Hi readers,

This week we read the graphic narrative “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi. As I have been reading the blogs of my class mates I have seen that some of them were about a similar topic: Religion. In Persepolis, religion is represented as a from of political oppression. I would like to add some of my thoughts about this representation; most states use religion as a political tool to gain more sympathy from the people, at least that is what happens mostly in Middle East. In my country Turkey, there are similar problems like we read in the book. As a person who wears the veil myself, I have always felt that when I go out to street people would make a political statement about what I wore. I can simply tell that I could feel half of the people’s hatred towards me because they probably stereotyped my political views even though I wear the veil because of my religion. When I came to Canada I was relieved because it is not seen as a political statement, it is simply religious. I think one of the reasons why Satrapi hated the veil was because it built a barrier between the women of Iran. A woman wearing a veil would show that they support the government and the ones that don’t would show that they oppose the government because the veil has become a symbol for politics. The veil has a different meaning for everyone so there are many different perspectives about the veil. The articles we have read in class influenced our perspectives about this topic.

Oliver and Codi wrote about the veil which is a topic we have discussed in class. Oliver concentrated on the different views about the veil in Canada. He wrote about his own experience which a person wearing a veil or not didn’t make a difference to him when he was a child. He also mentioned the Quebec ban of the veil in public service. Codi wrote about her contrasting views about the veil before and after reading the articles that we discussed in the class last week. She was interested about how feminism and veil interacted in Celen Ibrahim’s article. Seeing different views of the same topic: “feminism” has made her think about her own interpretation of feminism. “From what I have deduced, Muslim woman are also guarding themselves from the standards posed on all women; such as beauty and body standards. This caused me to deeply consider what “feminism” really means, and how I, too am guilty of believing headscarves were a signifier of male dominance.” (Codi). She thought that veil was a form of oppression before she has seen another perspective about it. She also states that the “westernized view” might be responsible about how she viewed feminism. There are many different points of view about oppression and understanding different ideas is what makes the global world great.

After I read Wamaitha’s blog which was concentrated on youth and religion, I really found the part where less young people believed in God, and more of them believe in the afterlife interesting. I also think that with the globalization of the world people become much more individualistic and they want to believe in something that wasn’t thought to them by their parents or school, they want to believe simply because they really believe in something. “Fernandez brings up that although the younger generation are less likely to participate in organized religion, there is an increase in what he deems “private spirituality” (Fernandez 2016).” (Wamaitha). She also wrote about her own experience with religion and science which I found interesting.

Some of us thought about our own experiences such as Arvind and Lily. Arvind distinguished between his own country India’s Hindu fundamentalists and Iran’s religious fundamentalists. He thought that these groups were very much alike because they want to impose their life styles to those around them who have different beliefs. Lily wrote about her personal experience in Armenia which is a neighbour of Iran. “I think one of the main responses to reading the book is a new understanding of Iran, especially since Marji is a character that other young people can identify with because she has similar coming of age struggles. This offers the perspective that we are more alike than different, regardless of what country we are from, which is the perspective that I gained from living in Armenia.” (Lily). She states that her experience in Armenia has helped her get to know a different culture which does not only consist of oppression and war but also the generosity of people and the beauty of their culture. She also adds that she has read the book before her experience of going abroad and now. The difference has been great because she now understands how Satrapi has shown trauma in her graphic narrative by normalizing violence. Once again I thought of my own country who is near Iran and how it affected my point of view while I was growing up. Iran was always shown as the evil of Middle East in Turkey. There is always a fight between secularists and conservatives in my country and people were very afraid of what was happening in Iran near 80s so they banned hijab at schools because they didn’t want to “become Iran”. This ban has been there for almost 30 years and it has been used politically by Erdogan so the subject of “the veil” has become a great partition point in Turkey. People who wanted to be free and wear a veil has found shelter in Erdogan’s party which led to the situation that we see on media nowadays: one man ruling every aspect of the state. The demonization of Iran has led to much bigger political movements in Turkey which has caused a one-man regime. When I was a child I didn’t know anything about their culture, I have grown up only seeing their evil presidents and the women with veils on media. I really liked how Lily’s view of Middle East has changed when she got to know the region better. I hope that we all (including myself) as global citizens will look at different situations from a lot of different perspectives. That is the only way we will get rid of the oppression on our ideas caused by media.

Thank you everyone for these great posts, I really enjoyed reading them and seeing different views about the topics that we have discussed in class the past week. Have a nice week!

Sources:

Oliver’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ngoliverblog/2017/10/12/the-headscarf-in-persepolis-and-in-canada/

Codi’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/codisblogtasticblog/2017/10/12/modern-interpretations-of-feminism/

Arvind’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/arvindsblog/2017/10/12/religious-nationalism/

Lily’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/lillysastublog/2017/10/12/post-2/

Wamaitha’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/wamsblog/2017/10/12/is-religion-fading/