Front Cover of Persepolis Source: https://www.amazon.ca/Persepolis-Story-Childhood-Marjane-Satrapi/dp/037571457X
Throughout last week, our ASTU class focused on studying the graphic narrative, Persepolis, by Iranian Author Marjane Satrapi. Set in Iran in the late 70s and Early 80s, the comic is based off of the author’s own childhood; it focuses on the experiences of a young girl named Marji who experienced the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq War first hand. The comic discusses her personal struggles with the new regime, such as being forced to don a veil or warped ideas of heroism being imposed ideologically, and how she deals with them while as portraying most Iranians as normal people like in any nation. Today, thes ideas discussed in Persepolis take center stage politically, in both the Middle Eastern**, where Islam is prevalent and in the West, where Islam’s prominence is rising. However, I will focus on a topics in particular which struck me: the stereotyping of Muslims as violent or terrorististic
With Western countries led by the United States interfering in Middle Eastern affairs during the late 20th Century, such as by participating in the 1975-1990 Lebanon War or arming radical Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan to dismantle Soviet influence, the Middle East has seen a bloom of Islamist fundamentalism. Retrospectively, we can all judge that these political actions did not work out in their favour of neither Americans nor Middle Easterners as they eventually led up to the September 11 attacks in New York, perpetrated by Islamists and the subsequently negative portrayal of Muslims by Western media, academics, and politicians alike. The attacks were used as a justification for the United States’ rampage on the Middle East, dubbed the War on Terror, as well as the labelling of millions of people as enemies and terrorists, including designating Satrapi’s home country of Iran as part of an “Axis of Evil”. The memory of the attack lives on today and continues to influence people’s views on Muslims.
Persepolis itself was published under the post September 11 political climate in a Western Country and thus joins the enduring polemic on Islam’s place both in the Middle East and in the West. As a comic, many of Persepolis’s ideas are meant to challenge the likening of all Muslims to terrorists. Throughout the novel, Iranians are clearly shown to be normal people. They do many things that Westerners can relate with, for example there were scenes in which Marji’s parents would throw parties with alcohol, or scenes in which Marji attempted to keep up with fashion trends, like punk clothing or denim jackets, to gain social standing with her peers. All of these would be seen as normal by any Westerner and can challenge the post 9/11 stereotype of Iranians as backwards and evil.
At first, while reading the novel, I was wondering if the reason they threw these parties was because the revolution was still fresh and the conservative principles of the Regime’s elite had not yet seeped in to the population. I wondered if these things were simply leftovers from the Imperial government, which, under the last Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, sought to westernize the country. I came to conclude however that the temporal context of the parties or fashion was less relevant to the message that Westerners should not be so quick as to judge all muslims as terrorists or backward people as the focus of these parties and such was on the effect they had on the characters. Since the Persepolis was published recently, Satrapi makes it clear that her portrayal of Iranians as normal people still holds true today and that Western politicians would be wrong if they classified Iranians as anything but.
The White Man’s Burden Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/%22The_White_Man%27s_Burden%22_Judge_1899.png
Another important stereotype that the novel challenges is that Muslims approve of and/or support radicals. This stereotype is related to muslims having a backwards society and has special political weighting today as it is used by many Western politicians as a justification for Western incursions into muslim majority countries; these politicians would claim a need to “civilize” the locals and teach them “western values”, which in my view is very similar to the colonialist concept of the “White Man’s Burden”. In Persepolis, Marji is shown to revere both her Uncle, Anoosh, and Her father very much so and neither of whom are extremists. This challenges the the official narrative of Middle Eastern Countries are backwards and presents a relatable character to Western audiences, some of who may also idolize their family members.
Personally, I can relate to Satrapi and to Muslims and Middle Easterners who feel vilified by the West. One of my countries, Russia, has also undergone a similar defamation, in my point of view. Alongside Muslims, Russians have remained one of Hollywood’s go to villains and Western Media has constantly stereotyped Russians as violent, drunken, backwards, militaristic, secretive, cold-hearted, etc. etc. which has caused a great deal of frustration not just with me but with countless other Russians. This made me think: perhaps Satrapi was speaking also for other peoples or cultures vilified in western politics? Perhaps she was even sending a message to Iranians and other conservative Middle Eastern societies not to vilify Westerners or there pop culture as well? (Iran’s Government has referred to the United States as the “Great Satan” in some policy documents and in the comic, Marji was harassed for wearing a denim jacket with a Michael Jackson pin). Either way, I believe that Persepolis’s ideas against stereotyping are nonetheless universal and certainly resonate strongly in today’s political climate.
Iranians Mourn 9/11 Victims Source: http://www.irna.ir/en/News/83030328
The ideas in Persepolis discussed about stereotyping relates with the in class theme of culture and memory as often the stereotypes imposed on certain cultures probably are not how the people of said culture would remember themselves. In my personal case, I do not remember Russians or Russian culture as drunken or violent in the slightest and in Satrapi’s case, Iranians and Iranian culture are not remembered as terroristic or backwards. It also relates with how Americans’ degrading view of Middle Eastern nations, like Iran, are influenced their memory of the September 11 attacks as not only a tragedy but an insult to the US as a nation; because of these attacks, many Americans would wrongly assume that all Muslims support terror. This made me wonder, perhaps the overwhelming sadness associated with the event had hindered the ability of many Americans to think logically about this subject? However, that question is probably best left up to a psychologist
I also reflected back to my previous assignment to visit the “Arts of Resistance” exhibit about Latin America, a region where the US’s hand is also palpable. That there was a row of beautiful Mayan tunics, which like Persepolis, aims to break negative stereotypes associated with Central American countries by some Westerners (stereotypes such as drugs or crime). This all goes back to the idea of who should or can represent a culture. Can Western Media have the freedom to portray cultures and societies however they see them, or should it be left to the people from these societies to portray their culture as they see it? I myself may never have an answer to that question but I do hope that this post may generate some reflection on it.
Until Next time,
Aleksei Zhukov
**For the sake of this post Iran is included as a Middle Eastern Country since it has considerable political, economic and cultural influence there as of 2018.