The Persepolis Perspective

After all our discussions of femininity and masculinity, The Complete Persepolis contains a totally different set of values.Marjane Satrapi comes from a different culture with a new religion, and therefore, a whole new society to live up to.
The culture and religion of Iran seem to overlap each other probably due to my ignorance. However, I think it is safe to say Islam is a large part of the Iranian culture. The rules of Islam dictates what people should consider masculine and feminine. A woman's femininity in Iran includes her hair, the outline of her body shape, and any of the skin on her body. The Iranian government felt those three things seduce men. Thus, the veil and chador is required for all females. The government puts more responsibility and restrictions on women than men because in their culture women are inferior to men. However, men are responsible for covering their arms; bare arms is seen as a form of seduction, too. (To quote Satrapi, "There was a kind of justice after all!" p. 75) Also, men are not supposed to shave because Islam looks down on it, but in the time of transition from shah to the religious leaders, shaving was a form of rebellion and sign of support of modern progressive men. For both genders, anything Western was looked down on because our culture and ideals were so different from an Islamic one that they could never be integrated without some restrictions or freedoms given or taken.
When Satrapi moves to Austria, all of the values and ideas of masculine and feminine changes. She is allowed to cut her hair, and then show it off. She can wear whatever she wants, bare her skin if she wants to (but she doesn't because she is still faithful to her culture in that sense). Eventually, Satrapi even tries the punk look with gelled short hair, eye liner, and safety pin earring chains.
After all is said and done, Satrapi sees both the western ideas of masculine, feminine, and all together accepted versus her culture's set of values. It must have been a mind blowing experience because the two are on opposite sides of the spectrum, and she can experience both and mix them together to make new ideas on what is feminine and masculine.