The animated movie “Persepolis” is based on the graphic novel by the same name and is the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian emigrant. It tells of her years as a naïve child when the revolution that removed the Shah (Iran’s ruling monarchy at the time) begun in 1978 and the events that followed afterwards, leading to her going abroad to school. Her family life and the detachment she experienced as a result of her being sent to Europe, where her parents believed she would be free to express herself, are also put into play. Marji, as she was fondly called, saw the first Iranian Revolution from the inside but with the innocence and naivety of a child and she saw, firsthand, how manipulating politics can be; although she did not realise it at the time. The revolution which was championed by the Iranians led to the ousting of the Shah, a monarchy that they considered illegitimate and replaced it with an Islamic reform which they welcomed and it also led to the re-education of the populace, much to the confusion of school children who were initially taught that the Shah was divinely ordained. Jump to her European experience; she continually struggled with her identity as an Iranian as she came to find that the people there did not share her values and could not understand her perception of things. She also found herself a victim of discrimination and had to reinvent herself to fit in and even then could not satisfy her cruel judges. She eventually repatriated to Iran and was no longer the sweet naïve girl that she left as, but instead was this angry, dissatisfied, depressed and westernised woman, quick to classify others like the Europeans she disliked that made her long for her home. She had lost herself and bought into the classification by the West of her people that implied that they were pre-modern. She found herself unable to fit in and was depressed, was always getting into trouble and had experienced a freedom that women had so could no longer tolerate the confinement she found herself in. She eventually left again; still depressed and uncertain what she wanted for herself but influenced by her family history, the West’s notion of how things should be and her inability to stay out of trouble, she was left with no option but to emigrate again.
Islam as News, in contrast draws its analysis from the same period but from the view of an adult, witnessing the inappropriate classification of people from the “Orient” (Middle East and Asia) by people Occidental heritage. The article by the late Palestinian scholar, Edward Said, narrates of how the “West” and the United States in particular are complicit in stirring the “Islamic Revolution” and how they were able to vilify almost every country and region that is of a different cultural heritage. His article which was published in 1980 recognises the end of World War II as the genesis and if not, catalyst of the West versus the Orient political mentality, stating even then how the West used caricatures to portray “Muslims as oil suppliers, as terrorists, and more recently as blood thirsty mobs” (Said 1980). That extract could explain why Marjane was victimised in Europe and ironically is still very relevant to the notions of Islamic nations today.
In Mahmood Mamdani’s Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (2004), he said “Culture Talk has also turned religion into a political category”. He focuses more on the divisions being caused by culture and, written in a much later period than the works of Edward Said, he notes that the end of the Cold War as his turn of the tide even before the 9/11 events (which he also makes reference to) and put that in contrast to Said’s World War II’s end as the defining point.
What is a consistent theme in all 3 narratives is the notion of the West versus the Orient. Marjane experienced it when she emigrated and practised it when she returned and both authors, a time capsule between them, try to rationalise why this trend exist and its origins; but the undeniable here is that it exists and irrespective of the different approaches by some to bridge that gap and understand its causes and come up with resolutions, it is still on-going.
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