Persepolis

For this week, I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. The background of the story is set in 1980s Iran. The story is told from the little girl’s perspective. As a kid, the girl and her friends actually didn’t understand why they had to wear veil.

There is one chapter I found very interesting. The girls are having figure drawing class. The professor told them that due to the changes, they had to draw the model that was covered. The model was covered with thick black veil. And the students couldn’t see single part of the model’s body. And one evening the girl was drawing a male model and was found by one of the supervisors. She was asked not to look at the male model because of the moral code. And when the girl asked whether she should draw the man while she looking at the door, then the supervisor said yes. As an art student who has taken figure drawing class and drawn nudes, I found this plot was really sarcastic. The freedom of the women in Iran were taken. They were living in a life that I could never imagine. The story is about their life forty years ago. However, women are still living like that nowadays. They still have to wear veil in the public.