Muslim Women’s Memoirs: Disclosing Violence or Reproducing Islamophobia?

: In the aftermath of 9/11, the literary market in the West saw a proliferation in writings by and about Muslim women. Many of these works are memoirs which focus on Islam, a patriarchal society and the state’s oppression on women. These Muslim women memoirists take the western readers into a journey of unseen and unheard events of their private lives which is apparently of great interest for the westerners. These memoirs, which reveal the atrocities and hardships of living in a Muslim society under oppressive Islamic regimes, are fraught with stereotypes and generalizations.Utilizing Gillian Whitlock’s theory of ‘soft weapons’ and studying the concept of Islam in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood , we argue that these Muslim life narratives are manipulated to meet political demands of the West through creating Islamophobia.


INTRODUCTION
expectancy is always fulfilled in the Muslim memoirs.
Immediately after the tragic event of 9/11, the memoirs by and about Muslim women hinges on American media became fraught with different kinds of stereotypical depictions which have dominated Western discourses portraying atrocities and hardships of the discourses in representing the Middle East since the 18 Middle Easterners in Islamic societies. As one of these century. These clichés fall into'coming-of-age memoirs,' media venues, the American literary markets witnessed a 'honor-killing memoirs,''victim memoirs' and 'escapee mass production of works engendered by Muslim memoirs.'The victim in all these memoirs is always the women.Many of these works are memoirs and revolve marginalized woman who is oppressed by the state's around women, Islam, a patriarchal society and the state's Islamic laws, beaten up by a male family member and killed oppression. These authors recount painful and tortured to save face or breaks through a life of oppression and experiences of their daily lives in the Middle East under absconds from her country of origin to a secular heaven, the Islamic regimes. The authors of these memoirs provide the West. Islam in these texts is represented as a insights into people of their country who have always misogynist religion; hence, they create Islamophobia, an been stereotyped. However, unfortunately, these abhorrence of Islam and Muslims.There were few memoirs depictions are rarely truthful and realistic; they are, before 9/11 confronting the same issues but it is not much oftentimes, replete with stereotypes and generalizations. of a surprise that thepost 9/11Muslimmemoirs receive This unprecedented rise of memoiris a response to the greater attention than their predecessors. Adam [1] argues western readers' curiosity about the Middle East. The rise that 'infidel ' (2007), the post 9/11 best-selling memoir of of this genre could also be partly attributed to its promise the pro-American, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, attracted more readers to take the western readers into a journey of the writer's and news coverage than the American-ambivalent, preprivate life of unheard and unseen events which is of a 9/11 Egyptian author, Nawal El Saadawi, who has been great interest for western readers to explore. The western dealing with the same issues of child marriage, stoning readers approach these Middle Eastern memoirs with and women's right in her memoirs. Both authors reveal the certain sorts of expectations and desires: exoticism and violence against women in their country but the former gender oppression by the Islamic regimes; their receives much publicity in the West.
Disclosing gender oppression and exoticism of Islam in th Writing a memoir is an effort by Muslim women to This book's cover had a black and glided color; however, reclaim their identities as never in the past were they it was jacketed with the same trademarks: veiled Muslim allowed to publicize their private lives. The social laws of woman and Arabic ancient tradition. Random House, the patriarchal societies of the Middle East suggest that publication group, ordered its removal when it was found women must not reveal private aspects of their lives as to be a fraud and eventually rejected Norma Khouri as a private aspects should be kept within the domestic realm.
reliable autobiographer [5]. It is praiseworthy that they defy patriarchy by the act of In both of Norma's stories Honor Lost and their writing and breaking the gender code. Conway [2-7], Forbidden Love (2003), the very same story of  maintains that these memoirs should be read "as punishment or terrible retribution is told. It focuses on conscious acts of rebellion. Writing and publishing one's honor killing; this is a "practice of retribution carried out life history was moving beyond secret rebellion to by male family members when women bring dishonor to announce one's reasons for breaking the gender code." her family because of sexual indiscretions" [5]. Dalia and Breaking the gender code is suggestive of the pleasant the narrator of the life narrative are close friends; both fact that men are no longer the monopolized owner of the were born in 1970 and raised in Jabel Hussein district of memoir as a genre since women gained access to the Amman. Dalia is from a strict Muslim family and Norma is restrictive territory. Muslim women's memoirs are not only Catholic. They are running a unisex beauty parlor, opened to narrate the significant events of the authors' lives but in May 1990, which offers unique services in Amman: a they are also supposed to be an agent of change in the salon catering for men and women. In March 1995, the quality of the lives of people, especially women. Sadly, girls' lives changed when a broad-shouldered handsome however, some of these Muslim women memoirs are officer named Michael comes into the salon. Michael is an manipulated to meet some political demands of the emotional, loving and devoted man just unlike any Arab West.The authors of these memoirs, who promise to man that the girls have ever known or imagined. The dismantle the outdated orientalism,reiterate the doomed lovers, Dalia and Michael and Norma jeopardize stereotypes of women suffering behind the veil imposed their lives on a perilous adventure "for simply a romance" by the oppressive Islamic regime. Their life stories are an [3]. When Dalia's family discovered the affair, Dalia is amalgamation of twisted truths and fabricated events; at stabbed in her own home by her brothers and father: times, a memoir could be wholly concocted for political Losing Dalia in this way made vivid to me something purposes of the West such as the 'honor-killing' memoir I'd always known but had managed to ignore. I could no of Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love (2003)  . was sold in great numbers:more than 200,000 copies in Once Dalia was killed, Khouri claimed that she Australia, with 40,000 copies printed in the UK and 50,000 escaped from Jordan to Athens where she wrote the book copies printed in the United Sates [4]. Norma Khouri's and immigrated to Australia from there.Life narrative is fictional testimony is the hoax we had to have as the assumed to be trustworthy and readers take the events in conditions and situations in her book are just right for a these life narratives as true and real incidents; unaware of life narrative by and about Muslim and Arab woman to be the fact that these writers can easily distort realities into 'ousted' by a fake "trader with tainted goods" [5]. Two fiction. It is the same case for Norma before disclosure of texts and a writer with two very different identities the lies in her story. Norma Khouri keeps mentioning the committed this roguish act; however, there is only one indecent incidents that happened to her close friend and single story to tell. In the United States, it is published as she saw with her own eyes in Jordan, but in fact, as Knox Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan reveals, she left Jordan when she was three. All that hair (2003) [3b]. The creamy white cover of the book can be salon and romantic affair was nothing but a figment of her seen as an access into forbidden spheres: veiled Muslim imagination. This author is an opportunistic writer who women, ancient debris in the background and Arabic invented terrors and reproduced Islamophobia through decorative stencil are all trademarks of associations her 'honor-killing' memoir. Different critics revealed her amongst ethnicity, gender and tradition that lead to the lies one by one; and finally by August 2004 the different "veiled best-seller" [5]. Elsewhere, the same story appears identities of the writer were laid bare. Rana Husseini, the with a different title: Forbidden Love is published in 2003.
Jordanian journalist and women's right activist and Amal Al-Sabbagh, the director of the women's commission in narrators employ strategies to elicit sympathy from the Amman, have proven that Norma's story was untrue on western readers; hence, manufacturing the public's multiple levels. They have found 73 errors related to the consent for the 'war on terror' project in Muslim geography, location, culture and the discussed Islamic countries. This sentiment can be confirmed by Whitlock's practices in the memoir [4]. Some critics believe that it is idea on memoirs: the timing of Norma's book that is of great significance: [Memoirs] can personalize and humanize categories between the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war, it was time for of people whose experiences are frequently unseen and life narratives stressing the primitivism of Arab and unheard. To attend to a nauseated body at risk in Muslim societies [5] Whitlock quotes Bolt [6] asserting Baghdad, or to hear a militant feminist body beneath a that all autobiographies possess little lies, but Norma's burka, to attach a face and recognize a refugee is to make "may be one of the many that are one big lie [5]. Bolt [6] powerful interventions in debates about social justice, believes that Norma had a usual strategy for success in a sovereignty and human rights. Life narratives can do world longing for fashionable victims and puts forward a these things. But it is a "soft" weapon because it is easily statement that is worth considering: co-opted into propaganda. In modern democratic societies Trade as a woman, if possible who is from some tribe propaganda is frequently not the violent and coercive or oppressed minority and has survived the cruelty of imposition of ideas but a careful manipulation of opinion whites/ colonialists/ right-wing thugs/ rich guys. And if and emotion in the public sphere and a management of you aren't any of the above, then fake it. A scandal is a information in the engineering of consent. Life narratives definitive event; it brings to light the social, political and can be complicit in these processes [5,3]. ethical investments of narrators, readers and publishers in These memoirs flooded bookstores in the West; life narrative. A hoax brings autobiography out of the stretched across a wall of bookstore can be found several shadows and into the editorials, columns and opinion portrays of veiled Muslim women [5]. This exotic pieces of the Sunday tabloid. "Write a book that tells of exhibition of many copies of Muslim life narratives, all your woe, or trades on it. Garnish it with New Age published in 2002-3 onwards, is absolutely haunting. mysticism... and showtime! Teary readers! Big sales!...
Whitlock's question might be helpful here to mention: Just perfect for readers looking for the latest victims to "How can a reader resist interpellation as a liberal weep over" [5].
Western consumer who desires to liberate and recognize" Discussions about Norma's affair in the media raise Muslim women "by lifting the burka and bringing" her the following questions: "Why can't publishers police the "alongside us, barefaced in the West?" [5]. Pulling the boundaries of autobiography to maintain an authentic Western eyes behind the chador or under the burka is an product? What are the rights of readers and effective rhetorical approach; it draws out both responsibilities of publishers?" [5]. Whitlock [5] "sympathy and advocacy" that can be put to quite continues to argue the idea that life narratives come into "various political and strategic uses" [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. By portraying the West from the East -and distribute to form "public the unseen and unheard events of violence in their opinion, reinforce stereotypes and presents plot "custom-memoirs, Dabashi is of the idea that these memoirists are made for our times" suggests their potency as "more effective in manufacturing the public illusions that propaganda." Arguments on legitimacy and authenticity empires need to sustain themselves than in truly are always of vital importance in the trajectory of minority informing the public about the cultures they denigrate and life narratives and testimony should be always subjected dismiss" [7, [12][13]. They fake authority when telling their to cross-examination. By recognizing the hoax or rogue as white masters what they desire to hear, not what they the 'dark side' of life narratives, Whitlock means to need to know and they are rewarded by being labeled suggest that accusations of chic dissimulation and the "voices of dissent" by their white masters [7]. Dabashi [7] questioning of legitimacy and authenticity are always argues that these authors play a key role in making the present when a testimonial narrative is able to draw forth inversion of truth by fantasy appear rational. Their empathy and cognizance of human right issues [5]. Other narratives became pervasive all over the Western market critics such as Hamid Dabashi [7] condemns these and this market was looking for the best and the smartest writings as providing justification for imperialism's 'war individuals with "a pigment to their complexion who could on terror' and reinforcing the hegemonic tell their tales with an accent to their English" [7,16]. This imperialism.Therefore, these memoirs can be 'soft was the time for the Muslim women authors to step weapons' in reproducing the Islamophobia as the forward to "oblige, accommodate and entertain" as American military was preparing to attack the Muslim her childhood which coincided with the end of the Shah's world [7,16]. They promote the idea that imperialist's westernized regime, the beginning of the Islamic intervention is justified to fight Islamic terrorism saving Revolution and the commencement of the disastrous Iraq-Muslim women from their own men "white men saving Iran war (1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988). During this period, Satrapi gives a brown women from brown men" [8].
brief background of every momentous incident that Amongst these Muslim memoirs, Iranian women's happened in her county from her own perspective: from memoirs have become increasingly popular and are well-the time when the people of Iran decided to oust the Shah received. This recent flourishing of memoirs by Iranian for his dictatorship, resisting against Ayatollah women occurred concurrently with the U.S fixation on Iran Khomeini's Veiling Act and all the killings and as part of the Bush administration's project of 'axis of bombardments during the Iraq-Iran war. There is also a evil' and the military interventions in Afghanistan and secondary theme in her text: the influence of American published by L'Association, a French publishing Almost all of these memoirs are the production of the company which deals with comic books, in France. This author's imagination and reality. They are usually publishing house is one of the most important publishers generalized, one-sided and out of context stories in France as it is the first one to publish authors such as denigrating Islam. They depict the violence in theIslamic Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood regime and the difficulties a woman goes through her (2003), a compilation of Persepolis I (2000) and Persepolis daily life in Iran. Islam in these texts is portrayed as II (2001) was first published in America by Pantheon, an abusive of women; therefore, these texts can create good imprint of Random House. Innovations in the domain of justification in maintaining imperialism through comic art and graphic narratives have encouraged a wide Islamophobia.One of the most successful memoirs of the readership and Satrpi's graphic narrative is certainly recent wave is Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a no exception. Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood [11a]. It is Satrapi's highly acclaimed coming-Childhood, which is a combination of Persepolis I and II of-age graphic memoir set in revolutionary Iran.
in French, was first printed in France and was the recipient Satrpiclaims that she has written the memoir to dispel the of many well-known awards. Satrapi's first volume of stereotypes of the Orient and dismantle the outdated graphic memoir sold 20,000 copies in a year and won the Orientalist myths.
Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award and the Belgium Prix

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and its Reception
Year" prize in Germany in 2004. Her graphic memoir has in the West.
been translated into more than 16 languages and a million Currently residing in France, Marjane Satrapi, an people in 30 countries have read her graphic memoir. Iranian born woman, is an illustrator, graphic novelist and When it was published in America in 2003, critics animated film director. She comes from a well-to-do and a compared it to Spiegelman'sMaus[15a] and Joe Sacco's 'highly intellectual and politically conscious' family and graphic reportage Palestine [16] [17]. Her graphic was schooled in Europe from the age of 14. Even in Iran, memoir was not only on bestseller lists but was also during her teen years, she attended the French school, the termed "phenomenon" by L' Association publisher Lycee Française as she is from a privileged family.
Jean-Christophe Menu. All the comparisons and the Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood[11a]opens when connection with L' Association put Satrapi's work on the Satrapi is 10 years old and closes when she is 14 leaving map and her work was given the status of "Commix"; in for Austria. Her graphic memoir focuses on her life during Spiegelman's term, it is a designation of multi-layered du Lion in in 2001. Satrapi has received the "Comic of the graphic narratives and accentuation of the amalgamation simple unlike others. Although the black and white colors of private and public spheres vital to recreating the past seem simple in drawings, they have deeper meaning [21]. [15b]. The status of "BD culte" "(that is, a BandeDessine Black and white images were utilized to show the e [BD] that is so popular the commix and artist have vicissitudes of the time she was experiencing as a child become a reference in the genre)" [17,12], was granted to during the times of change [22]. The second issue is using Persepolis. The work faces a surprising reception in the the childlike sketches. The graphic memoir might seem like West where it has been eulogized for its humanitarian children's stories because of the seemingly simple efforts as one critic, Clarke [18,2], claims: drawings. However, the book appealed more to adults As a fifth-generation Canadian who has limited than children. Darznik [22] is of the idea that the knowledge of the history or current situation in Iran, amalgamation of these two elements was the reason for Satrapi's book did, indeed, show me a more accurate and Satrapi's success. Therefore, the popularity and the more human picture of Iran and of Iranians. At a time commercial success of Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of when so much media attention is being given to Iran, this a Childhood can be attributed mostly to the geopolitical glimpse into life in Iran is very welcome and much needed.
time of its publication. The fact that the graphic memoir is Satrapi's graphic memoir is unique amongst Iranian used as a history lesson reveals its immense popularity women memoirists' memoirs as she used quite a new throughout the West. It should be emphasized again that medium in her memoir. Satrapi's graphic narrative assists the memoir's simple black and white artistry also helped her to connect to a broader and more diverse readership the book to gain a great deal of popularity. On the graphic than other Iranian memoirs. Having such a wide potential memoir's popularity, Constantino [23] quotes Whitlock audience in the West, Satrapi's graphic memoir carries the questioning the political motives of this memoir and asks possibility of being at the disposal of Western imperialism "one has to wonder, indeed, had [Persepolis] displayed [17]. Satrapi's graphic narrative's success can also be anti-American or anti-Western sentiment, would it have attributed to its topicality and the geopolitical climate of been so widely circulated and therefore popular?" the time. The 9/11 event was a major cause of westerners' curiosity about Middle Easterners and their culture. This Persepolis: The Exoticization of Islam: Satrapi depicts can be regarded as one element of Persepolis' huge different aspects of Islam as a religion. As an Islamic popularity. Malek [19] confirms that there is an eager practice, she begins with Ashura. It is a Shia Islamic market for these memoirs: holiday observed on the 10th of Muharram, the first Amidst the popularity of memoirs in general and month of the Islamic year. For the Shia Muslims, Ashura women's memoirs, in particular, the post-9/11 atmosphere and the ten days following it are days of lamentation and has created a level of curiosity towards Iran that, though mourning marking the death of Imam Hossein, the third it may have originated in the 1980s, was never satiated or Shia Imam and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. answered publicly by Iranians themselves until recently.
On this event, Satrapi asserts that "hitting yourself is one As Americans and others around the world seek insight of the country's rituals, during certain religious into a country and a people that have been deemed "evil" ceremonies, some people flagellated themselves brutally. and an imminent threat to Western society, Iranian Sometimes even with chains. It could go very far. exiles-and their children-have also begun to re-examine Sometimes it was considered a macho thing" [11]. This and work through their identities and histories. Many bizarre depiction implies that these rituals and customs, have found a voice in the memoir genre, letting go of what which were like torture, were carried out to show Farideh Goldin has termed an "imported taboo" of machismo and not for devout religious reasons. Despite "speaking and writing candidly from our Iranian past." claiming that she wrote the memoir to dispel the Western Therefore, a part of its appeal can be seen in the perception about Iran and Iranian people, ironically Westerners' "greater interest in hearing from a member of enough she is bolstering the stereotype by depicting the 'axis of evil', especially in an autobiographical form Islamic practices negatively. She depicts the ritual with that promises to disclose the intimate secrets of an exotic exaggeration in a way that it appears strange to a Western other" [20]. Besides its topicality and geopolitical time of reader. Satrapi is successful in showing the West the the book's publishing, there are two other issues for the exotica they are looking for in Middle Eastern people with memoir's huge success. One is its black and white her depiction of Ashura. However, self-flagellation is not seemingly simple drawings with which the memoirist tries so alien in Christianity. Barzegar [17] opines that once this to suggest that her childhood period was not carefree and ritual is put in its suitable religious context, it "can be compared to some Catholic religious practices" [17]. She you, you'll have to trade your car for a camel. God, what goes on to criticize Satrapi and argues that some a backward policy" [11]. Marjane's mother gives a practicing Catholics still use flagellation. She is of the idea misinterpretation of the practice of veiling as she links it that processions of flagellants are still favored in with unsophisticated camel riding culture. Instead of countries like Spain, Portugal and Italy during Lent. Even showing and representing the veil as a sign of honor and more fanatical exercises of "mortification of the flesh" may respect for those who practice it, Satrapi states that the be used to gain a modified state of consciousness. She practice of veiling is imposed to protect women from men continues giving similarities of this ritual with the who are "perverts" [11]. In another instance, commenting Christians rituals practiced in the Philippines where on people's change after the revolution, Satrapi's mother people practice flagellation to show a devoted worship, mocks a woman who is wearing the chador. She asserts they even go as far as self-crucifixion [17].
that "Last year she was wearing a miniskirt showing off The Western readers are bound to have distorted her beefy thighs to the whole neighborhood. And now information about these Islamic rituals as they are Madame is wearing a chador. It suits her better, I guess" portrayed without contextualization in the memoir. By [11]. The woman changed to the chador although it was deleting its context, Satrapi is, in fact, bolstering such not mandatory yet. However, Satrapi's mother takes distorted images to her readers in the West. These agency off from her by sneering at her for wearing a distorted images are taken as 'objective truth' by a chador. Western reader unfamiliar with Iran. Barzegar [17] believes Because Marji and her mother are shown as having that she uses "her authority as a Native to add to the no amount of respect for the religion and scoff at damage of such misconceptions." Another example that everything Islamic, there is no space for leaving a good adds to the exotica of Islam in her graphic memoir is where impression about Islam in Western readers. Muslim men the girls had to mourn the martyrs of the Iraq-Iran war and women, usually revolutionary guards, are portrayed twice a day. On these mourning sessions, Satrapi portrays as brutal and having a savage personality. The male and a group of girl beating their breasts to respect the martyrs.
female Muslim characters are depicted the same in her She comments that "after a little while, no one took the drawings as always having a frowning expression: men torture sessions seriously anymore. As for me, I have beard and women are covered head-to-toe. immediately started making fun of them" [11]. By jeering Moreover, they are depicted as nasty especially when at rituals that are considered sacred and venerable for they judge Marji and her mother for wearing lipstick, most Iranians, Satrapi manages to stand apart from her having no chador or even running in the streets. It is cultural tradition and try to connect with outsiders or shown that men and women cannot dress the way they Westerners who do not comprehend these rituals. She want to and they should dress according to Islamic rules. makes the ideas of mourning outlandish in the minds of On having the same expression of Muslim male, Satrapi her Western readers. To continue the delegitimization of asserts that "Islam is more or less against shaving" [11]. Islam, Satrapi starts to delegitimize Iran as Iran is an This identical depiction of Muslim men and women Islamic country. An instance of this can be seen at the suggests to the Western readers that all Muslim look and eve of the anniversary of the Revolution when students behave the same which is in perfect opposition of her own are supposed to decorate the class; they do decorate the claim to dispel the stereotypical perceptions of the class but with toilet paper [11]. Through Satrapi's Westerners' about Islam and Iran. In portraying Muslims, protagonist, Marji, everything Islamic is disparaged to Satrapi adopts Western biases without even thinking that zero and is an icon for laughter. Commenting on their it may hurt the Iranian and Iran. The Western prejudices neighbor who had changed after the Islamic revolution, are adopted because she sees herself as different from Marji says it is not just the dad and mom who have other Iranian people. She, indeed, mimics the Western changed, "their son says he prays every day" [11]. At this framework in portraying Islam and Muslims. By mimicking, occasion, Satrapi's mother advises her to lie and tell she tries to align herself with the West. To complete her everyone that she also says her prayer every day. The bizarre depiction of Muslim men, Satrapi portrays the veil is associated with negativity and restriction Islamic leaders of her country brainwashing young people throughout her memoir. Watching a public speech in T.V going to the Iraq war front. The prejudice of the West that about excluding the material of "decadence" from the the other is unsophisticated is extended via Satrapi's academic centers, Marjane's mother asserts that: "Soon claim that the authorities encouraged young people to go they're actually going to force us to wear the veil and to war in return for a key to heaven. Satrapi states that their family maid's son was given a key, a plastic one readers. The Western information about the East, as Said painted in gold, at school. The kids at school were told [26] argues, is not produced from reality. Rather, it is that "if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, generated from the presumed prototype that conceives all this key would get them to heaven" [11a, 99]. Her cousin, the "Eastern" societies identical to one another and who is a soldier, asserts that [11a]. essentially dissimilar to "Western" societies. This It's awful. Every day I see busses full of kids arriving.
preconceived knowledge establishes the East as the They come from the poor areas, you can tell … First they opposition of the West. Satrapi claims that by writing convince them that the afterlife is even better than Persepolis, she challenges this preconceived perceptions Disneyland, then they put them in a trance with all their of the East as backward people. She challenges this songs … It's nuts! They hypnotize them and just toss perception only through portraying a small liberal group them into battle. Absolute carnage. The key to paradise which is her family. However, Barzegar [17] is of the idea was for poor people. Thousands kids, promised a better that Satrapi bolsters the archetypal perspective of the life, exploded on the minefields with their keys around Orient "with her depiction of Islamic practices by not their necks.
grounding such images in the cultural and religious The key to heaven is stereotypically portrayed to context of Iran." But Satrapi, in her introduction of the show the weirdness of Muslim men. Taking this depiction graphic memoir, insists that she wrote her memoir to erase as true, Keshavarz [24] believes that obviously, there are the perceptions of the West's knowledge about Iran [11a]: people who go to war in response to a promise of a hero's Since [the Islamic revolution], this old and great reward. These kinds of people can arise anytime and civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with anywhere even outside Iran. Is there any war without fundamentalism, fanaticism and terrorism. As an Iranian propaganda? The answer is no. However, as veterans of who lived more than half my life in Iran, I know that this the Iran-Iraq war,Marandi and Pirnajmuddin [25] refute image is far from the truth. This is why writing Persepolis Satrapi's claim about the key and argue that they would was so important to me. I believe that an entire nation like evidence to support this claim as they have never should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few seen anything like that during the war. They continue to extremists. criticize Satrapi for the absurdity of her claim by stating The above-assertion is to be reputed as she is that one of the characteristics of Iranian native Orientalist dramatizing the occurrences of three decades ago. discourse is the absurdity of such claims. They argue that Barzegar [17] also refutes this and states that what " it seems that such people are so sure of the unexamined happened thirty-two years back should not be an element reception of anything even smacking of opposition to the of judging a whole nation. We concur with her belief that Islamic revolution and Islam in general or any kind of Satrapi's graphic memoir should not be taken as hype about Iran that they do not deem it necessary to 'objective truth.' A great host of Western audience takes give at least a touch of credibility to their claims" [25]. At this memoir as an objective and historical fact overlooking the time when people are supposed to look up and respect the fact that memoir as a genre is subjective in its nature. each other's religion, Satrapi keeps denigrating Islam and The author is using an insider outsider perspective in practicing Muslims. Thus, with the distortions and writing the graphic memoir. Satrapi judges her people and generalizations, it could be argued that Satrapi's graphic culture from a Western gaze which in fact authenticates memoir is written in favor of imperialism. It creates a her observation as she is an Iranian and people will take justification for the Western intervention to save Iran, her as a reliable author. The accentuated images of Islam Iranian men and women from the savagery and and Islamic culture are represented in distorted form in backwardness of the authorities. She has succeeded in texts like Satrapi's. The diverse depictions and Othering and exoticizing Iran for her Western readers. The explanations of Islamic extremism form the traits and depictions become the stereotype that leaders in the Third characteristics of singular and socio-religious societies. In World countries are despotic and authoritative.
fact, these characteristics count for all the Muslim Islam is shown as a backward religion in this memoir. societies in the Western perceptions. These A common trait of such neo-Orientalist texts is the generalizations can be regarded as a problem of definition. denigration of Islam and Islamic rituals. To depict the However, as Hirschkind and Mahmood [27] argue these Oriental Other, portraying religious fundamentalism and depictions are utilized to reinforce the political strategies: extremism is of necessity in these texts [7]. These cliché that is, the reduction effected by terms like stereotypes are used to form opinion in the Western fundamentalism allows US public opinion in this moment to equate those who attacked New York and Washington resistance to the forced veiling but feel alienated by her with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, with those Islamic denigration of Islam and generalization of Muslims. schools that impart a strict interpretation of Islam, with Muslim preachers who criticize the US for its liberal social Satrapi and Western Ideological Machinery: Since its mores, with Arab families in Detroit that have daughters publication, MarjaneSatrapi's graphic memoir, has never who wear headscarves. In so far as these different actors faced a serious negative criticism compared to other life and institutions may be thought of as different faces of a narratives like that of Nafisi's. Nafisi's memoir [10], a global fundamentalism, now increasingly associated with highly commercialized memoir, sparked a controversy terrorism, they may also be conceived of as legitimate about the popularity of Iranian women's memoirs during targets, whether for intelligence gathering or for aerial the time of the West's intolerance towards the ideological bombing.
power and the current regime of Iran. Iranian women Sad to say, Iran and Iranians are associated with memoirs, like that of Satrapi's, gained popularity fundamentalism and terrorism [18] and texts like Satrapi's especially after the 9/11 event and the present discussion reinforce this perception of the West. Satrapi is to be about a possible 'American intervention' in Iran due to its criticized for her selective writing regarding the Islam and nuclear energy program. Dabashi [7] criticizes these life Islamic culture in Iran. As Dabashi [7] argues 'selective narratives as these narratives provide the customary writing' is one element with which a writer can be labeled justification for moral and cultural legitimization of 'native informer' as s/he is writing in favor of imperialism.
intervention by imperialism. Satrapi's graphic text also Satrapi fails to mention a great number of poor Iranian falls under criticism of Dabashi as it is a perpetuation of people's perspectives about Islam and practice of Islam.
anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian sentiments. Satrapi's She tries to connect herself with the Western audience by Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood can be even more portraying a negative depiction of Islam and Muslims. threatening than others of its ilk as this graphic memoir is Exotica is delivered to us via her depictions of Islamic being utilized as educational equipment in primary and practices and Muslims which are usually depicted as secondary classrooms in the West to teach the audience bizarre, backward and hostile in this graphic memoir.It is about an exoticized and "a distant culture that has been assumed that Satrapi gives voice to the unheard marginal stigmatized as an "Eastern Other" [17,3]. It is even being sect of the society as in these texts marginality is usually used as historical lesson in some schools in the West. treated as center stage. The images of Muslims' brutality The readers face savagery and oppression as depicted in and the imposed Islamic rules on people might make us the memoir. Satrapi is a memoirist whose principal task is assume that the memoirist has given voice to the to fake "authority, authenticity and native knowledge" [7, oppressed people in Iran. However, the three questions 72] by giving information to the Western public about the posed by Sardar should be kept in mind when confronting outrageous behaviors happening in their birthplace; these texts: aren't these texts "a new twist to an old thence, her memoir justifies the imperial projects of the narrative? A new form of cultural exploitation? A new West. The fact that Satrapi's text is recruited for the theory of imperialism?" [28,12]. The analysis shows that Western ideological machinery can be obviously seen in the images of oppressed people are brought forth for its marketing strategy. Satrapi's graphic memoir, exploitative reasons. Sardar's argument can be bolstered Persepolis (2003), emerged exactly at a time when France by Whitlock's [5]assertion about contemporary was toying with the idea of banning veiled Muslim girls in autobiographies by Muslim women from the Middle East.
public schools. This, in fact, can be a political endeavor to She explains the fact that these memoirs have been form comprehension about cultural customs of the Middle accepted by neoliberal ideology displays the power of life East by "presenting a liberal Middle Eastern viewpoint narratives to affect the worldwide reader. It is important to amidst radical unrest" [23]. It could be argued that the note that this paper has no intention whatsoever to reject implicit inscription through marketing strategies is that all the ideas in Satrapi's graphic memoir. There are some this graphic memoir is an instrument in bolstering a positive aspects in the memoir such as criticizing the national political agenda in France at the time when Islamic regime for its gender apartheid system. Some of President Jacques Chirac has called for a law banning the incidents which Satrapi portrays in her memoir did Islamic headscarves in public schools in December 2003 happen in Iran but the fact that she depicts them one- [29]. Persepolis is used in public schools seemingly to sided and out of contexts makes her memoir vulnerable to teach young French students about a different culture, criticism. We feel empowered by her depiction of women's but it might be viewed as a way to reinforce and support the national political agenda on banning the veil in France in an influx of other Muslim women's memoirs which are and committing Islamophobia throughout the West [17].
being published thick and fast. These narratives point to Satrapi's graphic memoir is topical for the time of its legal concerns about the status and plight of women in publication in America as well. Barzegar [17] argues that Islamic countries and put that crisis squarely at the its first publication in English (2003) appeared right at a service of imperial warmongering. Islam in Satrapi's time when President George W. Bush has begun to extend graphic memoir and texts like hers is belligerent and efforts in his global project of 'war on terror' and after his abusive of women; therefore, imperialist's intervention is notorious 'Axis of Evil' speech addressed to Iran, Iraq justified to fight Islamic terrorism saving Muslim women and North Korea. Since then, writings about Iran, Iranian from their own men. women and Islam create a good alibi for Western intervention and Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a