Islamic Revolution

1. Islamic Revolution Introduction to Graphic Novel Unit Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

2. What does this mean?According to dictionary.com • Islam: A monotheistic (belief in only one God) religion characterized by the acceptance of the doctrine of submission to God and to Muhammad as the chief and last prophet of God. • The people or nations that practice Islam; the Muslim world. • The civilization developed by the Muslim world. • Revolution: The overthrow of one government and its replacement with another.

3. History of Iran • IRAN, officially Islamic Republic of Iran, republic • 2005 est. pop. 68,018,000 • 1,648,000 sq km, SW Asia. • The country's name was changed from Persia to Iran in 1935. • Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea; on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and on the west by Turkey and Iraq. The Shatt al Arab forms part of the Iran-Iraq border. • Tehran is the capital, largest city and the political, cultural, commercial, and industrial center of the nation.

4. Where is it?

6. A CLOSER LOOK @ IRAN

7. Iran is a theocratic Islamic republic governed under the constitution of 1979, as revised in 1989. Presidential powers were expanded and the post of prime minister eliminated. Appointed, rather than elected, offices and bodies hold the real power in the government. The supreme leader, who effectively serves as the chief of state, is appointed for life by an Islamic religious advisory board (the Assembly of Experts). The supreme leader oversees the military and judiciary and appoints members of the Guardian Council and the Expediency Discernment Council. The former, some of whose members are appointed by the judiciary and approved by parliament, works in close conjunction with the government and must approve both candidates for political office and legislation passed by parliament. The latter is a body responsible for resolving disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council over legislation. The president, who is popularly elected for a four-year term, serves as the head of government. The legislative branch consists of the 290-seat Islamic consultative assembly, or parliament, whose members are elected by popular vote for four-year terms. Government

8. History of Iran con’t • Islam entered the country in the 7th cent. AD and is now the official religion; about 90% of Iranians are Muslims of the Shiite sect. • The remainder, mostly Kurds and Arabs, are Sunnis. • In addition to Armenian and Assyrian Christian sects, there are Jews, Protestants, and Roman Catholics. • The principal language of the country is Persian (Farsi), which is written in Arabic characters. Other languages are Turkic dialects, Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, and Arabic. Among the educated classes, English and French are spoken.

9. Iran has a long and rich history. Some of the world's most ancient settlements have been excavated in the Caspian region and on the Iranian plateau; village life began there c.4000 BCE • The Aryans came about 2000 BCE and split into two main groups, the Medes and the Persians. The Persian Empire founded (c.550 BCE) by Cyrus the Great was succeeded, after a period of Greek and Parthian rule. • With the invasion of Persia the Arabs brought Islam. • The Safavid dynasty (1502-1736), founded by Shah Ismail , restored internal order in Iran and established the Shiite sect of Islam as the state religion; it reached its height during the reign (1587-1629) of Shah Abbas I (Abbas the Great). • The fall of the Safavid dynasty was brought about by the Afghans, who overthrew the weak shah, Husein, in 1722. An interval of Afghan rule followed until Nadir Shah expelled them and established (1736) the Afshar dynasty.Nadir Shah, a despotic ruler, was assassinated in 1747. • The Afshar dynasty was followed by the Zand dynasty (1750-94), founded by Karim Khan, who established his capital at Shiraz and adorned that city with many fine buildings. His rule brought a period of peace and renewed prosperity. However, the country was soon again in turmoil, which lasted until the advent of Aga Muhammad Khan .

10. The Qajar Dynasty • A detested ruler (assassinated 1797), Aga Muhammad Khan defeated the last ruler of the Zand dynasty and established the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925). • This long period saw Iran steadily lose territory to neighboring countries and fall under the increasing pressure of European nations, particularly czarist Russia. • Iran was forced to give up the Caucasian lands. A series of campaigns to reclaim it ended with the intervention of the British on behalf of Afghanistan and resulted in the recognition of Afghan independence by Iran in 1857. • The discovery of oil in the early 1900s intensified the rivalry of Great Britain and Russia for power over the nation. Internally, the early 20th cent. saw the rise of the constitutional movement and a constitution establishing a parliament was accepted by the shah in 1906. • Meanwhile, the British-Russian rivalry continued and in 1907 resulted in an Anglo-Russian agreement, that divided Iran into spheres of influence. The period preceding World War I was one of political and financial difficulty. During the war, Iran was occupied by the British and Russians but remained neutral; after the war, Iran was admitted to the League of Nations as an original member. • In 1919, Iran made a trade agreement with Great Britain in which Britain formally reaffirmed Iran's independence but actually attempted to establish a complete protectorate over it. • In 1921, Reza Khan, an army officer, effected a coup and established a military dictatorship.

11. The Pahlevi Dynasty Reza Khan was subsequently (1925) elected hereditary shah, thus ending the Qajar dynasty and founding the new Pahlevi dynasty. Reza Shah Pahlevi abolished the British treaty, reorganized the army, introduced many reforms, and encouraged the development of industry and education. • In Aug., 1941, two months after the German invasion of the USSR, British and Soviet forces occupied Iran. On Sept. 16 the shah abdicated in favour of his son Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi . American troops later entered Iran to handle the delivery of war supplies to the USSR.

12. In 1954, Iran allowed an international consortium of British, American, French, and Dutch oil companies to operate its oil facilities, with profits shared equally between Iran and the consortium. After 1953 a succession of premiers restored a measure of order to Iran; in 1957 martial law was ended after 16 years in force. Iran established closer relations with the West, joining the Baghdad Pact, and receiving large amounts of military and economic aid from the United States until the late 1960s. • The shah held close reins on the government as absolute monarch, but he moved toward certain democratic reforms within Iran. A new government-backed political party, the Iran Novin party, was introduced and won an overwhelming majority in the parliament in the 1963 and subsequent elections. Women received the right to vote in national elections in 1963.

13. Reaction, Repression, and Conflict • The shah's various reform programs and the continuing poor economic conditions alienated some of the major religious and political groups, and riots occurred in mid-1963. • The general political instability was reflected by the assassination of Premier Hassan Ali Mansur and an unsuccessful attempt on the shah's life in Jan., 1965. Amir Abbas Hoveida succeeded as premier. • Internal opposition within the country was regularly purged by the Shah's secret police force (SAVAK), created in 1957.

14. The Islamic Revolution • The rapid growth of industrialization and modernization programs within Iran, along with private wealth, became greatly resented by most of the population, mainly in the overcrowded urban areas and among the rural poor. • The shah's autocratic rule and his extensive use of the secret police led to widespread popular unrest throughout 1978. • The religious-based protests were conservative in nature, directed against the shah's policies. Khomeini, who was expelled from Iraq in Feb., 1978, called for the abdication of the shah. • Martial law was declared in September for all major cities. As governmental controls faltered, the shah fled Iran on Jan. 16, 1979. Khomeini returned and led religious revolutionaries to the final overthrow of the shah's government on Feb. 11.

15. The new government represented a major shift toward conservatism. It nationalized industries and banks and revived Islamic traditions. • Western influence and music were banned, women were forced to return to traditional veiled dress, and Westernized elites fled the country. • A new constitution was written allowing for a presidential system, but Khomeini remained at the executive helm as Supreme Leader. • The Revolutionary Guard was established separately from the military as an ideologically based corps charged with defending the revolution. Clashes occurred between rival religious factions throughout 1979, as oil prices fell. Arrests and executions were rampant. • On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American hostages. • Khomeini refused all appeals, and agitation increased toward the West with the Carter administration's economic boycott, the breaking of diplomatic relations, and an unsuccessful rescue attempt (Apr., 1980). • The hostage crisis lasted 444 days and was finally resolved on Jan. 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as U.S. president. Nearly all Iranian conditions had been met, including the unfreezing of nearly $8 billion in Iranian assets.

16. War and its Aftermath • On Sept. 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, commencing an eight-year war primarily over the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway. • The war rapidly escalated, leading to Iraqi and Iranian attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in 1984. • Fighting crippled both nations, devastating Iran's military supply and oil industry, and led to an estimated 500,000 to one million casualties. Chemical weapons were used by both countries. • Khomeini rejected diplomatic initiatives and called for the overthrow of Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein . • In Nov., 1986, U.S. government officials secretly visited Iran to trade arms with the Iranians, in the hopes of securing the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon, because Iran had political connections with Shiite terrorists in Lebanon. • On July 3, 1988, a U.S. navy warship mistakenly shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft, killing all aboard. That same month, Khomeini agreed to accept a UN cease-fire with Iraq, ending the war. • Iran immediately began rebuilding the nation's economy, especially its oil industry. Tensions also eased at that time with neighboring Afghanistan.

17. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in Aug., 1990, Iran adhered to international sanctions against Iraq. • However, Iran condemned the use of U.S.-led coalition forces against Iraq during the Persian Gulf War (1991), and it allowed Iraqi planes fleeing coalition air attacks to land in the country. • As a result of the war and its aftermath, more than one million Kurds crossed the Iraqi border into Iran as refugees. • Rafsanjani was reelected president in 1993. The United States suspended all trade with Iran in 1995, accusing Iran of supporting terrorist groups and attempting to develop nuclear weapons. • Tensions with the United States increased after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in Mar., 2003, as U.S. officials increasingly denounced Iran for pursuing the alleged development of nuclear weapons. • Iranian government support for strongly conservative Shiite militias in Iraq also further soured U.S.-Iranian relations. • Nuclear tensions continue to be a source of disagreement and concern but they continue to move forward with its nuclear research program.

18. Persepolis • Persepoliswas an ancient capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, situated some 70 km northeast of Shiraz, not far from where the small river Pulwar flows into the Kur (Kyrus). To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Parsa, Persepolis being the Greek interpretation of the name. In modern Iran the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid). • The magnificent ruins of Persepolis lie at the foot of Kuh-i-Rahmat, or "Mountain of Mercy," in the plain of Marv Dasht about 400 miles south of the present capital city of Teheran. • The exact date of the founding of Persepolis is not known. It is assumed that Darius I began work on the platform and its structures between 518 and 516 BCE visualizing Persepolis as a show place and the seat of his vast Achaemenian Empire. • He proudly proclaimed his achievement; there is an excavated foundation inscription that reads, "And Ahuramazda was of such a mind, together with all the other gods, that this fortress (should) be built. And (so) I built it. And I built it secure and beautiful and adequate, just as I was intending to.“ • But the security and splendor of Persepolis lasted only two centuries. Its majestic audience halls and residential palaces perished in flames when Alexander the Great conquered and looted Persepolis in 330 B.C. and, according to Plutarch, carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels.

21. Marjane Satrapi • Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. • She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the Lycee Francais before leaving for Vienna and then going to Strasbourg to study illustration. • She currently lives in Paris, where her illustrations appear regularly in newspapers and magazines. She is also the author of several children's books.

22. Marjane Satrapi From Wikipedia • Marjane Satrapi (born November 22, 1969 in Rasht, Iran) is a contemporary graphic novelist and illustrator. She grew up in Tehran in a progressive family. She attended the Lycée Français there and witnessed, as a child, the growing oppression of civil liberties and the everyday-life consequences of Iranian politics, including the fall of the Shah, the early regime of Ayatollah Khomeini and the first years of the Iran-Iraq war. • Satrapi's mother is a great-granddaughter of Nasser-al-Din Shah, Shah of Persia from 1848 until 1896. However, Satrapi points out that "the kings of the Qajar dynasty...had hundreds of wives. They made thousands of kids. If you multiply these kids by generation you have, I don't know, ten to fifteen thousand princes and princesses. There's nothing extremely special about that." • In 1983, at the age of 14, Satrapi was sent to Vienna, Austria, by her parents in order to flee the Iranian regime. According to her autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, she lived there during her high school years, returning to Iran for college. At college, she met a man named Reza, married then divorced him, and moved to France. She currently lives in Paris, where she works as an illustrator and an author of children's books. Satrapi's career began in earnest when she met David B., a French comics artist. She adopted a style similar to his, especially in her earliest works.

23. Satrapi has become famous worldwide because of her critically acclaimed, autobiographical graphic novels Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which describe her childhood in Iran and her adolescence in Europe in an intelligent and engaging portrait of everyday life. She also won the Album of the Year award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for Broderies, in 2003 (published in the United States as Embroideries) and for her most recent novel, Poulet aux prunes (2004). • She currently writes an illustrated column in the Op-Ed section of The New York Times, apparently on an irregular schedule.

24. Persepolis • In 1984, fearing what trouble an outspoken, rebellious girl might get herself into in fundamentalist Tehran, Marjane Satrapi's parents sent their fourteen-year-old daughter to live in Vienna. • Persepolis concludes there, on the eve of Marjane's exile, having tracked the family's passage through the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the Islamic Revolution, and the start of Iran's devastating eight-years war with Iraq. • Satrapi's debut, both a touching coming-of-age story and an oblique history of Iran in the early eighties, expressed in deceptively simple black-and-white drawings the broken heart and crushed hope of a people. • The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day." • Salon raved, "Striking a perfect balance between the fantasies and neighborhood conspiracies of childhood and the mounting lunacy of Khomeini's reign, [Satrapi is] like the Persian love child of [Art] Spiegelman and Lynda Barry."

26. Review from Publishers Weekly Satrapi's autobiography is a timely and timeless story of a young girl's life under the Islamic Revolution. Descended from the last Emperor of Iran, Satrapi is nine when fundamentalist rebels overthrow the Shah. While Satrapi's radical parents and their community initially welcome the ouster, they soon learn a new brand of totalitarianism is taking over. Satrapi's art is minimal and stark yet often charming and humorous as it depicts the madness around her. She idolizes those who were imprisoned by the Shah, fascinated by their tales of torture, and bonds with her Uncle Anoosh, only to see the new regime imprison and eventually kill him. Thanks to the Iran-Iraq war, neighbors' homes are bombed, playmates are killed and parties are forbidden. Satrapi's parents, who once lived in luxury despite their politics, struggle to educate their daughter. Her father briefly considers fleeing to America, only to realize the price would be too great. "I can become a taxi driver and you a cleaning lady?" he asks his wife. Iron Maiden, Nikes and Michael Jackson become precious symbols of freedom, and eventually Satrapi's rebellious streak puts her in danger, as even educated women are threatened with beatings for improper attire. Despite the grimness, Satrapi never lapses into sensationalism or sentimentality. Skillfully presenting a child's view of war and her own shifting ideals, she also shows quotidian life in Tehran and her family's pride and love for their country despite the tumultuous times. Powerfully understated, this work joins other memoirs-Spiegelman's Maus and Sacco's Safe Area Goradze-that use comics to make the unthinkable familiar.

27. From School Library Journal Adult/High School-Marji tells of her life in Iran from the age of 10, when the Islamic revolution of 1979 reintroduced a religious state, through the age of 14 when the Iran-Iraq war forced her parents to send her to Europe for safety. This story, told in graphic format with simple, but expressive, black-and-white illustrations, combines the normal rebelliousness of an intelligent adolescent with the horrors of war and totalitarianism. Marji's parents, especially her freethinking mother, modeled a strong belief in freedom and equality, while her French education gave her a strong faith in God. Her Marxist-inclined family initially favored the overthrow of the Shah, but soon realized that the new regime was more restrictive and unfair than the last. The girl's independence, which made her parents both proud and fearful, caused them to send her to Austria. With bold lines and deceptively uncomplicated scenes, Satrapi conveys her story. From it, teens will learn much of the history of this important area and will identify with young Marji and her friends. This is a graphic novel of immense power and importance for Westerners of all ages. It will speak to the same audience as Art Spiegelman's Maus (Pantheon, 1993).

28. Works Cited • http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/persepolis.html • http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/southern_asia.jpg • http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/maps/2000s/2004world.jpg • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Takht-jamshid.jpg • http://www.livius.org/a/1/iran/persepolis_gate.jpg • http://www.cqj.dk/Fotos/Persepolis-relief2.jpg • http://www.shirazcity.org/shiraz/Shiraz%20Information/Sightseeing/images/Persepolis/b59.jpg • http://studyrussian.com/seidenstrasse/pic/persepolis_tombs.jpg • http://www.ordfront.se/upload/filer/f%C3%B6rfattarportr%C3%A4tt%2520nedladdningsbara/marjane-satrapi.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ordfront.se/Bocker/Varaforfattare/MarjaneSatrapi.aspx&h=968&w=635&sz=180&tbnid=Xnk5vMDDGQO9BM:&tbnh=148&tbnw=97&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMarjane%2BSatrapi%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG • http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/satrapi2.html • http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037571457X/103-7095765-8488665?v=glance&n=283155 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjane_Satrapi • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MarjaneSatrapi.jpg • http://www.iranian.com/Books/2002/November/Satrapi/5.html