Book Of The Month: Persepolis

One thing I'm working on fixing is the way I view foreign cultures. In America we are taught all history even world history from a whitewashed perspective. And when world events happen our news media can't help but reinforce this "how does this affect good white people" bias. One event which was not taught well in any school I've ever attended was the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979.

The Shah of Iran who was basically a ruthless dictator inserted by British and American Oil Interests (here's looking at you BP) created such a disparity of wealth between the elite and the have-nots that a huge backlash created enough momentum for fanatical, militant, religious clerics to seize control of the country.

We learn about this briefly. We don't always realize that Iranians once enjoyed similar freedoms as us. All we know is terrorists and Ayatollahs. Iran was the bad guy before Iraq. They held Americans hostage and blah blah blah . Basically we don't know anything at all about the Islamic Revolution. It's embarrassingly obvious after reading this month's book of the month Persepolis.

Persepolis is a memoir by Marjane Satrapi who happened to be a child growing up in Iran during the time of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War during the 80's. Americans probably only focus on the Iran-Contra affair and completely forget about the war that was at the root of that controversy. Whenever we hear casualty estimates for wars we usually on focus on the number of U.S. troops killed. The fact of the matter is that most global conflicts are relatively painless for the average American. To get a first hand account of how war and imperialism devastate civilian lives we almost always have to turn toward a foreigner.

This book is a bonus as teaching aid as well because it's a graphic novel. You might not be able to get the average student to give a shit about World History but if it's in comic book form maybe they'll at least read the damn thing. The illustrations are comparable to an average daily newspaper comic strip and the stories contained within have enough humor to balance out the tragedy of the average events.

By the end of her tale it's almost ridiculous how easily a child her age got accustomed to seeing people she knew, family members, neighbors, and schoolmates, killed either by the overzealous regime in Iran or the bombing campaigns of a U.S. backed Iraq military machine. (Yes Saddam and Bush were friends once). What this book does is remarkable it combines my love of history, the 80's and comic books and I come away learning what life was like for the other side. After the piss poor history education we get in U.S. schools this was enlightening.