Question

(The Complete Persepolis)

In the last pages of Persepolis, Marjane’s father tells her, “We Iranians, we’re crushed not only by the government but by the weight of our traditions!” (339). Why do Marjane’s parents and grandmother choose to stay in this repressive society when leaving does not seem that difficult?

Answer 1

”Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel ‘Persepolis’ assembles the knotted narratives of political violence, repression and social transformations through the everyday struggles of ordinary people and families. The protagonist Persepolis leads the readers through her version of the demise of her country and her people with the rise of the Iranian Religious Revolution. Much of the political action is enacted within the spaces of her own domestic life and her parents and grandmother’s personas portray the historicity of the struggle of the Iranian people. Her own parents maintained a liberal, open -minded and revolutionary ideology and they openly participated in the resistance to the rule of the Shah of Iran in favour of democracy. However, the reactionary revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini and the consequent military rule in Iran led to a more severe repression of democracy of the people. Amidst this political rupture, Persepolis’ own parents are shown as survivors who beat the odds against military repression and orthodoxy and work out an escape for themselves vicariously through their young daughter.

However, when it comes to their own personal choice to take political asylum elsewhere despite having the means for it, they decide to stay back in Iran. Their action indicates towards a deeply engrained feeling of nationalism and affiliations with the homeland where personal life is seen as inseparable from the Iranian land. Culturally, the folk tales and the political history of Iran created a system of belief where destruction and decay are seen as a ‘normal’, factual development rather than a rupture of the old way of life. Their will to life draws from such a cultural belief where the Fall of empires and society is but an inevitable reality of the Iranian landscape. Thus, the protagonist accepts her family’s decision and concludes:

Our country has always known war and martyrs, so, like my father said: ‘When a big wave comes, lower your head and let it pass!’”