Persepolis Culture Analysis

Cultures from all across the globe differ by the types of government from which they’re lead by. One prime example of this can be seen in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, where young Marjane grows up watching her beloved, modernized homeland get converted into a traditionalist Theocracy during the Iranian Revolution. This abrupt change in culture shows just how much influence the government has on culture in general. Throughout Marjane’s life several different aspects of the Iranian culture were altered as a result of the revolution and the changing of governments. It is evident that with the new oppressive government came many new changes in culture such as gender discrimination, education reforms and increased government restriction on western goods. …show more content…
For example, one of the first scenes in the book is of women fighting over the compulsory Hijab in the midst of the revolution. This scene introduced readers into the chaos that was the Iranian Revolution as most Iranians, such as Marjane and her family, believed that the expulsion of the Shah would result in a better country where the citizens had more freedoms and rights, when in fact this was quite the opposite of what ended up happening. Situations like those seen in the Hijab debate show just how confused and clueless Marjane was, as she even states that she didn’t understand what the significance of the Hijab was. This is symbolic for the nation-wide confusion taking place at the time, as many other people similar to her were also baffled at the sudden change of culture and government as