In class today we talked about Marjane's rebellion by partying and wearing makeup. While we were talking about this I could not stop thinking about how it was like a suburban version of Sepultura's Refuse/Resist. By which I mean instead of "tanks on the streets... raging crowd[s] [and] burning cars", they stood up to the police by being regular teenagers--an extremely dangerous act in Iran. I thought it was interesting how in Brazil--Sepultura's country of origin--standing up to the government was much more violent than in Iran, even though these events were happening at relatively the same time.
Religion plays a big part in the government's power over its people. I think in many cases a leader himself isn't always very religious, but uses religion as a tool to control his people. A leader knows once the women stop wearing their burkas society will keep pushing for more freedoms until he is no longer in power. If he can keep the people from having freedoms through religious laws he can stay in power as long as he maintains his relationship with god in front of the people.
-Evan
