On August 19, 1978, the Rex Cinema was set aflame, but were “religious fanatics” truly to blame? Today, we honor the 400+ people who lost their lives in this incident. Growing up, I, Marjane Satrapi, experienced the unspeakable. Therefore, I want to open up about what I experienced during that time. Furthermore, my new graphic novel Persepolis was released recently and I wanted to use it as a way to take a closer look at my experience regarding this event. Additionally, I’d like to thank the BBC for allowing the publication of this article, as it was the only major news source I received information from regarding the fire in 1978. The information that was released was twisted by the Shah and on this special day, I’d like to express my take on this incident.
The initial BBC press release broadcasted that the fire was the doing of a group of “religious fanatics” against westernization. The only person that released information regarding the fire was the Shah. During that time it was believed that the Shah had been picked by god himself. Therefore, the Shah controlled everything in Iran in regards to the media. He had complete dictatorship over the newspapers, the radio, and reporting outlets. Along with this, the Shah made himself out to be a wonderful leader who was all for embracing westernization. For that …show more content…
Many of the panels leading up to when I write about the fire depict my conversations with God. I chose to depict these images as it reflected the external conflict that erupted after the Rex Cinema fire. This reflects the problems I faced as a child as I saw everything fall apart before my eyes. Therefore, I began to question myself. Who was there to believe? Were religious people doing this out of the word of God? Was the Shah not the great ruler I had learned about at school? It was a time where I began to think about what was the correct way to
The initial BBC press release broadcasted that the fire was the doing of a group of “religious fanatics” against westernization. The only person that released information regarding the fire was the Shah. During that time it was believed that the Shah had been picked by god himself. Therefore, the Shah controlled everything in Iran in regards to the media. He had complete dictatorship over the newspapers, the radio, and reporting outlets. Along with this, the Shah made himself out to be a wonderful leader who was all for embracing westernization. For that …show more content…
Many of the panels leading up to when I write about the fire depict my conversations with God. I chose to depict these images as it reflected the external conflict that erupted after the Rex Cinema fire. This reflects the problems I faced as a child as I saw everything fall apart before my eyes. Therefore, I began to question myself. Who was there to believe? Were religious people doing this out of the word of God? Was the Shah not the great ruler I had learned about at school? It was a time where I began to think about what was the correct way to