weren’t allowed to have the freedom of expression and go to earn an education. The protests that I have read about effected the country to make Iran a place for freedom and equality throughout the country. You did a good job about explaining Persepolis and the situations they faced with living under something like a hierarchy where power and laws are made up of one person who doesn’t allow change.
Thank you for your wonderful speech. I learned more about the background knowledge of this week’s topic by reading your speech. Especially the description of the second paragraph of nature, it let me understand the cause of this revolution.“The government put down the Black Friday protest with full force military tactics. While this killed hundreds of protesters, it also caused the rebellion to grow dramatically. ”It also made me feel the misfortune brought about by this revolution.
Hi Meredith, The context you posted is very helpful. You provide very detailed information about the Iran-Iraq war and Isolamic Revolution. You also mentioned about the Black Friday protest. However, the protest is finally be put down by the millitary force. I also understand that there are many countries have the same government structure as iran. All of these are very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
I was quite unaware of the exact details of the revolution that took place in Iran in the 1970s and what followed of the Iran-Iraq war. Thank you for summarizing of the power struggle and then the war and you have managed to make it very informative in such short words.