Marjane's Uncle

Marjane's uncle is extremely significant to the graphic novel. His name is Uncle Anoosh. Before she learned of her Uncle Anoosh, she was disappointed because she was competing against one of her peers, Laly (I wouldn't call Laly a friend because Marjane told Laly that her father was probably dead since Laly's mother told Laly her father was on a trip) whose father was a hero. Laly's father was thrown into prison and tortured during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's (the son of the deposed Reza Shah and simply known as the Shah) reign. Marjane was bitter because her father was not a hero. Shortly after Laly's father comes to visit Marjane's family, she learns of her Uncle Anoosh. Uncle Anoosh was in prison and for the first time in thirty years, Marjane's grandmother was reunited with all six of her children. "I had a hero in my family... Naturally I loved him immediately" she says. Her uncle decided to stay the night and tell Marjane about his stories. When he was eighteen years old, his uncle (Marjane's grandfather's brother) liberated the Iranian province of Azerbaijan and his uncle named him his Secretary. However, his father (Marjane's grandfather) remained loyal to the Shah and declared his son and brother a traitor. After his uncle was caught, Anoosh ran away and came back to his mother and father after a long and tiresome journey that lasted days in the snow on foot. Because the Shah's soldiers were still looking for him, he decided to go into exile in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (or the U.S.S.R.). He swam into exile (which is ridiculous). In the (now former) Soviet Union, he got his doctorate in Marxism-Leninism (or Dialectical Materialism). he eventually got married and had two children. He divorced his wife because she didn't have a heart. After he separated from his wife, he decided to go back to Iran under disguise and a false passport. However, he was soon discovered and thrown into prison for nine years!