A Gaze through the Veil:

Fig.2. Persepolis, Film Still, 2007.It is a simple black and white animated film, the animation allows this film to becomeuniversal, it displays the girl’s life which is shaped by struggle and displays thehypocrisy of Islamic authorities. This film does not display Iranians in an anti-Western way, but shows you the effects the anti western regime inflicts on the people,showing situations such as C.D’s of western music being dealt on street corners likedrugs, clothing labels such as Nike being frowned upon, the film is critical of allsocial and political injustice of Iran. By using animation and dark humour, Satrapisfilm is intriguing to all races and class. The film was pulled from the Bangkok Filmfestival as the Iranian government said it was a problem for them as it displayed a badimage of Iran. (Chocano, 2007, p.8) The two main points of Persepolis makes are that“strife is relative, and all politics are personal.”(Davies, 2007, p.61)Taking all of this into account, the strict censorship policies that are in effect in Iranare stifling artistic creation. These restrictions and rules are always influx; it isdifficult to determine the main elements that the government want to censor. The holdthe government has on art and the system of governance that has been established isastounding. Art in Iran is “communicated through a veil of abstraction as artistsattempt to elude the critical eye of censors.” (Callamard, 2006, p.48) This culture ofself censorship is damaging and may eventually control art without the government’s