Cultural Revolution in Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood Essay

Cultural Revolution: Downfall of a Nation

The book, Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood, is written by Marjane Satrapi. She details the hardship faced by the people due to the outbreak of the cultural revolution in Iran. The cultural revolution has been viewed by the author as one of the many invasions (which brought about the downfall of the country) on the country. The growth of any developing nation depends on the type of education that the children in that country get. If children remain uneducated or unfocused, its the country which paysthe price of that ignorance and lack of education among the coming generation. The reason that Marjane Satrapi was rebellious was because she thought that the cultural revolution was ruining the education system of her country. There are many incidents in the book which direct us towards this conclusion that Marjane blamed the cultural revolution for the downfall of the education system of her country.

The first incident that comes to my mind is from the first chapter The Veil (3). The author says, We didnt really like to wear the veil, especially since we didnt understand why we had to (3). It became compulsory for girls to wear a veil. A school is expected to introduce activities which would help develop the knowledge or the personality of its students but here in this school the girls were made to wear veils without any reasonable explanation. It was just an outcome of the cultural revolution that the girls were forced to wear veils even though it did not contribute to their education or personality development in any way. The girls, including the author, mocked the veil by playing around with it in various ways and not doing what they were supposed to do with it. This indicates that the author was not enthusiastic about this current cultural system implemented by her school.

Moreover, the cultural revolution was so dedicated towards making everything Islam oriented that the people behind this revolution did not even care about what happened to the students and their future after they shut down the university. They closed the university because they thought that the students did not properly know about Islam and educating students on Islam was made the first priority by every educational institution. The new, so called reformers said, The education system and what is written in the school books, at all levels, are decadent. Everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam (73). The dreams of many students were spoiled because they had shut down the university. One of the students said, No more university. And I wanted to study chemistry. I wanted to be like Marie Curie (73). People started thinking that all of their dreams would never be fulfilled. This also lowered their standard of living because income is directly proportional to education.

The students were even made to do mourning twice a day. At school, they lined us up twice a day to mourn the war dead. They put on funeral marches and we had to beat our breasts (95). This did not only disrupt their normal studying routine but also distracted them from their general line of study. A student should not do anything which obstructs this/her education in any way. Doing this not only harms their goal but also their dreams of doing something good with their lives.

They were even made to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution. Everything in the school was done in order to get the students to respect and follow the so called culture of Islam. They were made to decorate the classroom for the anniversary of the revolution. They students showed their displeasure by mocking the whole idea and decorating the class using toilet papers. The girls never followed what they were told to do. The author herself was very rebellious because she didnt like to do useless activity that didnt help her education. Everyone in the nation who did not have an orthodox thinking knew that these kinds of activity is not only ruining the career of their kids but also spoiling their education. But they were quite adamant on staying in the country and help in the revolution which was against all these unlawful rules made by the current government.

In certain schools, kids were deliberately sent on the wrong path. The school administration misled young kids into believing that if they participated in war and died serving the nation they would be sent to heaven. They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them directly to heaven (99). We can clearly see the displeasure of the author over these matters. She was highly sympathized with the lady whose son was given this false belief Ill make some tea (99). Kids were made to fight and many lost their lives due to land mines. Instead of giving them what they deserved i.e. good education, happy playful environment, they were provoked and falsely mislead on the path which was in no sense theirs. They were deprived of the basic happiness that every kid deserves. This war or the so called cultural revolution not only ruined the future of many families by taking away their sons but also ruined the future of the entire nation.

There was an incident in which the author bunks her class to do things which no student is allowed to do during off school hours. They broke the moral rules. The school administration had gone weak . All they cared about was their so called cultural revolution. They did not care about the real moral of the students. They climbed over the walls to make a getaway during school hours. They made the boys take a flirty attitude towards themselves. This is what happens when students are distracted from their true goal.

It can be very clearly seen that the school had totally lost its fundamental goal. Any student whose career gets endangered would be angry on the reason because of which the change in the education system came. This is how it can be clearly stated and observed that the author blamed the cultural revolution for the downfall of the education system in her country. These incidents infuriated the author from within and she was even forced to leave her motherland. If there would have been no such things in Iran, they would have been much better placed, in terms of education and technology, than they are now.