A Land with No Peace

In our second reading, which was pages 40 to 60, I learned that the Shah's reign had ended and the Islamic revolution was over. Although this part of the reading should have been a joyous one, it was very hard for me to swallow down some heartbreaking parts. It was in this time that the 3000 political prisoners were finally liberated and released from prison to go home to their families and friends. Marjane's family knew two of them, Siamak Jari and Mohsen Shakiba. It was very saddening for me to find out that while convicted, these two men along with many other prisoners had to go through traumatizing and horrific torture. The descriptions and pictures about the tortures are more than I can bare to read. Is torture considered humane? No. It is sickening and unethical, yet it is happening every single day all around the world. I recently came upon a news article in which young women and men are still being raped, tortured and executed in the Middle East today. It saddens me to know that there are still people in the world who could be so heartless as to harm another human being for the sake of wealth and power. As Marjane's father explained right after the revolution had ended, "As long as there is oil in the Middle East we will never have peace" (Satrapi 43). To what lengths are people willing to go for wealth, power and oil? The reoccuring war in the Middle East is already enough to answer that question... Love, M.