Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

Reza asks Marjane to marry him, a situation borne out of desperation because they cannot be together in public. Marjane is unsure of the relationship and thinks that she cannot know if she truly wants to spend forever with him until she lives with him. She does love him, however; so, she agrees. Her father petitions Reza to allow the stipulation for divorce in their wedding contract, knowing that they will someday divorce. Marjane reveals that this will happen in the future. Four hundred people come to the extravagant wedding through which her mother cries, admitting that she wanted a better future than marriage for her only child. After a month, Reza and Marjane have separate bedrooms and separate lives, fighting whenever they are in the same room.

In 1991, Iraq attacks Kuwait. The Iranians have little pity for either party, as Kuwait backed Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Still, Marjane and her father laugh at the war, the war coverage, and what they call the disdain of Europeans for their region. Marjane admits that she is no rebel and that she lives under the regime so that she is not executed, as most do who have forgotten their political conscious.