Dear Assieh, December 17, 2009
Hi! It’s me, Mayra. I am writing to you once again and I want to take some time telling you about a book I had to read in my English 57. It’s called “Persepolis”, and it is written by Marjane Satrapi the book looks like a comic book, but it isn’t. It’s a graphic memoir. There is another part to this book and that book is called “Persepolis 2” and this one is also by Marjane Satrapi. I am really looking forward to reading the second part. Any ways let’s get back into topic and let me begin and tell you about “Persepolis”, it takes place in Iran in the city of Tehran. Marjane is the main character and she is only 10 years old. She lives with her parents and her maid. Apparently and unfortunately Marjane experienced the Iranian revolution with all of her family and friends. Marjane is a liberal person; she also thought that she could be the next prophet because she speaks to god. In the beginning of the story she tries to go to demonstrations the Iranian people had. Her parents never allowed her go because she was too young and besides all that she could of gotten hurt like a lot of people do when they attend the demonstrations. Marjane did go to one of the demonstrations and it was one of the worse demonstrations there were because so many people were killed and there was a rumor saying that the Iranians were killing their own people. Marjane starts changing and thinking more differently, she has seen so much violence and torture going on in her life she starts thinking that it is okay. So when she starts playing games with her friends and one of her friends loses to a game there is consequences. Guess what the consequences are Assieh. There torture! Marjane had been influenced by all the commotion going on throughout her life as a young little girl. Women and girls are also forced to wear veils and if they didn’t wear the veils some women would even get raped because it was said that hair would provoke sexual intercourse with women.
I would say that some of my life here in Los Angeles is somewhat the same. Women are getting raped everywhere and the age does not matter. I would also say that some women like to be looked at and be felt by a man. Women and even girls start wearing super short skirts and tight shirts that show a lot of cleavage to get a man’s attention but I don’t think that the Iranian women had that intention like some crazy women here. Another thing that is similar here as to over there is how a lot of people get influenced by almost everything, my sister and law has 3 brothers and 2 of them are from the marines and they have been influenced by their father to go to the marines. I believe war has their dad going crazy and all the shooting and the camp that they have to attend. I also have a nephew and he is 8 years old and he already wants to go to the marines when he gets older, it saddens me a lot because he doesn’t know what it is to be a marine and all the lies that are being told to him is heart breaking. My sister in laws siblings have brainwashed my own nephew into going into the marines.
Reading this book really changed the way I think and how I see things. I really admire Marjane Satrapi for being strong and not letting the revolution get to her because going through that is very tough and as I said before it can influence people do change and it can also provoke people to do horrible things in life. I really recommend you read this book Assieh and show it to all your peers over there in Iran and tell me what you think and what they thought and I hope to hear from you soon
Sincerely, Mayra Guzman