Summary of the chapter

The theme of chapter 11: The F-14's is Marji witnesses the bombing of
Tehran, an important city, by the Iraqis. The bombing brought out
opposing views between Marji and her father. In the past, Marji would
not challenge her father's opinion, which demonstrates her growth as an
individual.
Summary of chapter 10
• Iran starts shutting down as they shut down the U.S. embassy and the
universities.
• Soon, all women are forced to wear the veil.
• Marjane’s mother tells her that if she's ever asked what she does during the
day, she should say she prays.
• One day, she accompanies her parents to a demonstration, where she sees
someone stabbed in the leg.
• That's the last demonstration they go to.
• They take a vacation to Spain. It's nice, but when they return, Grandma tells
them that a new war is starting, this time with Saddam Hussein.
Page 80 panel 1,2 and 3
Iraqi fighter jets, called migs and
supplied by the USSR, bomb the
Iranian capital of Tehran. Upon
hearing the news on the radio
while at his office,
Marjane’s father yells, “No! The
bastards!” Following her father’s
lead, Marjane screams even
louder, “Those assholes!”
Marjane becomes increasingly nationalistic.
Still young and driven by love of her country
(despite who leads it), she sees the enemy as
pure evil, though her father sees them as
people, too, making fun of their driving .
Page 81 panel 3,4 and 5
• On the drive home, Marjane asks her
father if he will fight in the war. “We
have to teach those Iraqis a lesson,”
she says. Marjane’s father only
responds with confusion and wonders
why he should fight. Marjane
explains, “the Iraqis have always
been our enemies” but her father only
brushes this off, joking, “and worse,
they drive like maniacs.” He places
the blame not on the Iraqis but on
their own government.
Page 82 page panel 1 and 2
• Marjane proclaims that Iran must
bomb the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad, though her father
remarks that without the generals
and fighter pilots, who were
jailed after an earlier failed coup
d’état, the country cannot do
anything
Page 83 panel 2,3 and 4
When the family hears the Iranian
National Anthem, which has been
outlawed for a year, they are
“overwhelmed” with emotion.
When they hear on the radio that
140 Iranian bombers, F-14s,
bombed Baghdad today, Marjane
and her father celebrate, and she
concludes, “he loved his country as
much as I did.”