Self-Perceptions of Persepolis
While reading Persepolis, there was one image that was so powerful that I couldn’t get it out of my head. I wanted to end talking about this image because I feel it encapsulates what we have been discussing through out this entire course. The image is of a girl who is veiled on one side, with an Islamic arabesque coming out of her head, and unveiled on the other side, with tools of construction and knowledge surrounding her head. I decided to recreate this image with myself as the subject. I often find myself in a weird dichotomy between my own Jewish heritage, and my love of the Arabic language and Arab culture, mostly because of the conflict in Israel. I consider myself to be Jew-ish in that I am proud of my Jewish heritage, but I really know very little about it. My mother is Jewish and my father is Christian. I have been studying the Middle East and Islam for two years now, and I spent the last summer studying Arabic in Morocco. I often feel that my love of Arabic is a bigger part of my identity than my Jewish or Christian heritage. I feel that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity coexist in me, and that is not how the world is right now. I think this is how Marjane must have felt with her Muslim and secular identities growing up in Iran.
What this course has taught me is that we don’t need to divide our identity for the sake of religion. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all come from the same root and share the same values. America upholds these values most of the time, and it is a society that Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike can feel proud to be apart of. I leave the course with a new image, full of color and love.