Marjane Setrapi
Week #6
Question Commander
James Henderson
Question #1
Why would posters and music not be allowed into the country of Iran?
During the 1979 Islamic Revolution everything was heavily based on religion. Lots of things were banned in the country that were not related to Islamic fundamentalism, which prohibits alcohol, games, music, posters, and other things. To this day alcohol is banned in Iran, yet there are over 200,000 people addicted to alcohol there (Alcohol In Iran - Wikipedia). Western music and some other types of music are also not allowed in the country. Women are not allowed to wear tight clothing and are obliged to follow commands given by their husbands. These are all rules and are strictly forbidden to be broken.
Why does this situation exist? I think that initially is is the attempt of religious rulers to control bad influences that can come from these things. For example, when abused alcohol is a huge negative influence around the world that ruins lives. But, has Iran's attempt to control it through a ban worked? Obviously not. Do the other bans on music, games and posters work? With the internet and social media, probably not. It is well known that Iranians have access to all these things.
Question #2
Why did the Guardians of the Revolution Woman's Branch exist?
The Woman's Branch was created in 1982 to arrest women who were improperly veiled. These women patrolled the streets looking for other woman who did not wear their veils correctly, or were improperly dressed in other ways. This was quite smart of the rulers, because they let women who were fundamentalists enforce these rules, not men. Their ulterior motive was also to make sure that clothes advertising western cultural influence (i.e., Michael Jackson) were not worn in public.
Question #3
What were the causes of the Iran Iraq war?
As soon as the Iranian Revolution Happened Iraq invaded Iran because they were afraid the revolution would destabilize their country. The conflict lasted from 1980-1988. Both sides lost lives and economic damage. Half a million deaths in 8 years with no reparations or changes to either side. This war was mainly compared to World War 1 because of the tactics used like trench warfare, human wave attacks, and chemical warfare. An overall awful war bringing both death and fear.
James,
ReplyDeleteI think the first two questions are well developed. But the third one I think could be a little bit more developed. Don´t you think that the war in Iran was a theme to discuss? This issue occurred because of the people wanting power. This is destroying our world nowadays. Like this one so many wars and revolutions had happened. Persepolis and even Maus teach us how to see an issue this big from another perspective. In general history is such an amazing topic to study.
James,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, well done! Your post is great! The first two questions are very well developed. The images you chose complement your post greatly. I think you could have connected your post to you images a little more, though, because they seem to just be there to decorate the post. Also, I felt that the last question was not very well explained. You could add some facts, and maybe even connect it to something nowadays.
Overall, your post was really good, but there are a few things you could improve.
I found your questions really interesting. For the first question I think that music and posters were not allowed in Iran, because maybe the government thought that it was a bad influence, because maybe people should be more concentrated into their studies, and therefore they did not have time for this type of thing, for example there was maybe a strong influence that something bad would occur to those who heard to the song. The Guardians of the Revolution Woman's branch exist because of the safety of the woman on Iran. This is a strong point, because this is for the women's safety and therefore they want the best for the people, and they want to keep women in the veil. For the third one the Iran and Iraq war were probably because of differences and fight they were having among each other.
ReplyDelete