{"id":144,"date":"2018-04-23T15:41:28","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T15:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/?p=144"},"modified":"2018-05-01T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T15:00:13","slug":"up-close-from-a-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/2018\/04\/23\/up-close-from-a-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Up Close, from a Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was incredibly inspired by the simplicity, yet profundity, of Marjane Satrapi’s\u00a0Persepolis.\u00a0<\/em>Nothing she writes is laced with academic vernacular, and yet I felt a deep connection to her story. Her poignant characterization of her family and her own upbringing in Iran showed me how growing up in a changing society is categorically political, even when one is simply attempting to cultivate a sense of identity. Still, young Marjane is a denim jacket loving, Nike-wearing,<\/span> communist girl full of wit, mischief, and hustle.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I identify with this young Marjane, but I am also in many ways, more similar to the Marjane who wrote this book: I, too, have to construct my identity from a distance. The older I become, the more I face my socialization in the States. As someone who has been marginalized in the US context for being a brown Muslim woman, it’s hard for me to believe that I am “American.” I tried to address this with the strip called “Egypt.” (Just as Satrapi does, I use particular objects and places–like the veil and alcohol–to propel my narratives). In the final panel, I am looking at a map, something I do often, and pining for a land that has also not opened its arms to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My relationship with the veil is different though because I recall being very excited to wear something that drew attention to me. I felt deeply invisible all throughout\u00a0grade school–a sentiment that germinated during my final years of elementary schooling. This was when my mother said I needed to begin covering. I liked the idea of standing out, of being different, but my father saw the political and social ramifications of such a difference as too risky. He made me take off the veil, but still punished me when I wore things that he saw as too Western. Again, I felt as if I was straddling a strange place: no veil, but no Western clothing. For the most part, I am a modest dresser, but my father’s policing of my outfits throughout middle and high school also showed me that what I wear is incredibly political, and cemented the idea in me that my body is inherently sexual–a notion that has also proved dangerous and difficult to unlearn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the comic entitled “Boys and Booze” also speaks to my failed attempts to Westernize. Like Satrapi, I was in some ways enamored with Western culture. I too wanted the shoes and the jackets that would make me feel “cool” like my classmates. Ultimately, this <\/span>hurt<\/span> me, as I realized this desire was rooted in a worldliness that did not have faith in Allah’s love for me. Today, I am still confused, lost, and misguided in many ways, but my past experiences act as markers of growth and learning that mirrored many of Satrapi’s account.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  I was incredibly inspired by the simplicity, yet profundity, of Marjane Satrapi’s\u00a0Persepolis.\u00a0Nothing she writes is laced with academic vernacular, and yet I felt a deep connection to her story. Her poignant characterization of her family and her own upbringing in Iran showed me how growing up in a changing society is categorically political, even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[220790,15132],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comic","tag-memoir"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/felba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}