Peace in Pieces

In this section of the reading we find Marji experience the horrors of war. We get a very intimate and enlightening view of the machinery of war - not only the planes and the bombs but the nuts and bolts of the war machine itself- how, why and with what wars are fought and the price it enacts on the public.

As we see from the text soon after the Islamic Revolution Saddam Hussein, taking advantage of the state of internal turmoil the country was in, decided to attack Iran is a cowardly fashion. Clearly, Saddam Hussein wanted to be the power player in the region. Before the Islamic revolution the Shah, who was essentially the United States puppet and had its significant military backing, was the key player in the region next to Israel. However, this new Islamic Regime in Iran was a quickly becoming a real problem for the US. As we learn from the text the US embassy was attacked at the employees taken hostage, the US had to counter this threat in any way possible. And they found their solution in Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq- Iran wars the US actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of of credits, by providing US military intelligence and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq. Marji does not go into great details about why the war starts - she simply chooses to begin by saying that Saddam Hussein attacked Iran and this starts the war. She does not go into great details about the history and geopolitical reasons behind this war. This is understandable since this is a graphic novel not a history book. But she does not fail to give us the bigger picture - that wars are fought not on the basis of truth but usually on the basis of lies and deceit. And that the public is woefully unaware of the truth.

I get the feeling that the new regime in Iran saw this war as a blessing in disguise. As soon as the war started they started playing the national anthem, which was repressed for more than a year, in the hopes of unifying the masses under the banner of jingoistic patriotism. The war also put the brakes on any leftist movement as the regime cracked down hard on anything deemed counter to their ideology. As often the case, in times of great upheavals the state usurps powers and exercises it mercilessly on its oppositions. Similar situation happened in the US soon after the September 11th attacks. The government using fear as the motivating factor cracked down on any individual or group criticizing its policy.

We also see that wars are fought mostly by the poor. The poor class are usually not very educated and hence they are easily swayed. Add to that the fact that they have no economic means of supporting themselves and joining the army is an easy way - at least in theory-to get ahead in life. And to make this transition easy their is always the bribe factor. In some cases those rewards are to be had after you have fulfilled your duties in the afterlife- that way you can have anything you want! In some cases however, the reward is given before that fact - hence the signing bonus!

Girls will be veiled girls

The story opens with Marjane being caught smack in the middle of the "glorious" Islamic Revolution on 1979. We see that all the boys and girls are separated and all bilingual/liberal teachings were outlawed. In the drawings we see all the girls wearing the burkah and their homogeneity represents their loss of liberty and personal identity. They were no longer Marji or Mina or Golnaz they were just women. That was the only identity that mattered now.
To me the stigma of wearing the veil or burkah runs both ways. On the one end there are people like Marji who are forced to wear the burkah in a screwed up religious attempt at modesty and subjected to utter anguish by their subjugators. But on the other hand there are those that whole-heartedly and with great enthusiasm take up the burkah but who are subjected to ridicule and sometimes much worse for exercising that choice. I think the key word here is choice. Marji's power to choose has been taken away. And i think she is saying that you cannot force traits like modesty on human beings -that is something that has to be learned by example and taught from an early age.
Marjane wants to be a prophet as well. This seems very contradictory to the progressive image that we seem to get of her from an early age. In a way Marji reminds me of William Blake. Like Blake she is deeply religious but in a very unique Blake-ish way. Like Blake she can cut through the hypocrisy and double standard of the religious institutions and see their hunger for power and wealth. Like Blake she prefers a more direct and personal connection to the higher beings. Just like Blake uses irony and satire in his works to bring into view the spurious nature of the whole system so too does Marjane.Their similarity does not end there. Blake used a very original form of expression where he blended visual art and poetry to give the maximum amount of information possible. To read Blake without the background is losing half the essence. So too in the case of Presepolis. The images are cartoonish but they are in commensuration with the satirical nature of the novel and the age of the narrator.