"Portrait of the Girl Blogger" Response

          This second article about Malala was really impacting. Even though I am very attached to the Islamic culture, I didn't have a lot of background knowledge about Pakistan. Especially that the Talibans had spread from Afghanistan all the way to the Swat Valley. She now lives under the rule of the Talibans, who have changed the laws of the country for worse (just like they did in Afghanistan). The main idea of BBC writing two articles about Malala is to show the world that there is people like her who stand up for what they believe is right with no fear of what may happen (just like in "Persepolis").

          She starts writing a blog through the BBC Urdu about her life and what happens to people like her in Pakistan at the age of 11. At first, she talks about her daily life, and how she feels coming back from school every single day and listening to people threatening others. Most of all, men threatening women.  But, right before leaving for her winter break; Malala faces a difficult situation because she doesn’t know if she’ll ever go to school again. As she and her family predicted; the Taliban demands for education to not be offered to women. At that moment, in her blog, she writes about what these people do, and the decision they have taken that has affected the future of the population of the Swat Vally (including herself). She's considered the first girl to stand up and have a voice about her situation in the region.

         She took a bold step by doing something she knew was right: fighting for the education of Pakistani women. When she started writing more; she reveals actions that the Talibans are taking, she becomes world-wide known and receives many emails, and interviews. In one of those she tells the BBC that when she grows up she will be the head of a political party (of her own creation) that has a vision statement of: education for Pakistani men and women. I believe that with the amount of bravery that she has, not only will she be able to tell her story to everybody in the world, but create this political party that she wants to create to make education equal in her country (Human Right #26: everybody has the right of Education). As I said in my previous post; let her be an example for everyone of us. I was impressed by this girl’s actions, taking into account that nobody that I know would have the attitude and the determination to do what this girl has done and hopefully: continue doing.

          Everyone who gets to know and understand her story will be impressed and completely honored to have people like her on our planet that want to change it for good. As I reached the end of the article, I read something that has emotionally shocking.

          “Malala is now recovering in hospital after being shot in the head and neck by a Taliban militant on Tuesday.”-BBC News.]

          Malala's bullet penetrated her skull entering the left hemisphere of her brain. Almost lacerating her caudate nucleas and stopping in the middle of her temporal lobe. All of these parts of the brain are crucial for life. Fortunately non of these were severely injured and the doctors were able to fix them. Hopefully her recovery goes good and fast for her to start blogging again. Nevertheless, I hope she can still do it because injuries like her's leave permanent negative neurological ramifications.

"Pakistani Activist Shot" Response

          This article apart from being interesting, shows a story of a reality that has happened. Malala Yousafzai makes me think a lot of Marji Satrapi. That's right; the main Character in "Persepolis". Why? Well, because She is the kind of child that is aware of her country's situation. She blogged about the Taliban regime. Just like Satrapi complained all the time (publicly) about the Islamic regime. All around the Middle East there must be little girls like these: complaining and protesting for the good of their own nation. 

          What I really liked about the article itself is that it divides itself in little paragraphs (each one explaining one specific thing). Also, it does not go in chronological order. Which in this case is good because to create good journalism, you first begin with the major event (for example: "Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in Mingora, the region's main town). I here you don't know why or how they killed her. But you get caught in the title and the first sentence of the article, that makes you read the entire thing because if you don't; curiosity is going to kill you alive. 

          Then the article goes on and tells you the story one by one. First they talk about the Taliban's admitting they killed her, then why they did what they did. Later one it says how they killed her and explained all about the crime scene. This, makes you want to read the next paragraph (always). In the second section of the article they explain all about Malala's blogging life. I have never heard a story involving such a brave person. When I read this part I was completely perplexed because I can't believe that she actually began blogging about the Taliban regime at 11, and most importantly that she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Award. 

          Malala Yousafzai is a true inspiration for all young people that live in the oppression of fanaticism and extremism. I really hope she lives to continue leaving us her legacy. I also hope that the people that killed her are severely punished because according to the Islamic Law. It is against Allah's will to kill a virgin. 

Persepolis: "The Dowry"

I have to say, this was an awesome ending for this awesome book. In the first part of the book we can see “Islamic discipline" as shown when the teachers at Marji’s school forbid the use of bracelets. Also in frame 3 in page 143 the teacher threatens her. All of these aspects of discipline are very common in the Islamic culture because not only the man is the supreme authority but fir young women, older women are their authority when men aren’t around. But Marji has had a tough life in the last years so she wasn’t letting her authority treat her bad. This reminds me of one of my best friends that she had the same attitude that Marji had when she was passing through a moment of injustice. When she hit the principal and threw her to the floor I almost died of laughter imagining that happening here at CNG what that would have been like for the audience around them. 

The third page of this chapter (page 145) reminded me of my parents when they got a complain from one of my teachers a long time ago and they were not mad at me at all. In fact, they told to not worry about it, just like Marji’s parents on this page when they got the complaint from her religion teacher at her new school for the comment she shared in class. The comment was the following: "My uncle was imprisoned by the Shah’s regime, but it was the Islamic regime the ordered the execution. You say that we don’t have political prisoners anymore. But we’ve gone from 3000 prisoners under the Shah to 300,000 under your regime. How dare you lie to us like that?” Personally I think she is completely right. But of course moms are the ones that a problem for everything. Like Marji’s mom in frames 3-9 in page 145. 

When her parents want to send her to Austria because they think she is safer there and that she can get a better education. I personally think she shouldn’t go because the future of her country of her country lies within girls like her. Girls that are not afraid if saying what they think, and that spend their time worrying about their country’s status and future. In the end, she does go (which disappoints me a little). But one thing that really made the end of this book excellent was the sentence that she says: “It would have been better to just go”. But her facial expression in the last illustration shows her real emotion that is wanting to stay. 

Persepolis: "The Passport"

This chapter was really touching because the injustice of the Iranian society of that time is portrayed strongly. The part that was very interesting is when Taher says he sent his son to Holland because, if you close read this, is really harmful for him because he loves his son. But, he does it for his son’s own well-being. His depression leads him to smoke, and his smoking leads him to his third heart attack. This is kind of sad because because of his sadness he caused his own heart attack. When he did something to save his son, something bad happened to him. With every good thing, something bad comes along with it. 

When he is at the hospital needing urgently open-heart surgery that needs to be done in London, a wave of rage and fury comes to be when I read the part that says the don’t want to give him a passport to travel to London, and get his surgery. Specifically, frame #7 in page 121 when the man says: “If God wills it”. I was so mad when he said that because I knew that they didn’t want to give him his passport and they were using religion to cover the truth. Also, something that I considered really wrong was when Dr. Fathi brought Taher’s family to a room filled with injured soldiers to make Taher’s wife feel sorry for them. In my opinion, that is just morally wrong. 

When they meet Khosro, person that makes the fake passports is a moment of salvation for Taher because if he could get him a passport, he could travel through the closed frontiers (the frontiers of Iran were closed for three years: 1980 - 1983). Another example of the society that seeks the leftists and want to kill them is when Niloufar is introduced. This communist girl that is hiding from the revolutionaries that want to kill her. She’s living in Khosro’s basement because that is the only place where she is safe. 

Last but not least. The sadness I felt when I read the last page of this chapter. When Taher dies because he wasn’t able to travel and get his surgery. The worst part of that, was that his real passport made by the government arrived the day that he died. Really life is the most mysterious thing that there is. 

Persepolis: "The Sheep"

I have to admit, Anoosh really has some good stories! The arrival of Anoosh really shakes things up in the book because he reveals a lot of things that are fundamental for the understanding of the story. We can see that the war between Iraq and Iran is beginning, and Marji is really worried about it. I can sense that Eby doesn’t want to face the truth. We can see his anger and stress in the last frames of page 62 when he gets mad at his daughter because of the news she brought (of course being news that initially came from the radio). He was mad because 99.99% of the people voted for the Islamic Revolution. 

Right now, I made a connection of what is happening in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez. Many people (including me) think that he manipulated the elections and made up the numbers that appeared in the results. We won by 10% advantage over Henrique Capriles Radonski; that would obviously make people suspect that he pushed up his numbers to get to 10% advantage exactly. That sounds fishy, just like the revolutionaries that according to Eby; they manipulated the votes.

Another connection I made to South America was related to pages 63 and 64 that shows Marji’s friends leaving to the United States because they don’t want to be inside Iran when things get ugly. That’s what many people did here in Colombia when FARC was on it’s peak of power. Many people left Colombia to Europe and the United States during those years. There has never been a time where so many people left Colombia. It was for the same reason, people didn’t want to be here when the times were rough. I also feel sorry for her because the boy that she liked left Iran. 

Frame #7 in page 65 reminds me a lot of the period called “La Violencia” in Colombia that was when the conservatives and the liberals fought for many years by killing each other, and creating new forms of torture. Mohsen was drowned in his own bathtub and his sister was executed right in the scene (frame 3 in page 66). Conservatives and liberals killed themselves one by one. Just like how the revolutionaries are killing the people that disagree with them. For them to survive, they need to cross the frontiers undercover. Many liberals escaped to Ecuador and Peru just like Siamak and his family. 

Persepolis: "Persepolis"

I connected a lot with the outside world while reading this chapter. Thus far in the book we know that Marji’s family was heavily harmed by the Shah’s father, and the Shah himself. She wants to know about her grandfather, but her grandmother doesn’t want to tell her and changes subject all the time. One example of this is frame 4 at the bottom of page 28. In this frame you can see the she is desperate to know about his grandpa and says mentally that her grandma is changing the subject to not talk about it. But we do get that her family was left in poverty by the Shah. In this part of the book I connected to my country of the many women they show in the news that tell their stories of how the guerilla (FARC) took everything from them and left them in extreme poverty. It was (and is) very difficult for them to talk about it and they tried to change the subject; just like Marji’s grandma.

When Marji is very worried about her dad I remembered one day my mom told me a story. This was when the guerilla was very present in the region were she lived. She was still a child. My grandfather was a cow rancher, and the FARC wanted to kidnap all of the wealthy cow ranchers of the region. She told me that every time her dad didn’t arrive at the time that he was supposed to, she thought he was kidnapped or even dead. In frame 4 in page 30 she specifically says: “I thought that my father was dead, that they shot him”. But when he comes back we can see why he took that long. He is a photographer that was collecting visual evidence of all the catastrophes that were happening. 

When I got to the part of the martyr; I made a connection to the every day life here in Colombia. Here people do not like communists, let’s say that if you’re communist; you should go somewhere else. Just like royalists in Iran at that time. The widow of the martyr was questioned on frame 6 in page 34. And with the context of the book, I can infer that the question wasn’t asked with much politeness, but with a tone expressing an accusation. Here in Colombia you might be asked the question: “Are you communist?!” with the same tone every now and then if the listen to you saying leftist things. It has happened to many people I know. 

Persepolis: "The Veil"

  I am very attached to the Muslim culture. I have many Muslim friends and I know a little arabic (I’m planning to learn arabic). So I know pretty well what was happening in this chapter.As I read the first chapter of the book many thoughts crossed my mind. “The Veil” is a tricky chapter to understand because it gives the introduction to the story, but it foreshadows the major events of the book. The main character, Marji, is introduced in a very special way. She narrates the chapter and the entire book in a very fluent and understandable way; which makes the book nice to read. For example, in the first page (first four frames) she shows the class photo were only small part of her body is shown. In this part of the book I felt that she wasn’t showing herself with her friends because she is a very independent and smart little girl. The very first frame is the one that shows Marji’s image (but her alone) when she was 10 years old. 

 I have some background knowledge about the Iranian Islamic Revolution. When the girls in Marji’s school are forced to wear the veil on their heads to cover their hair was a moment of enforced change. Islam was enforced in the society violently. At first the girls thought wearing the veil was a joke. An example of this is frame #5 in page 3 where the girls are playing and fooling around with their veils. Later on in the chapter you can see that women wearing the veil was really important. So important, that women that were caught without it had to pay a fine, in extreme cases; jail. 

Anyways, I think that the veil is the visual representation of the lack of freedom and choice that Iranians and especially the women are facing during the time of the Islamic Revolution. In page 3 you can notice that Marji’s mother needed to hide her identity because she fought against the people of the Revolution. Marji is a very special little girl and also very intelligent for her age because she is completely aware of what’s happening in the political world; she kind if reminds me of my sister. It really surprises me that she wants to be a prophet because despite the fact that the society is being ruled violently she wants to change it in a peaceful way.