Answer:
Persepolis opens right after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, this leads to the rise of the religious hardliners who establish the oppressive Islamic Republic. Marjane Satrapi describes how she used to attend a French co-educational and non-religious school, but how this is outlawed because the Islamic Republic distrusts and rallies against all Western influences.
Further, the regime forces all women and girls to wear veils. Her own grandfather was a Persian Prince who was often imprisoned and tortured under the rules of the Shah. She also begins to understand that different social classes exist, and that this is one root of much tension and suffering in the country.
After the Revolution comes to an end and the Shah is ousted, many political prisoners find themselves released from prison, including Siamak and Mohsen, both Revolutionaries who have been in prison for years. They speak of the tortures they experienced and the deaths they witnessed. Thinking of these two men as heroes, Marjane remains disappointed that her own father is not a hero, and that no one in her family is one, either.
However, when he came back to Iran, his disguise was not good enough to keep him out of jail, and there he experienced much degradation. Marjane considers him a hero, and he hands her a bread swan he made while in prison. Unfortunately, soon afterwards, with the new radicalization of the country under the hardline government, the former political prisoners that were released become targets again, and Mohsen gets assassinated, though Siamak manages to sneak out of the country. Anoosh gets arrested, and Marjane is allowed to see him just once before his execution. Soon after, this is the point at which Marjane rejects God.
