A key aspect of Marji’s personality is her rebellious nature, a streak that is often provoked by her desire to understand the world, and subsequent frustration once she learns of its contradictions and cruelty. This frustration can lead her to be blunt at times, sometimes appearing rude, as her less-developed emotional intelligence is not yet in league with her intellectual intelligence, perhaps due to her inexperience with social cues and subtlety at her young age. She ends The Story of a Childhood appearing self-assured and confident in herself due to the instructions of her family, whom she values, to ‘always be true’ to herself, although this doesn’t necessarily hold up in The Story of a Return, she undergoes a significant development from someone who’s beliefs are constantly shifting to someone who is firm and rigid in their values. The panel showing her Michael Jackson badge, denim jacket and hijab portrays her as a visual representation of the clash of cultures that she experiences.

Marjane values her family, especially the wisdom and company of her parents and grandmother, and I believe in a way her country and the war, as it has allowed her to learn many of life’s key lessons at a young age. It is because of these experiences she is, in her eyes,  a cut above her ‘innate’ friends, as they have not been exposed to, and therefore do not possess the knowledge of, the pain and tragedy that she has. Taking after her father, she values the truth, and detests the propaganda she is fed at school; this distaste can be seen as she berates her teacher with facts on page 144.

• Her parents educate her with the works of Marx,  a man who believed in a classless society, but they also have an expensive car and a maid who isn’t allowed to eat with them.
• Her mother is clearly spiteful towards the former government, taking part in countless protests against them, but preaches forgiveness to Marjane.
• Her parents try to control her actions, such as not allowing her to go out and demonstrate, but themselves are champions of rebellion. In their contradiction they are like an authoritarian state trying to quell their daughters revolutionary spirit.
• Marjane’s family feed her messages of love and support while the Shah and his secret police commit atrocities around her, like the Rex Cinema fire.
• Contradictions are even found in how the author depicts philosophers Descartes and Marx, with Descartes displaying pain after Marx throws a rock at him that he theorises is in his imagination. This shows how people, and governments, follow and preach doctrines and beliefs that they themselves do not follow.

Pre/Post-Revolution Cinema:

Lor Girl (1934) was the first Iranian film with sound, and it was so well received that it played in cinemas for two years. After the revolution, the cinemas were dominated by government propaganda and western films, meaning that there was little room left for independent Iranian cinema. As well as this, Iranian passion plays, which were religious in content, were banned. 

Censorship has also become commonplace in post-revolution Iranian cinema, with dialogue being replaced and shots edited for modesty. However, the post-revolution style is celebrated internationally for it’s unique football match. Actresses in films were forced to wear hijabs. 

Pre/Post-Revolution Music:

Before 1979, anyone could perform or create music in Iran. In the post-revolution musical era, artists are arrested if they do not perform music within the line of Persian song structure. The Tehran Symphony Orchestra had a golden age from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. 

Pre/Post-Revolution Fashion

Colours were bold and bright before the revolution, and the hijab was worn occasionally, but only if the woman chose to. Now, Women are required to wear loose fitting clothing that hides their bodies and covers their hair.

Post-Revolution Art

A lot of the art in the post-revolution culture is dominated by Iran’s war with Iraq. 

Pahlavi Dynasty

The Pahlavi Dynasty originated in 1921 with British support when Reza Khan and his army seized control of Tehran and the Iranian Government. In 1925 the former Shah was deposed, ending the Qajar dynasty, and Reza Khan was voted in. He was forced into exile during WWII, and his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, became the new Shah of Iran. He nationalised the oil industry, angering the British and USA. To counter this, legally the oil industry was nationalised, but in actuality, the Western countries still obtained a significant portion. This ties into the idea that the Shah was merely a puppet for the West. 

The Cinema Rex Fire

One of the key events in the revolution was a terrorist attack conducted by the Shah’s secret police, in which they locked civilians in a cinema and burned it to the ground, perceived as the ruling classes inciting violence against the lower classes.

The Iranian Revolution

The revolution occurred between the 7th of January 1978 and the 11th of February 1979 and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic. After periods of imposed restrictions, women’s educational attainment continued its rise through the Islamification of education following the revolution. Policy changes eliminated coeducational schools and forced courses to promote Islamic beliefs, however, overall the attendance rate of school fell. 

After the revolution, freedom of speech and religion was lost. Politicians were chosen by their commitment to Islam instead of their political prowess after the formal end of the Persian monarchy. Most of the post-revolutionary changes oppressed women in some way. They were not allowed to work in or study certain fields, despite the fact that females attended school more than males. Married women could only receive scholarships to study abroard if they were accompanied by their husbands. They were no longer protected from underage marriage, and could no longer divorce. (The legal age of marriage became 9.) Hijabs became mandatory.

The population soared after the revolution because women were made to stay at home rather than work and therefore had more time. Segregation of the sexes was imposed across all walks of life, and they were made to always be accompanied by a male family member. A woman’s testimony was legally reduced to that of a man’s. The Islamic Law of Retribution was reinstated, allowing the crime of adultery to be punished by the offender being stoned to death.

One major reason for the Shah’s overthrow was the clergy, as they opposed every modern reform he made. It was by national referendum that the people voted to become a Islamic republic, with a new theocratic-republican constitution. Khomeini became the supreme leader of the country in December 1979, who led the clergy.