persepolis vocab

obligatory

adj. / binding in law or conscience / Then came 1980: the year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school.

decadence

n. / a state of moral or cultural decline, often due to excess or indulgence / All bilingual schools must be closed down. They are symbols of capitalism. Of decadence.

avant-garde

n. / an intelligentsia that develops new or experimental concepts especially in the arts / Deep down I was very religious but aws a family we were very modern and avant-garde.

predecessor

n. / a person who has previously occupied a position or office to which another has succeeded / Like all my predecessors, I had my holy book.

disciple

n. / one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another / In that case, I’ll be your first disciple.

wrath

n. / strong vengeful anger or indignation / I wanted to be justice, love, and the wrath of God all in one.

imperalism

n. / the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas / First our own emperors. Then the Arab invasion from the west. Followed by the Mongolian invasion from the east. And finally modern imperalism.

dynasty

n. / a succession of rulers of the same line of descent / You know, my child, since the dawn of time, dynasties have succeeded each other but the kings always kept their promises.

martyr

n. / a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion / He was honored like a martyr.

clandestine

adj. / marked by, held in, or conducted with secrecy / I went to his clandestine book-signing with my mother.

social class

n. / a group of people sharing the same social or socioeconomic status / The reason for my shame and for the revolution is the same: the difference between social classes.

reign

n. / royal authority / The end of the Shah’s reign was near.

effigy

n. / an image or representation especially of a person / The more he tried democracy, the more his statues were torn down, Then his effigy was burned.

refuge

n. / shelter or protection from danger or distress / Jimmy Carter, the president of the United States, refused to give refuge to the exiled Shah and his family.

pact

n. / an international treaty / They both betrayed the countries of our region by making a pact with Israel.

phenomenon

n. / an observable fact or event / These strangle phenomena were everywhere.

diabolical

adj. / of, relating to, or characteristic of the devil / Back at home that evening, I had the diabolical feeling of power…

proletariat

n. / the class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labor to live / The proletariat shall rule!

regime

n. / a regular pattern of occurrence or action / My parents say it’s impossible to live under an Islamic regime, it’s better to leave.

bearings

n. / the act, power, or time of bringing forth offspring or fruit / And so I was lost, without any bearings… what could be worse than that?

decree

n. / an order usually having the force of law / The Ministry of Education has decreed that universes will close at the end of the month.

liberated

adj. / freed from or opposed to traditional social and sexual attitudes or roles / I wanted to be an educated, liberated woman.

defeatist

n. / an attitude of accepting, expecting, or being resigned to defeat / My dad is a defeatist.

console

n. / an architectural member projecting from a wall to form a bracket or from a keystone for ornament / At recess, I tried to console her…

nuptial

adj. / of or relating to marriage or the marriage ceremony / The streets are packed with nuptial chambers.

carnal

adj. / relating to or given to crude bodily pleasures and appetites / That way, the dead man can symbolically attain carnal knowledge.

resignation

n. / an act or instance of resigning something / That’s very Persian. The philosophy of resignation.

initation

n. / the act or an instance of initiating / I remember my initation.

flagellate

v. / to drive or punish as if by whipping / During certain religious ceremonies, some people flagellated themselves brutally.

secular

adj. / of or relating to the worldly or temporal / I think that the reason we were so rebellious was that our generation had known secular schools.

bearable

adj. / capable of being borne / “Without them it wouldn’t be psychologically bearable,” some said.

ideology

n. / a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture / Their faith has nothing to do with ideology!

belligerent

adj. / inclined to or exhibiting assertiveness, hostility, or combativeness / The walls were suddenly covered with belligerent slogans.