Hey guys,
welcome to my first blog entry!
Reading Persepolis: the story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi in my literature class has added a lot to how I reflect and think about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.
Living next to the boarder between Germany and Austria the refugee crisis soon became a constant topic in my everyday life, also because my mother volunteers as a german teacher in one of the refugee housings in my village.
One day I came home and there was this little toy train wagon on our kitchen counter which I have never seen before, so I asked her what the story behind it was.
She told me that a little Syrian girl gave it to her as a thank you present for teaching her how to read and write.
Another day I came home and my mom told me a story about a little boy named Mohammed, from Syria. They were playing outside on the playground with all the refugee kids when suddenly the little boy tripped and fell on the hard ground.
He got up without a word or tear, but with two bloody knees.
As my mom told him how brave he was because he wasn’t crying,
his only response was: “I have seen worse.“
He started telling my mom about how his house in Syria got bombed at night and he had to go to Turkey for a medical treatment with his family.
He still has bomb shrapnel in his legs.
Santrapi called her book “the story of a childhood” not “the islamic revolution” or “the Iran Iraq war”.
She focuses on the everyday life in Iran during the war period, through the eyes of a child.
On the public and private life and the horrors of war for the civil citizens.
I feel like the aspect, that‚ refugees are human beings too, was often neglected in discussions‚ how to solve the refugee issue.
But these days people don’t have to write a book like Satrapi anymore to tell their story and raise awareness.
Social Media like Facebook and the Internet in general enables refugees to tell their story and bring the human aspect back to the discussion between politicians and in the host countries.
They make people notice and open their eyes for the things they rather ignore, like the fact that there is a real war going on and that people are suffering, which makes them leave their homes, walk thousands of kilometers and cross oceans on floats.
Satrapis role can be compared and linked with the internet today as “an eye opener for the human cost of war and political repression“ (Covertext‚ ‚Persepolis: the story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi’).
Both the book and the internet help display the power of pictures and words, creating a more intimate experience for the viewer.
But still, we have to be aware of the fact that all these personal stories are influenced by the narrators personal emotions, experiences, and culture, which isn’t necessarily relying on facts but give us an individual’s insight on issues we see expressed on the news.
