Veiled Persepolis.2

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This is an original essay on the representation of the veil in Satrapi's Persepolis

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Veiled Persepolis Marjane Satrapi’s visually mesmerizing memoir Persepolis is a beautifully narrated tale of one woman’s journey to adulthood amongst a chaotic and war-torn backdrop. Satrapi did not shy in depicting how she felt, whether it be negative or positive, about the Islamic Revolution that took place during her youth. The events that she illustrates are lined with satirical hints and downright blatant portrayals of sorrow, oppression and death. While the memoir reads with quite a bit of humor Satrapi weaves in a theme of social bias; a prejudice stems from her views of the oppressive nature of the Islamic Revolution and through them the compulsory wearing of the veil. Satrapi presents the veil as a form of subjugation to the masters of the Revolution: However, the representation of the veil within Persepolis is one of prejudiced ambivalence in that Satrapi only portrays the veil as a tool of oppression rather than the religious and cultural object that has its roots within the history of many beliefs. In order to gain any perspective on the use of the veil, a brief history must be presented so not to misrepresent the cultural significance of it. The use of the veil is found throughout history and according to an article written by Eli Sanders who interviewed Paul Holmes-Eber, an anthropology professor from the University of Washington, about: “The origin of the veiling is unknown, but scholars agree it existed long before Islam. Some 4,000 years ago, in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, women wore veils” (Sanders). This historically accepted notion on the purported beginnings on the use of the veil is not revealed by Satrapi in her memoir. The veil is not only an Islamic tradition but can be found throughout various religions and more specifically that of Christianity. Tertullian, a Roman Christian known for many of his prolific writings as the father of Latin Christianity, spoke of a nun’s veiling: “[T]hose virgins who took the veil publicly in the assemble of the faithful, and others known to God alone; the veil seems to

have been simply that of a married woman” (Vermeersch). The veil was representative of their marriage to God and by donning the veil they identified themselves as wed women this resembles married women wearing a wedding band as evidence of the completion of their nuptials. The commonalities of the veil between Christianity and Islam are obvious when viewed from this light but the binding factor behind them all is whether or not they were meant to be social methods of control for women to restrict their growth in the economy of their region. Satrapi illustrates how the veil hampered the individualism of adolescents during her childhood and how it affected her social view on the Islam’s repression. The perception of the veil in Persepolis is not favorable and it is because of the political traditions that branched from the religion that it is viewed as such. The veil is portrayed as a symbol of tyranny and not the symbol of modesty as it was originally intended to be. The political coup in Iran, as depicted in the memoir, was a welcome change to the “Western” influenced government and whiles the masses favored political change, they also embraced for the most part, the religious ideologies that came hand in hand with the politics. Satrapi depicts the journey to change early on as welcome when she illustrates the overthrow of Reza Shah, “the day he left, the country had the biggest celebration of its celebration” (Satrapi 42). The ramification of Iran’s departure from Western influence, however, was the root of the segregation of the Iranian people. The government that replaced the Shah was not exactly what the Iranian people and more importantly the intellectuals expected when Islam became the cornerstone of the foundation of the regime. The strict regulations according to modesty of Islam succeeded in alienating much of the middle class as the working-class Iranians embraced the rigid formalities. The forced use of the veil was the attempt according to Satrapi in her memoir while attending an art class in her University:

[N]evertheless, things were evolving . . . year by year women were winning an eighth of an inch of hair and losing and eighth of an inch of veil . . . I’m your anatomy professor. In the past we drew nudes, but things have changed. Your model will be covered try to make the best of it. We tried, we looked from every direction and from every angle but not a single part of her body was visible. (Satrapi 293,299) The veil was not the only masking instrument illustrated by the quotes; the chador, a billowy garment that covers the body from the neck to the feet that is illustrated within the memoir, also conceals in entirety the female form. The chador along with the veil is described by Tim Winter as, “more of a membrane than a mask. It allows the wearer to remain as she is, and the male regard to appropriate her as it needs. Simultaneously affirming classical definitions as spectacle rather than as autonomous self, and man’s self-definition as possessor of women, it covers the man’s eyes more than the woman’s” (Winter 1). Winter’s analysis of the chador coincides with the depiction of the art class described by Satrapi as in that it defined the female human body to be hidden from all save only the family. The compulsory wearing of the chador and veil in Iran during the eighties illustrated Winter’s point well as well, in that the compulsion was based out of gender bias, both for men and women. Essentially by taking away the choice of wearing the hijab, the Muslim term for veil, Iranian religious government officials effectively guaranteed a feminist revolution much as the American government did in the early 1920s when they allowed Christian patrols led by women to round up other women who showed too much knee or bosom. The Christian patrols have a commonality with the Guardians of the Revolution in Persepolis as exhibited by, “they were Guardians of the Revolution. The women’s branch. The group had been added in 1982, to arrest women who were improperly veiled” (Satrapi 132). The obligatory

wearing of the veil and chador is a staple of Satrapi’s novel and while it is not the central theme of the book it does has ties to the rebellion that Marji exhibited in her lifetime. The veil inherently does not have negative connotations within Islam and Christianity due to both having definitions of the veil as a means of modesty and propriety, yet the reasoning behind the wearing of the veil is often misunderstood either out of ignorance or because of the political connotations. The veil is habitually translated accordingly to the views of the mullah, preacher, or priest that is campaigning their own private religious views. The hijab was not originally intended to be used as a political tool but rather as a means to save a woman’s most precious dissimilarity from men for their husbands. The lack or improper wear of a hijab was considered to be an act of hedonism. The common thought is that there are certain physical aspects of the female appearance that could incite a man to act beyond his means of self-control. While America is over-sexualized, as evidenced by anyone watching cable television for five minutes, the compulsory wearing of the hijab found in Iran could still be viewed as demeaning. By coercing and essentially micromanaging veil use, the Iranian government opened themselves to a feminist revolution. Instead of rejecting the revolution, the government enveloped it. While Satrapi takes note in her memoir that she and other women attended University (Satrapi 283), she did not allude to the fact that women enrolled in higher education was equal to the men in the nineties and that “currently, women actually constitute more than 60 percent of Iran’s 1.6 million university students” (Bahramitash and Kazemipour 9). It is obvious, according to these facts, that the hijab does not hold women back intellectually and apparently women are encouraged by the Iranian government to continue to progress academically. By allowing women who conform to their standards to advance intellectually, Iran could be said to be advancing on a quicker basis to equal rights for women than America did. Satrapi’s view on the subtle feminist

revolution was presented as a quiet rebellion as she said that “we would go to one another’s houses, where we posed for each other . . . we had at last found a place of freedom” (Satrapi 304). By demonstrating the subversive methods with which Satrapi took to expand her knowledge of art, she exposed how the oppression touched every aspect of her life as she perceived it to be. The revolution that is still being conducted in Iran, as any revolution, makes caveats in their political agenda in order to gain ground on separate issues and the wearing of the veil may be significant to many; however, the continued progression of the movement signifies that Iranian women are generally more tolerant of the veil and are willing to look past the forced wearing and focus on more important issues for the time being. Satrapi’s portrayal of the veil in Persepolis as stated before is one of prejudiced ambivalence, in that while she abhorred the compulsory nature she submitted to the revolution by donning it and that prejudice reads throughout the novel. Satrapi does not agree with the wearing of the veil but that does not allude or present evidence to represent the veil as it was meant to be. The veil does not prohibit women from becoming individuals. The chador, hijab and veil can often be misunderstood or misinterpreted accordingly a fact that Satrapi does not illustrate within her memoir. The veil has a long and vaunted history and, for the time being, will continue to be a form of societal control, slightly abused and often misconstrued.

Works Cited: Bahramitash, Roksana, and Shahla Kazemipour. "Myths And Realities Of The Impact Of Islam On Women: Changing Marital Status In Iran." Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 15.2 (2006): 111-128. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. Sanders, Eli. "Interpreting Veils: Meanings have changed with politics, history." Seattle Times [Seattle] 27 May 2003, n. pag. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nationworld/infocus/mideast/islam/interpreting_veils.html>. Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. 1st American ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003: 42,132,283,293,299 304. Print Winter, Tim. "The Chador Of God On Earth: The Metaphysics Of The Muslim Veil." New Blackfriars 85.996 (2004): 144-157. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. Vermeersch, Arthur. "Nuns." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 27 Apr. 2012<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11164a.htm>.

Peer Review Reflections: The peers who read my essay were Connie Wood and Holly Smith. The feedback they gave me was generally positive as they found my topic appealing. The criticism’s they had for me had more to do with sentence structure and citing sources. They also pointed area’s where I was being repetitive or overly wordy. From them, that was really all they had to say as the majority of the peer review was me going over their papers with them. Professor Gephardt also gave me much more in-depth criticisms as the need to “funnel” my introduction from being broad to a more concise description of my thesis. She also showed me where the structure of my essay needed to be reorganized. Overall, all of the people who helped me by reading my essay critically hopefully led me to producing a stronger paper.

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