Opposing views in Persepolis

            Every action has a reason some are better than others, but all are legitimate in ones eyes. It is important to understand multiple perspectives on an issue in order to assess the situation.  Throughout Persepolis, Marji and the other middle class Iranians are abused and mistreated. They believed that the Islamic radicals were taking all of these drastic measures such as forcing women to wear the hijab, no alcohol, or parties in order to keep control of the people. Though the reasons that the Islamic leaders have for committing these acts are likely a sharp contrast to the peoples. Likewise the abusers in all child abuse cases have their own reasons and believe that they are justified it doing so. Although often times the abuser is under the influence of alcohol, drugs, depression, exhaustion, and sometimes a psychological disorder. As a result the abuser is more likely to snap and take it out on the innocent child. From all of these causes the abuser feels that the child is to blame for all of the adult’s problems and then the adult unleashes it on the child emotionally, physically, and even sexually. When Americans do not look at multiple perspectives they are left to make assumptions that are likely not true. If one just looks at a child abuse case from the judge they are likely to misunderstand the case completely. The individual must also look at the abuser’s life and what was happening around the time of the abusing: to see if they just lost their job, struggling with substance abuse, working through stress, etc. During the 1970s, a girl named Genie was abused by her father; she was confined to a small room for the first 13 years of her life. Once it leaked out, he was tried, but before the day he committed suicide, he left a note that said “the world will never understand” (Secret of the Wild Child 1). This implies that there were other issues going on with Genie’s father that make sense to him. That could have been the reason why he committed such a terrible act of child abuse. When we do not look at it from Genie’s father's perspective but only the prosecuting side, we are left with the conclusion that he was an evil man. Through works like Persepolis and the life of Genie understanding multiple perspectives is clearly vital to see the whole picture.

""Secret of the Wild Child"" PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2014.