Persepolis

Chapter 10: “The Trip”

Directions: Your goal for this assignment is to compare some of the main issues in Chapter 10
with similar experiences elsewhere in the world (hence, global issues). To do so, please watch
the following videos and address the questions below in thoughtful, well-developed responses.

As a refresher from English 2 Honors, please watch the following videos about Malala
Yousafzai’s experiences in Pakistan: The Story of Malala Yousafzai & Malala’s Fight for
Education

1. Why did the Taliban target Malala Yousafzai? What message were they trying to silence?
The Taliban targeted Malala Yousafzai since was an activist who spoke up for education on
behalf of women in addition to peace for children and women all over the world. The Taliban
shot her in the head as an act of retaliation in regards to the fact that she was an activist and such
a wound would silence her. The message that was sent with this act of violence was an attempt
to silence every woman and child in the world who had an educational right, as they saw it unfit
for them.

2. Describe two parallel experiences that you see between Malala Yousafzai and what Satrapi
describes happening in “The Trip.”
Two parallel experiences seen between Malala Yousafzai and what the traffic describes
occurring within the chapter “The Trip” include the way in which individuals were violently
attacked for protesting their beliefs in the demonstration and how Malala was shot for her beliefs
and acts of activism. As well as how Margie's mother encourages her to learn to defend her rights
as a woman just as Malala set up for her rights as of women and others as well.

3. In Persepolis, why do the Islamic Fundamentalists close down the universities? What’s their
reasoning?
The Islamic Fundamentalists closed down the universities with the belief that “the educational
system and what is written in the school books, at all levels, [is] decadent;” thus, “everything
[needed] to be revised to ensure that [the] children are not led astray from the true path of Islam”
as they would rather “have no students at all than to educate future imperialists” (Satrapi 73).

4. How does Marji feel she will be personally impacted by the closure of universities?
Marji feels that due to the closure of universities another dream of hers will end up in smoke as
she had hoped to “study chemistry” and “be like Marie Curie,” in addition to being an “educated
, liberated woman” no matter the consequences that came through her pursuit (Satrapi 73).
5. Why might access to an education be targeted by fundamentalist and extremist regimes? What
threat does an education pose? How might a regime benefit from an uneducated populace?
The access to an education would be targeted because the more individuals understand and argue
the less likely individuals will be to agree and follow mindlessly such fundamentalists and
extremist regimes. Education poses the threat of more knowledge and the more one knows the
more power they have. With an uneducated populace, a regime can withhold information from
their citizens leaving them with the belief that there is nothing better than the way of life they
have been presented with and since they have no knowledgeable points to argue with their
arguments serve no purpose (or they just do not argue or put up a fight).

6. How might this connect to other IB works we have previously studied?

This would connect to a novel such as A Doll’s House since they both explore the notions of
restraining a specific group from having the knowledge that other individuals do. In the case of
Persepolis the individuals are stripped of their education just as women are stripped of their
ability to find equality in the workplace and society within A Doll’s House. In addition to this,
Satrapi also portrays the way in which women must fight for individualism throughout the novel
since they are deprived of abilities men have. In A Doll’s House all women are supposed to hold
the same role, a housewife nothing more, also stripping them of their individuality.

7. Is inequality in accessing a quality education a problem in the United States? Please explain:
Not necessarily, but I also feel that since I personally have been given the benefit of the doubt in
terms of education and grew up in a pleasant location with good schools I can not be certain. I
am sure though that low income areas do not receive the same quality of education that I do as
they can not afford the luxuries that a school like mine can. This does apply to higher education
quite visibly though, as most individuals do not have the proper economic resources in order to
attend college. Furthermore, although I have my own personal bias as I have yet to truly see the
inequality in education I do believe it exists within the United States (disregarding college
specifically).