Late last week, Chicago Public Schools ordered a book of Iran that was in the syllabus out of seventh grade classes, calling it "inappropriate".

Chicago Public Schools initiated a controversy late last week when it announced that "Persepolis", a critically acclaimed graphic novel about a girl growing up in Iran at the time of the Islamic revolution, should be removed from all seventh grade classes. However, the district clarified that they have not put a ban on the book but have only removed it from certain classes owing to its "inappropriate" content.

"Due to the powerful images of torture in the book, I have asked our Office of Teaching & Learning to develop professional development guidelines, so that teachers can be trained to present this strong, but important content," Byrd-Bennett wrote in an email Friday to all CPS principals.

In an official statement, Bennett requested all children whose teachers have not started teaching the book to tell them not to teach it and requested teachers to remove all copies of the novel from their classrooms. The statement also acted as a clarification to all teachers who had received different instructions previously telling them that the book will be removed from all school libraries.

Kristen Starr, librarian at Lane Tech, a school with grades seven to 10, revealed she had received information last Wednesday that said copies of Marjane Satrapi's novel will be removed from all classes and libraries.

Principal of Lane Tech Christopher Dignam sent out a mail to his staff confirming the same. The email informed the staff that CPS personals will be going around removing copies of the novel from each school and their libraries and making sure that children have not been taught the book yet. Dignam clarified that he had not received a reason for the order.

Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for CPS, justified the original email saying it was a matter of poor communication and that schools were never asked to remove the book from their libraries.

Paul Bogaards, spokesman for Pantheon, the book's publisher, revealed that the book which was published in 2003 in the United States, and made into a film in 2007, is banned in Iran, Tunisia and Lebanon.