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00:00Perspolis, Brief Summary, Introduction, Perspolis by Marjan Satrapi was originally
00:08published in 2000.
00:11It is an autobiographical graphic novel.
00:14The book shows the author's childhood up to the period when she attains adulthood and
00:19then marriage.
00:21The story is set in the Islamic Republic of Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
00:27The title of the book refers to the ancient capital of the Persian Empire, Perspolis.
00:33The book was originally published in French.
00:37It has been translated into several languages including English.
00:42Brief Summary.
00:43The story opens in Iran in 1980.
00:47Marjan Satrapi is getting ready to go to school.
00:51She is being compelled to wear a veil at her school.
00:55The new rules have segregated the boys and girls.
00:59In the same year, political and religious turmoil begins in Iran.
01:04Marjan's parents also attend political protests on several occasions.
01:10Even their relatives like Uncle Anoush attend the protests.
01:15We are told more about Uncle Anoush at this point.
01:19He had left Iran and fled to the U.S.S.R., when the Iranian government believed that
01:26he was a spy.
01:28Uncle Anoush helps Marjan a lot and he teaches her much about the world.
01:34He carves a swan out of bread and gives it to Marjan.
01:38It looks much better than the swan made from paper.
01:42The bread swan can be eaten.
01:44As the time progresses, Marjan comes very close to Uncle Anoush.
01:50When her uncle is executed, she is shattered and she takes it to her heart.
01:56Owing to her family members, who include her grandmum and Uncle Anoush, Marjan grows passionate
02:03about social activities.
02:05She is a very young girl, but she thinks that she wants to fix the social inequalities and
02:11make the world better for the old people.
02:14Since there are regular air raids on Tehran, life is very difficult for the people there.
02:21Several of Marjan's friends and family members get killed.
02:25Finally, her parents take a very grave decision.
02:30They decide that they can't raise their daughter in Iran.
02:34Marjan happens to be a strong, ah, very independent and outspoken.
02:40Owing to her behavior, she is expelled from her school.
02:45Her parents are afraid that she might get a worse punishment as the government becomes
02:50stricter.
02:51The parents send Marjan to Vienna.
02:55She begins to live in a boarding house in Vienna.
02:58The boarding house is run by nuns.
03:02Marjari finds it difficult even in Vienna because the nuns are almost similar to the
03:07strict regime in Iran.
03:10She spends a few years there.
03:12However, she finds herself in several living situations.
03:17Julie is her friend in Vienna.
03:20She is a sexually liberated girl.
03:23She also finds herself with eight homosexuals.
03:27Then she rents a room from a woman who has bad behavior.
03:32Like this, she has to face several troubles there.
03:36While living in Vienna, Marjan misses her family very much.
03:41She keeps remembering her family living in Iran.
03:45They are her only support system.
03:48She often gets depressed.
03:50Eventually, she is homeless.
03:53She begins to live on the streets.
03:56She falls sick.
03:57One day, she coughs up blood.
04:00However, she survives and goes back to Iran.
04:05In Vienna she had been a free girl, but now back in Iran she has to live under several
04:10restrictions.
04:12It is not easy for her to give up her freedoms which she had become habitual to.
04:17She compromises with the life she has because living with the family is what she needs.
04:23There is no segregation at home and she is treated equally by her parents.
04:29She gets the reality check from her grandmother.
04:32She understands that to be happy she has to be true to herself.
04:37Having come back to Iran, she begins her social activism as much as she can.
04:43She makes a new uniform with a shorter veil.
04:46When she is of age, she is married.
04:49She goes to parties, and eventually gets divorced.
04:54Having gone through all these experiences she is on her way to find her identity as
04:59an individual.
05:01After about two years she realizes that Iran is not for her.
05:05She is once again ready to leave.
05:08She goes back to Europe.
05:10At the end of her narrative, she informs the reader that before her death she wants to
05:15see her grandma once again.
05:18She knows that freedom has a price.
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