Iranian Society

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the different perspectives on Iranian society, portrayed by Betty Mahmoody and Marjane Satrapi in their books, "Not Without My Daughter" and "Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood," respectively. The paper discusses how they both managed to portray and describe the society as a whole, the role of women and the general atmosphere in the country, by revealing two distinct and sometimes even opposed realities. It gives examples from their books.

From the Paper:

"Yet another distinction made by Mahmoody was the actual state of the country under an oppressive and restrictive political rule. Throughout the book she gives detailed examples of the poor living conditions as she paints a rather grim image of the Iranians. For instance, she describes one of the first experiences on Iranian soil, as her daughter trying to use a toilet in the Tehran airport: "We peered around in the darkened room, looking for a toilet, but all we could find was a hole in the cement floor surrounded by a flat, oval shaped slab of porcelain. The floor was littered with fly infested piles where people had either missed or ignored the hole". (Mahmoody, 6) This came to point out the inferior state of the society, a perspective that would be developed throughout the book."

Sample of Sources Used:

• American Entertainment International Speakers Bureau. Betty Mahmoody. AE Speakers Bureau website. 2006. 12 December 2006 <http://www.aeispeakers.com/Mahmoody-Betty.htm>
• Goldberg, Michelle. "Sexual revolutionaries". Salon Media Group website. 2005. 12 December 2006 < http://dir.salon.com/story/books/int/2005/04/24/satrapi/index.html>
• Mahmoody Betty, and William Hoffer. Not Without My Daughter. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991
• McAlister, Melani. "Iran, Islam, and the terrorist threat, 1979-1989." Terrorism, media, liberation. ed. David Schulm, Rutgers Univ. Press, 2005.
• Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

More papers on Iranian Society:

• Book Review # 132484 : "Derayeh's "Gender Equality in Iranian History"
• Book Review # 102730 : "Gender Equality in Iranian History"
• Essay # 16180 : "Iranian-Israeli Ethnicity"

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