The Oscar-nominated animated film struck many cords in me. I laughed, I cried, I pondered, but most of the time, I was just scared... scared of how much of Iran's history could repeat itself in my country.I can't lie that I went into the film with a fair bit of scepticism as I believed it to be the typical Western propaganda against the Middle-East, but what I found was far more accurate, humane, nostalgic and scary, especially considering Turkey's current state. Persepolis explores Iran's sudden change to an Islamic Republic, how that affects the country's well-versed and hopeful, and how there is no place like home. The main character, Marjane, grows up during the Islamic revolution in Iran and then eventually has to flee the country to live the way she used to before the revolution. She eventually makes it to France at the end but with a bitter heart, as she absolutely doesn't belong in Europe but can't belong to Iran any more either. Her country has changed and has become a place where she doesn't fit.
I personify with Marjane quite a lot. In my response to Mira Nair's film the Namesake, I wrote about not feeling at home outside of Turkey but also not feeling quite right in Turkey either. With AK Party in government and at the President's seat, I worry that my country is headed to a direction that she has avoided since its foundation. Even if AK Party has no intention to bring sharia law to Turkey, I'm not sure if they can fully control the extremists who are definitely taking advantage of the chaotic situation. It's scarier when the people who started the snowball, thinking they can control it, lose control. If the snowball becomes an avalanche, Turkey will change into another Iran where our basic liberties, the right to choose and secularism will slowly fade into the not-so-distant past. After having read many newspaper columnists, I am not only scared, I'm alarmed, as these long-tenured columnists who have always stood by a secular and modern Turkey are slowly giving up on our country...
There are so many variables determining Turkey's future that it's very hard to say what will happen. I do believe that we should relax our ban on headscarves so women who wear them by will or by force can get education and hopefully decide for themselves whether or not to wear it in the future. I do believe that this will also make us more democratic and secular, as the sole existence of a religious symbol's ban by the government is against secularism by definition. However, with the headscarf, comes the possibility of a social clampdown where women who don't wear them are looked down upon by those who do. Slowly, this could create enough social pressure that all women will start wearing headscarfs, not by will, but by social pressure. The same pressure could spread to other areas of our lives very easily, even if the government doesn't pass any laws on anything. It's a slippery and risky slope, which is why Turkey has so far been reluctant on changing the headscarf ban.
The only way we can stop such social pressure is to educate people and increase understanding of each other. Tolerance will need to be a shared virtue for all Turkish people, devout Muslim or not, if we are ever to overcome the weight of Islam on our proud Republic and really succeed in marrying secularim and a mostly Muslim public together in a true democracy. I'm still hopeful but I believe people like me need to start taking some steps to contribute to this hopeful vision before it's too late. I just don't know where or how to start...
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