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Gender Theme in Persepolis (Plot Events (Marjane gets married to a men she…
Gender Theme in Persepolis
The overall message of Gender in the novel: "How changing gender roles effect people and their lives"
Gender segregation in education
Opression of style and personal expression
Fear of public exposure and shame
Overall purpose of the book: Show outsiders the reality of the situation within the country. This purpose was achieved through symbols of the gender role changes such as the veil and her fear of going out in public.
Characters Most Involved with this Theme
Marjane
She is a character that openly defies and complains about the Gender rules imposed by the government. For instances, she refuses the dress according to the dress code and is even stopped by the guardians of the revolution for doing so. Furthermore, since it is her autobiography, the author is able to demonstrate her open oppinions on the subject, including her thoughts and how it affected her.
Marjane's Mother
Marjane's mother represents the Gender impact as a portion of the population that wants to fight for her rights and believes that all women should do so but then becomes scared of the consequences. This is seen in the following quotes because initially she argues that Marjane should learn to fight for her rights but after being yelled at by the guards because she was not dressed appropiately she ends up accepting the gender inferiority and lives in fear.
Marjane's Father
One thing that is really important about Marjane's father in terms of the Gender roles in their society and how it impacted their family is that her father never once told her what she could not do. He actually stood by her in all of her decisions, even telling her that she could get a divorce. He is an example of how gender roles did not fully impact everyone's lives and how they lived them.
Marjane's School Friends
They demonstrate the transition period before acceptance of gender roles. In the begining they were just laughing and finding creative ways to use the veil but after they conform to the rules, wear their veils and even beat themselves up in tribute the the male soldiers. They really become inferior and just oblidge to what is done. They are, therefore, used to represent the negative impact of how the changing of gender roles impacted the life of the Iranian population
Gender and Education
The segregated education system resulted in two main impacts for the gender roles. The first is that women were forced to beat themselves in tribute to men, which makes them far inferior. Furthermore, the women were highly manipulated by what they were taught in school because they were forced to believe that men were the ones protecting them and responsible for them. Furthermore, men schools taught them to be warriers because they are the ones who could actually change the country. Overall, women were just forced to learn to be infrerior to the male population because they were stonger and could fight in wars
Gender and Oprression
Women were told how to dress and to cover themselves up. As a result, they became more and more similar to one another and lacked individuality, With a lack of individuality it becomes harder to be your own person and to express youself and your own oppinion. As a result, the novel shows through the veil symbol how women were manipulated to be less vocal and powerful with their opinions,
Plot Events
Marjane's mom is assaulted in the streets for not wearing the appropriate clothes.
Marjane is Expelled from school for defending her bracelet and sense of style
Marjane is stopped by the guardians of the revolution for not wearing the appropiate clothes
Marjane's teacher tells her she cannot be a prophet because only men are prophets
Schools are gender segregated and Marjane gives up her dream to be a chemist because she won't have access to that level of education and will intead marry and have many kids (that is what her society wants of her)
The girl who created passaports is rapped and then killed because she could not die a virgin
It became mandatory for women to hide their hair but men did not need to hide their own
Marjane gets married to a men she does not truly love because it was what society expected of her.
Comes to show that even her, who was always super vocal and posed an oposition to this oppresion ended up conforming to gender roles
