Part II

I think that Suheir and Marjane were both effected by a revolution of some kind. They both seemed very fed up with stereotypes that were brought on by parts of the revolution. Attacks that had brought people to think that Suheir probably had some relationship with the people that did these morbid things because of nothing other than the shade of her skin and the type and placement of the vowels in her last name. They recognized that even though men in powdered wigs were not pointing muskits at one another in neat and careful formats, the fact that people and their opinions on everything political, social, and religous were being changed because of the current events happening around them, they were in the middle of a revolution. A cultural revolution. By recognizing this, I think that is how they can be thought of as defining it. They are defining revolution, at least a cultural revolution, as what was happening all around them in their culture.

In my opinion, Marjane and Suheir were never really saying the definition of a revolutionary, but they taught us their opinion of a revolutionary by being one. By standing up and speaking out about what they believe in. By just being involved, choosing to know enough to make their own informed decision. Marjane had said that she had read too many books to believe what she was told. From an age before most children can be interested in political issues independently from their parents, she was asking questions that her parents found hard to answer. She would choose to go to demonstrations, and she kept an ever-curious mind about everything political in her country. In Suheir's case she was being a revolutionary by writing her poetry. Writing it alone could have been enough, it was her choosing to think for herself and, choosing as an individual she would not go along with ways she did not think were right. She didn't stop there. By reading her poetry to others her ideas, and the qualities of her independent free-thinking mind were able to spread like wildfire. Not necessarily feeding her ideas, but putting people in a state of mind to conceive their own. Neither of these women had to demonstrate to prove their being a revolutionary, the fact that Marjane did certainly didn't hurt. But when they choose to think about what is going on around them, and be independent and informed, make their own decisions and not give into brainwash, by doing this they are being revolutionaries. By encouraging others to do this, not with their ideas, but with those that they have come up with, they are even better revolutionaries.

I believe that Suheir and Marjane have both seen war. The disgust and disbelief they sometimes are overcome with when talking about gruesome acts of war bring me to assume that these things that others can only imagine, have been real for them. I think that regardless of whether or not either of them thinks war can be necessary in some situations, should never be called upon, or is always the answer, they have a common belief on war that can be universally shared by all those who have seen it. They understand how big the impact war has is, on everything. Society, homes, civilization, culture, people. Families. Mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and the list goes on. Even friends, people you barely knew. Neda Babalevy. Marjane was not her best friend, but that doesn't change the fact that she couldn't bring herself to a conclusion that there was any reason for Neda's death. War killed some, and changed others. Like Marjane's mom, who during the war decided to berate those who took more than they needed, and turned around and did the same herself. An act by a woman who, by the way Marjane described it, it was very out of character for. Suheir had to experience the affects of war as well. The effects on her culture, and how that effected the way others would treat her. It's effects on her family, her brothers. I can not imagine that with all of the bad experiences war has brought between the two, that either Marjane or Suheir could bring themselves not to detest it. I honestly am not able to say if they think that war may ever be necessary, in any situation, by any means, but I can say that I don't think they believe that war is something that should be taken lightly.