Politics and the Women's Place in Iranian Society in Nylon Road

Written & Illustrated by Parsua Bashi
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Parsua Bashi's Nylon Road is a graphic memoir that is overflowing with political and social undertones. Bashi describes her struggles living as a woman in Iran and her attempts to overcome the hardships that women are forced to undergo in her country. As Parsua battles her younger selves many intense political issues come into discussion. During the years in which Parsua was growing up, Iran was at war with Iraq and a revolution had begun. As a result Bashi delves into many of the political issues of the time including questioning the real reasons for war and whether or not the leaders of her country were truly following their religious beliefs or merely just using them as a facade to cover their true agenda. Bashi believes the latter. Politics and religion should be separate entities and not taken advantage of to pursue personal ambitions.

One of the main political issues that comes across in this graphic novel is the position of women in Iranian society. As she battles with her past, Parsua truly discovers the oppression of women in her country and the pains she had to go through due to the treatment of women at the time. At one point Parsua is whipped repeatedly my law officials because she was out walking with a classmate to get art supplies and a so-called religious extremist witnessed what we would think to be entirely typical and would not notice, he finds utterly appalling. Clearly, Bashi is trying to show her readers the current situation in her country and that things must change in order for Iran to prosper.

These political and social undertones also open up the potential use of a graphic novel like Nylon Road as an educational tool in a classroom setting. This novel is one that could be easily incorporated into a Women's Studies or Political Science class at a post-secondary level. It provides a personal account of the political issues and gender inequalities that can be found in Iran. As Bashi battles her younger selves that appear throughout the novel she shows that through self-examination we can all learn something. The status of women in Iran is most definitely questioned in this novel and hope for change is the main political overtone.