Persepolis

Why is the book named Persepolis?

The title Persepolis was used for the Persian empire's ancient capital city. This ancient city was the center
of the Persian Empire until Alexander the Great conquered the area, burning and
demolishing Persepolis to ruins. I believe Marjane Satrapi decided to use this title because it reminds
Iranians of a time when mass destruction occurred in the capital city. During the Islamic Revolution, the
destruction of Tehran, Iran’s capital city, led to a rise in civilian deaths, stranding citizens without any true
knowledge of why these lives were being cut short.

Overthrow of the Shah

 The White Revolution solidified domestic support for the shah, but he faced continuing
political criticism from those who felt that the reforms did not move far or fast enough and religious
criticism from those who believed Westernization to be antithetical to Islam. Opposition to the shah
himself was based upon his autocratic rule, corruption in his government, the unequal distribution of
oil wealth, forced Westernization, and the activities of SAVAK (the secret police) in suppressing
dissent and opposition to his rule. These negative aspects of the shah’s rule became markedly
accentuated after Iran began to reap greater revenues from its petroleum exports beginning in
1973.
 Widespread dissatisfaction among the lower classes, Shiʿi clergy, bazaar merchants, and students led
in 1978 to the growth of support for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiʿi religious leader living in
exile in Paris. Rioting and turmoil in Iran’s major cities brought down four successive governments as
the Iranian Revolution gained momentum. On January 16, 1979, the shah left the country, and
Khomeini assumed control. Although the shah did not abdicate, a referendum resulted in the
declaration on April 1, 1979, of an Islamic republic in Iran. The shah traveled to Egypt, Morocco, The
Bahamas, and Mexico before entering the United States on October 22, 1979, for medical treatment
of lymphatic cancer. Two weeks later Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and took
hostage more than 50 Americans, demanding the extradition of the shah in return for the hostages’
release (see Iran hostage crisis). Extradition was refused, but the shah later left for Panama and then
Cairo, where he was granted asylum by Pres. Anwar Sadat.

Islamic republic
 On April 1, following overwhelming support in a national referendum, Khomeini declared Iran an
Islamic republic. Elements within the clergy promptly moved to exclude their former left-wing,
nationalist, and intellectual allies from any positions of power in the new regime, and a return
to conservative social values was enforced. The Family Protection Act (1967; significantly amended in
1975), which provided further guarantees and rights to women in marriage, was declared void, and
mosque-based revolutionary bands known as komītehs (Persian: “committees”) patrolled the streets
enforcing Islamic codes of dress and behaviour and dispatching impromptu justice to perceived
enemies of the revolution.
 The Islamic Republic is a patriarchal society where masculine identity is achieved through being a
heterosexual man dominant both socially and sexually and the male bread-winner still represents a
preeminent element for the structuration of gender relations ; therefore, economic independence is
an indispensable requirement for a socially accepted transition to adulthood and the full recognition
as a ‘man’
 On 16 January 1979, Pahlavi left the country and went into exile as the last Iranian monarch, leaving
behind his duties to Iran's Regency Council and Shapour Bakhtiar, the opposition-based Iranian
prime minister. On 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned to Iran, following an invitation by the
government; several thousand Iranians gathered to greet him as he landed in the capital city
of Tehran.By 11 February 1979, the monarchy was officially brought down and Khomeini assumed
leadership over Iran while guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed Pahlavi loyalists in armed
combat. Following the March 1979 Islamic Republic referendum, in which 98% of Iranian voters
approved the country's shift to an Islamic republic, the new government began efforts to draft the
present-day Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as
the Supreme Leader of Iran in December 1979.

Protests
 In January 1978, incensed by what they considered to be slanderous remarks made against Khomeini
in Eṭṭelāʿāt, a Tehrān newspaper, thousands of young madrasah (religious school) students took to
the streets. They were followed by thousands more Iranian youth—mostly unemployed recent
immigrants from the countryside—who began protesting the regime’s excesses. The shah, weakened
by cancer and stunned by the sudden outpouring of hostility against him, vacillated
between concession and repression, assuming the protests to be part of an
international conspiracy against him. Many people were killed by government forces in anti-regime
protests, serving only to fuel the violence in a Shiʿi country where martyrdom played a fundamental
role in religious expression.
 Beginning in 1963, Pahlavi implemented a number of reforms aimed at modernizing Iranian society,
in what is known as the White Revolution. In light of his continued vocal opposition to the
modernization campaign after being arrested twice, Khomeini was exiled from Iran in 1964.
However, as major ideological tensions persisted between Pahlavi and Khomeini, anti-government
demonstrations began in October 1977, eventually developing into a campaign of civil resistance
that included elements of communism, socialism, and Islamism. In August 1978, the deaths of
between 377 and 470 people in the Cinema Rex fire — claimed by the opposition as having been
orchestrated by Pahlavi's SAVAK — came to serve as a catalyst for a popular revolutionary movement
across all of Iran,and large-scale strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the entire country for the
remainder of that year.

Iran Iraq war

 The Iran-Iraq War was a military conflict that lasted from 1980 to 1988, sparked by territorial and
political disagreements between the two countries. Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, wanted total
control over both banks of the Shatt al-Arab river, which historically acted as the Iran-Iraq border.
 The war followed a long history of border disputes and was motivated by fears that the Iranian
Revolution in 1979 would inspire insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shi'i majority, as well as
Iraq's desire to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state.
 Iraq’s air attack failed to damage Iranian Air Force significantly: it damaged some of Iran's airbase
infrastructure, but failed to destroy a significant number of aircraft: the Iraqi Air Force was only able
to strike in depth with a few MiG-23BN, Tu-22, and Su-20 aircraft. Three MiG-23s managed to attack
Tehran, striking its airport, but destroyed only a few aircraft.

 After the revolution occurred and Khomeini’s government had just been put into place, the Iran Iraq
War began. In September 1980, the Sunni Muslim-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein in
neighboring Iraq, invaded Iran in an attempt to take advantage of revolutionary chaos and destroy
the revolution in its infancy. Iran and Iranians rallied behind their new government, helping to stop
and then reversing the Iraqi advance. By early 1982, Iran regained almost all of the territory
captured during the invasion.

Iranian revolution
 The Iranian revolution was violent due to the aggressive nature of Khomeini’s ruling, which was to
follow the rules of Allah as stated in the Quran. This new theocracy had many followers, who were
mostly Shia Muslims. Although there was much acceptance, there was a large number of people that
opposed the stringent regulations put into order by Khomeini and began to revolt against the new
governing system. Satrapi’s parents began protesting against the new government and witnessed
harsh treatment and full-scale riots taking place in the streets. The revolution failed to take control
out of the harsh rule fist of Khomeini.


Shah
 Years later, Mohammad Reza Shah dismissed the parliament and launched the White Revolution—an
aggressive modernization program that upended the wealth and influence of landowners and clerics,
disrupted rural economies, led to rapid urbanization and Westernization, and prompted concerns
over democracy and human rights. The program was economically successful, but the benefits were
not distributed evenly, though the transformative effects on social norms and institutions were
widely felt. Opposition to the shah’s policies was accentuated in the 1970s, when
world monetary instability and fluctuations in Western oil consumption seriously threatened the
country’s economy, still directed in large part toward high-cost projects and programs. A decade of
extraordinary economic growth, heavy government spending, and a boom in oil prices led to high
rates of inflation and the stagnation of Iranians’ buying power and standard of living.
 The shah had two marriages that ended in divorce when they failed to produce a male heir to the
throne. In October 1960 a third wife, Farah Diba, gave birth to the crown prince, Reza.

 In 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran and forced the first Pahlavi shah to step down in
favor of his son, Mohammad Reza. The new shah promised to be a constitutional monarch but often
meddled in the government. After a failed Communist plot against him in 1949, he took more
power. In the early 1950s, nationalist leader Mohammad Mosaddeq convinced Parliament to take
control of British oil interests in Iran. The shah opposed this but had to appoint Mosaddeq as prime
minister in 1951.
 In August 1953, the shah tried to dismiss Mosaddeq, but Mosaddeq was so popular that the shah
had to leave Iran. A few days later, British and U.S. intelligence agents helped overthrow Mosaddeq,
and the shah returned as the sole leader. He reversed Mosaddeq's policies and became a close ally
of the United States.
 In 1963, the shah started the "White Revolution," which included land reform, infrastructure
development, voting rights for women, and efforts to reduce illiteracy. While many supported these
programs, Islamic leaders, including Ruhollah Khomeini, criticized the westernization of Iran.
Khomeini called for the shah's overthrow and was exiled in 1964 to Iraq, from where he continued
to urge his supporters to resist.
 The shah saw himself as a Persian king and held a grand celebration in 1971 for the 2,500th
anniversary of the Persian monarchy. In 1976, he changed the calendar from the Islamic to the
Persian one. Discontent grew among religious groups, students, intellectuals, and the poor and
middle classes, who felt that the White Revolution only benefited the elite. In 1978, anti-shah
demonstrations started in major cities.

 On September 8, 1978, the shah's security forces killed hundreds and wounded thousands of
demonstrators. In November, more riots occurred in Tehran, with people destroying symbols of
westernization. Khomeini called for the shah's overthrow, and in December, soldiers mutinied
against the shah's forces. His regime collapsed, and the shah fled the country.
 The shah traveled to several countries and entered the United States in October 1979 for cancer
treatment. In Tehran, Islamic militants stormed the U.S. embassy on November 4, taking the staff
hostage and demanding the shah's return to stand trial. The United States refused, and 52 American
hostages were held for 444 days. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi died in Egypt in July 1980.
 Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (born October 26, 1919, Tehrān, Iran—died July 27, 1980, Cairo,
Egypt) was the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, who maintained a pro-Western foreign
policy and fostered economic development in Iran.
 Mohammad Reza was the eldest son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, an army officer who became the ruler
of Iran and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. Mohammad Reza was educated
in Switzerland and returned to Iran in 1935. In 1941 the Soviet Union and Great Britain, fearing that
the shah would cooperate with Nazi Germany to rid himself of their tutelage, occupied Iran and
forced Reza Shah into exile. Mohammad Reza then replaced his father on the throne (September 16,
1941).

Ayatollah Khomeini
 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the architect of the Iranian Revolution and the first leader (rahbar)
of the Islamic republic established in 1979. He articulated the concept of velāyat-e
faqīh (“guardianship of the jurist”) using a historical basis, which underlay Iran’s Islamic republic. His
ideas and rhetoric united broad swaths of Iranian society.
 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power after the Iranian Revolution (1978–79). He had won a
following for his avid criticism of ineffective governance in Iran and his advocacy for Islamic ethics in
government, which offered a common cause for Iranians of various backgrounds disenfranchised
by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s aggressive modernization program.
 From the mid-1970s Khomeini’s influence inside Iran grew dramatically, owing to mounting public
dissatisfaction with the shah’s regime. Iraq’s ruler, Saddam Hussein, forced Khomeini to leave Iraq
on October 6, 1978. Khomeini then settled in Neauphle-le-Château, a suburb of Paris. From there his
supporters relayed his tape-recorded messages to an increasingly aroused Iranian populace, and
massive demonstrations, strikes, and civil unrest in late 1978 forced the departure of the shah from
Iran on January 16, 1979. Khomeini arrived in Tehrān in triumph on February 1, 1979, and was
acclaimed as the religious leader of Iran’s revolution. He announced the formation of a new
government four days later, and on February 11 the army declared its neutrality. Khomeini returned
 to Qom as the clerical class worked to establish their power. A national referendum in April showed
overwhelming support for the institution of an Islamic republic, and the constitution of the Islamic
republic was approved in a referendum in December. Khomeini was named rahbar, Iran’s political
and religious leader for life.

 Khomeini himself proved unwavering in his determination to transform Iran into a theocratically
ruled Islamic state. Iran’s Shiʿi clerics largely took over the formulation of governmental policy, while
Khomeini arbitrated between the various revolutionary factions and made final decisions on
important matters requiring his personal authority. First his regime took political vengeance, with
hundreds of people who had worked for the shah’s regime reportedly executed. The remaining
domestic opposition was then suppressed, its members being systematically imprisoned or killed.
Iranian women were required to wear the veil, Western music and alcohol were banned, and the
punishments prescribed by Islamic law were reinstated.
 The main thrust of Khomeini’s foreign policy was the complete abandonment of the shah’s pro-
Western orientation and the adoption of an attitude of unrelenting hostility toward both
superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition, Iran tried to export its brand of
Islamic revivalism to neighbouring Muslim countries, particularly among their Shiʿi populations.
Khomeini sanctioned Iranian militants’ seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehrān (November 4, 1979)
and their holding of American diplomatic personnel as hostages for more than a year (see Iran
hostage crisis). He also refused to countenance a peaceful solution to the Iran-Iraq War, which had
begun in 1980 and which he insisted on prolonging in the hope of overthrowing Saddam. Khomeini
finally approved a cease-fire in 1988 that effectively ended the war.
 Iran’s course of economic development foundered under Khomeini’s rule, and his pursuit of victory
in the Iran-Iraq War ultimately proved futile. Khomeini, however, was able to retain
his charismatic hold over the Shiʿah in Iran, and he remained the supreme political and religious
arbiter in the country until his death. His gold-domed tomb in Tehrān’s Behesht-e Zahrāʾ cemetery
became a shrine for his supporters.

Dollshouse
https://www.kharagpurcollege.ac.in/studyMaterial/225549English-Study-Material-Balaky_31-45-PG-
2nd-SEM-19-04-2020.pdf
1840s: First wave of feminism[edit]
In 1840, Norwegian women's status was considered as incapable meaning it was
impossible to enter into any agreement, debts, or even control their own money. They
were not entitled to any training or able to be considered for any government job. As for
single women, of which there were many during the era, they could request to be placed
into employment under the authority of a guardian. On their wedding day, married
women transitioned from living under the authority of their fathers to under that of their
husbands

During the reign of Magnus VI Lagabøter (1263–1280), the age of majority was set at
twenty years for both sexes. Norwegian law changed later during the reign of Christian
V (1670–1699). His regime issued the Law in Norway (1687) which, following the
Danish rules of that time, defined unmarried women as minors.

However, in 1845, a first step towards women's emancipation was taken with the "Law
on the vast majority for single women", for which women's majority was set to age 25 at
which point a woman would no longer need a legal guardian.

In the first part of the 19th century, women worked in the early textile mills (1840) and in
the tobacco factories, which were reserved for their employment. They also worked in
the food industries and jobs requiring "little hands", but they did not work in heavy
industry.

1854 to 1879: Awakening consciousness[edit]

During this period, new laws were passed, and although they did not at once
revolutionize the status of women, barriers were being crossed regularly and rapidly.
Formal equality of women with men became almost complete in the space of just two
generations. In 1854 the law on royal succession granting full equal inheritance for both
sexes was passed after heated debate and resistance. (Prior to this a woman's
inheritance was limited to joint rule.)

In 1863, a new law was passed on the age of majority that succeeded that of 1845:
women attained the age of majority at 25 years, as well as men. As for widows,
divorced and separated, they become major "regardless of age". In 1869, the age of
majority was reduced to 21, although not without some wondering whether it was
defensible for women. The committee of law, believing that women matured more
rapidly than men, stated that this age is very suitable for her. In 1866, a law was passed
establishing free enterprise (except for married women) so that anyone could obtain a
license in their city.

Relative Stagnation with Industrialization, 1875-1914

Norway’s economy was hit hard during the “depression” from mid 1870s to
the early 1890s. GDP stagnated, particular during the 1880s, and prices fell
until 1896. This stagnation is mirrored in the large-scale emigration from
Norway to North America in the 1880s. At its peak in 1882 as many as
28,804 persons, 1.5 percent of the population, left the country. All in all,
250,000 emigrated in the period 1879-1893, equal to 60 percent of the birth
surplus. Only Ireland had higher emigration rates than Norway between 1836
and 1930, when 860,000 Norwegians left the country.

The long slow down can largely been explained by Norway’s dependence on
the international economy and in particular the United Kingdom, which
experienced slower economic growth than the other major economies of the
time. As a result of the international slowdown, Norwegian exports
contracted in several years, but expanded in others. A second reason for the
slowdown in Norway was the introduction of the international gold standard.
Norway adopted gold in January 1874, and due to the trade deficit, lack of
gold and lack of capital, the country experienced a huge contraction in gold
reserves and in the money stock. The deflationary effect strangled the
economy. Going onto the gold standard caused the appreciation of the
Norwegian currency, the krone, as gold became relatively more expensive
compared to silver. A third explanation of Norway’s economic problems in
the 1880s is the transformation from sailing to steam vessels. Norway had by
1875 the fourth biggest merchant fleet in the world. However, due to lack of
capital and technological skills, the transformation from sail to steam was
slow. Norwegian ship owners found a niche in cheap second-hand sailing
vessels. However, their market was diminishing, and finally, when the
Norwegian steam fleet passed the size of the sailing fleet in 1907, Norway
was no longer a major maritime power.

A short boom occurred from the early 1890s to 1899. Then, a crash in the
Norwegian building industry led to a major financial crash and stagnation in
GDP per capita from 1900 to 1905. Thus from the middle of the 1870s until
1905 Norway performed relatively bad. Measured in GDP per capita, Norway,
like Britain, experienced a significant stagnation relative to most western
economies.

After 1905, when Norway gained full independence from Sweden, a heavy
wave of industrialization took place. In the 1890s the fish preserving and
cellulose and paper industries started to grow rapidly. From 1905, when
Norsk Hydro was established, manufacturing industry connected to
hydroelectrical power took off. It is argued, quite convincingly, that if there
was an industrial breakthrough in Norway, it must have taken place during
the years 1905-1920. However, the primary sector, with its labor-intensive
agriculture and increasingly more capital-intensive fisheries, was still the
biggest sector.