Finding Re-defined Ways

With much of the past faded and much of the future blinded, can our choices today assure the best out of our lives tomorrow?

I have got to know Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (see here) from a review in TimeOut Istanbul last December. The article was written in a contemplative tone, with the writer questioning herself in the last paragraph, '(As we're) walking out of the cinema, between ourselves, my sister and I were furious at the veiled women who were exiting with us; could they even fathom the idea of living in Iran after their comfortably emancipated lives in our secular Muslim society?'

The writer, apparently an adamant secularist common in the strongly secular Turkey, added, 'unfortunately, after a few minutes, I was perturbed by my own thoughts: if I wanted to keep my right to uncover my head, did they not have the liberty to continue covering theirs?'

Her thoughts immediately reflected the Turkey I know. There is a soaring gap between Turkey's secular and religious groups, but this was hardly reflected in what I saw in its richly cosmopolitan Istanbul -- the devout and the modern ran their lives side by side, the many mosques always full during prayer times, differences put aside as business went as usual.

But ever since Atatürk abolished the Ottoman Sultanate completely and transformed Turkey into a strictly, explicitly secular state in 1924, secularism remains a highly defended matter and questions of founding an Islamic state is ultimately out of bound -- at least, not until recently.

The situation going on in Turkey, of course, is in perfect contrast with what's happening in Iran. Marjane Satrapi's reminiscent view of her homeland in Persepolis is a melancholic one. Adapted from her best-selling autobiographical novels, Persepolis bears witness to a story of a girl who traversed her life in the times where Iran was transformed from a revolting monarchy into an Islamic state which adheres to the laws of Sharia.

The Islamic Revolution during the early '80s is pictured to pose an oppression to many, which includes Marjane's upper-middle, Western educated family. Throughout the story, she often gets her inspiration from her determined and supportive grandmother, whose views are very pessimistic in seeing life. Seeing the unstable condition in their homeland, Marjane's parents sent her to study abroad in Vienna.

She returned to Iran years later, and was set to endure the life under the Islamist regime.

Another movie, The Kite Runner, (see here) which was released last month, is adapted from the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, bears a similar general storyline to Persepolis, albeit differing in character. Set in 1978 Afghanistan prior to the Soviet invasion, the story lies in between the lives of two boys, Amir and Hassan, in which the former is from a well-to-do family in Kabul, while the latter is the son of his father's servant of the ethnic Hazara.

Amir and Hassan are one of those childhood best friends that went up to untie a knot of brotherhood which knows no boundaries and such. Both share the same passion, which is kite-flying, common in Afghanistan at that time but was banned by the Taliban regime later.

Their friendship reached to high grounds, until Amir witnessed the rape of his loyal friend by another teenaged boy. Loyal to Amir by not handing over his friend's kite which he was chasing after earlier, Hassan was assaulted on the reason of being a Hazara. Ashamed by his cowardice to not helping Hassan, Amir felt guilty and started to treat Hassan poorly later.

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the war began. Amir's father, who was known for opposing communism openly, feared for his safety. Together with Amir, they fled to the borders to Pakistan, before moving on to California.

So, both stories went off. Interestingly, neither of these two movies are mainly politically oriented (or at least they're not initially and directly). Both movies just wanted to share the ups and downs in upholding humanity -- the struggle of being human come low or high tide. And yes, they have also shown that politics really do affect our lives whether we like it or not.

Both films poised the question of how people suffer from failed and oppressive governance. Both films also let the viewers linger around the questions of survival, freedom and liberty. However it was Marjane's Persepolis that went a little bit critical of the government that is led mainly by clerics.

The Kite Runner, on the other hand, pictured vaguely the oppression posed on the people living under the Taliban, while magnifying mainly on the fundamental humane (and inhumane) issues, without posing any direct criticism of the previous Afghan government.

Nevertheless, we can conclude that in Turkey, you'll always be sure that they're ultimately secular, in which, religion and state affairs mix ill, and both should be separated completely; whereby in Iran, it is an Islamic state with Sharia law and whatever lifestyle that is deemed Islamic. Whereas in Afghanistan, the Taliban regime is now a ghostly past, gone with its much touted 'ruining oppression'.

Interestingly, closer to home, you'll never be sure of what Malaysia actually is. The nation's founder and the much revered first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman once stressed out that Malaysia 'will never be an Islamic state', while Tun Hussein Onn said 'Malaysia can still be secular, with Islam as its state religion'.

But 'Malaysia is an Islamic country,' said Tun Dr. Mahathir. The status of Malaysia as either a secular or an Islamic state remains a hotly-debated topic, especially between DAP and PAS, two Pakatan Rakyat parties of differing ideologies.

While the dispute alone is an issue, the question of what does an Islamic state actually stands for is another. What I'm sure of -- big mosques, arches and arabesques everywhere in buildings all over the country, and tudung-clad girls walking around are not enough to ensure that we are an Islamic state.

We seem to always fall to the mistake of interpreting Arab culture as Islamic culture, and with that, we got confused of what is Malay, what is Arab, what is Islam, and intuitively, what is Malaysian. Quite unfortunately, our administrative capital Putrajaya was largely built out of this ignorance, and what we see today is a big misunderstanding of these clash of civilisations.

Disappointments occur when people fail to relate to their surroundings. It can happen everywhere. At all times, freedom are better than oppression, as oppression often leads to misunderstandings. The writer of the Persepolis' review recorded a view of an Iranian visitor to Turkey, as follows, 'You know, it's so strange; while we're trying to get rid of our veils your people are trying really hard to put them back on.'

'Just like in Iran, it all seems to happen slowly, but surely,' the writer responded.

Whatever it is, everything just sums up to an individual opinion. It falls to what you really believe in; what you've chosen to believe. We're given choices, but nobody said that the choices would be easy. Like Marjane and Amir, there are millions in this world who are trying to shape their lives according to what they believe, and nobody is sure whether they are wrong or right.

'There is a way to be good again,' says Rahim Khan, Amir's father's close friend. And I do hope that the way shall be easier to be found.

PHOTOS Up; A scene from Persepolis (2007) directed by Marjane Satrapi. Below; The Kite Runner (2008), directed by Marc Foster. Persepolis won the Jury Prize at 2007 Cannes Film Festival, among other awards. Khaled Hosseini has written another novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in which the story also took place in Afghanistan. TimeOut is a popular listing magazine for particular cities all over the world, with TimeOut KL only to be launched last month. See TimeOutKL.com