Iran has severally criticized the film Persepollis which has won the Prize of the Jury at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and will released for the general public in France and Belgium on June 27, 2007. The title is a reference to the historical town of Persepolis.
Persepolis is an animated film based on the graphic novel with the same title and has come under criticism from the Government of Iran.
The film narrates the story of a nine year old young girl Marjane in Iran during the1979 Islamic Revolution. Through the eyes of the little girl it shows how people’s hopes were dashed as the religious fundamentalists came to power, forced the veil on women and imprisoned thousands.
Freedom of the media is the cardinal principle of democratic form of governance. Iran, in spite of its leaning towards fundamentalism, is a democratic Muslim nation. In fact, other Muslim nations opposed 1979 Iranian revolution because of fears that similar fate may be awaiting them. It is a shame that the United States which has a stated policy of promoting democratic governance in the whole world does not want democracy in the Islamic world. It seems that it fears Iranian type of democracy and has authentic information about the low esteem in which common Arabs takes United States.
The biased US policy towards Muslim nations post 9/11 have created further rifts between the United States and Muslims. While Iran is unjustified in its criticism of the film, West should also refrain from over indulgence with Islam and Muslim societies.
Is it not a fact that the French revolution which had promised and given famous slogans of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ did not fully deliver the promised ideals. Similar was the case with several other revolutions. As a matter of fact, Iranian women are far more free than the women in the other Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. The Constitution of Iran gives a better deal to the women than the Constitutions of most Muslim countries. But still the truth depicted in the Persepolis does have some merit and Iran would do well in further improving the conditions of its women rather than unnecessarily criticizing the Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.
