Title: Persepolis (The Story of a Childhood)
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Genre: autobiography (graphic novel)
Persepolis is an autobiography about Marjanes life as a young girl until she grew up to adulthood. Marajane was born in 1969 in Iran; in 1979, the "Islamic Revolution took place," changing everything. It was obligatory for girls to wear veils in school; all bilingual schools were closed down because the government thought that it was a sign of capitalism. Some people found the new revolution terrible, while others thought it was good; there were many protests and acts on the streets for and against the new ways. The government said that women should wear veils so they won't get sexually assaulted or raped and that if they don't wear the vails and show their skin, it is their fault if they get raped by a man. Women who didn't wear vailes were looked upon as prostitutes or whores. The government was furious that the people weren't following the new laws, so they started showing acts of violence. For example, a police officer started a fire in a public theater and locked all the exit doors; then, they didn't let anybody help the people inside or go in to rescue them. The police attacked the people who tried to rescue the civilians inside the building; then, the firefighters came to the scene forty minutes later. On the news, they reported that there were four hundred victims, and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, "leader of Iran at the time," said that it was a group of religious fanatics that caused the fire. Still, everybody knew it was Sha's fault.
Many people were jailed because they supported the Shah, including Marjanes uncle Anoush, who was imprisoned and later executed. Many of Marjanes uncles and relatives were jailed and tortured. Many others who didn't support the Shah were jailed and faced the same fate. Tensions were rising, and the whole country wanted the Shah to leave power and for another person to take over. The Iranians held protests, destroyed and pulled down his statues, burned down his pictures and many more. By 1979, the protests became more violent and more frequent, and that same year, he was removed from power and went to Egypt for some medical treatment. After he left Iran, Iraq waged war on Iran and Marjane and her family had to keep on hiding in their basements and running back home when the air raid bomb siren went on. This went on for a while, then suddenly, her neighbor's house got bombed when she wasn't home. He ran back home, and her family was safe. Then, her father and mother decided for her to move to Austria alone for both her education and safety.
I really liked this book because it was extremely interesting and powerful. It talked about the Islamic revolution and why women in the Middle East are forced to wear veils. It also talked about a very important topic and turned it into a story. I also liked how she talked about the full Iran history in the epilogue so the readers could understand what they were reading before the story started. What I didn't really like was that Marjane Satrapi wrote the book as a graphic novel because most kids my age probably wouldn't want to read a graphic novel since they are more for younger kids and not for thirteen-year-olds. I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend this book to other kids who are interested in reading autobiographies or very powerful books like these. If you read this book and liked it, you should read:
I am Malala by Malala Yousefzai
Anne Frank's The diary of a young girl
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
nice!