Family in I Am Malala
Actually, these inequality and oppression are conditions that feminist tries to challenge. According to Maggie Humm in The Dictionary of Feminist Theory,
feminist approach is to understand women’s inequality in terms of race, gender, class, and sexual preference and how to change it Humm, 2012: xii. It shows
that feminism analyzes not only women’s experience under the oppression but also their struggles in resisting the oppression in order to get their right and
freedom. The existence of patriarchy that perceives men as superior rather than
women justifies men to oppress women. According to Jane and Imelda in 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies,
“Patriarchy is a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women” Pilcher and
Whelehan, 2004: 95. As superior, men can have bigger power to dictate women in any circumstances, like in the case of Taliban. They use their power to oppress
women by imposing the strict rules for women. They believe that women are powerful; in fact they can be the source of temptation and sin for men
Darvishpour, 2003: 1. Therefore, under the name of Islam, Taliban imposes the rules in order to restrict women’s power.
The intention on imposing Taliban’s rules on ideal Muslim women is that Taliban aim to create their own women that can be easily controlled. If this
exposure is always given to the women day by day, it can create a parameter on ideal Muslim women in society. Ideally, a Muslim woman should not go outside
without their mahram, pursue education, work, and they should wear burqa. From this exposure, they believe that Islam restricts them in the four walls of home.
They believe that besides practicing their commitment and obligation as Muslim, their jobs are only cooking food, cleaning the house, taking care their children and
husband. For example, Malala’s mother is a very pious Muslim. Besides, she prays five times a day, her jobs are only cooking, cleaning, and taking care of
house, children, and husband Yousafzai, 2013: 28. In the end, they subconsciously believe that being ideal Muslim women mean that they should be
passive, silence, and obedient because Islam never lets them be active women. These strict rules should be imposed because Taliban are afraid if they let
women pursue their right and freedom, there is possibility for the women are not under Taliban’s control. “I want to learn and be trained well with the weapon of
knowledge. Then I will be able to fight more effectively for my cause” Yousafzai, 2013: 147. Therefore, in maintaining their power over the women,
they are spreading intimidation, terrorism, and fear. In the end, it is hard for women to hold the power. For example, Taliban assassinate Benazi Bhutto, the
first woman prime minister in Pakistan, on December 27th, 2007. They cannot tolerate Bhutto
’s behavior that is actively against their rules by empowering women and campaigning western culture, like education for girls.
On 27 December Benazir Bhutto addressed an election rally in Liaquat Bagh, the park in Rawalpindhi where our first prime minister, Liquat Ali,
was assassinated.... She was in a special bulletproof Toyota Land Cruiser, and as it left the park she stood up on the seat and popped her head
through the sunroof to wave to supporters. Suddenly there was the crack of gunfire and an explosion as a suicide bomber blew himself up by the side
of her vehicle. Benazir slid back down Yousafzai, 2013: 62. Taliban actually reflect patriarchy in which men as superior can use their
power and violence in o rder to control, oppress, and maintain women’s position as
inferior. Taliban think that Benazir Bhutto does not place herself as an inferior, not being passive, obedient, and silence because she actively does campaign on
women’s education. Therefore, it justifies for Taliban to use their power to shoot her as a form of punishment in order to make her realize about her position as an
inferior. Most women in Swat know that career and education can give them option
about their future, “Going to school, reading and doing our homework wasn’t just a way of passing time, it was our future” Yousafzai, 2013: 69. However, as
women who live under Taliban regime, they must sacrifice their bright future. This is because they do not have any accesses at all to pursue their education and
career in public. Even if they have a chance to pursue it, the result will be the same. They will be stuck in their home, like marrying with someone that they
does not know or taking care of house and letting their bright future goes away. “There seemed no point in going to school just to end up cooking, cleaning and
bringing up children” Yousafzai, 2013: 19. This oppression makes most women are angry but they do not have bravery to fight Taliban back because they are
afraid with Taliban’s punishment. Therefore, they prefer to do nothing even
police, the one who should protect society, prefers to do nothing and lets Taliban does everything that they want.
One day we found our teacher Miss Hammeda in floods of tears. Her husband was
a policeman in the small town of Matta, and Fazlullah’s men had stormed in and some police officers had been killed, including her
husband. It was the first Taliban attack on the police in our valley. Soon they had taken over many villages. The black and white flags of
Fazlullah’s TNSM started appearing on police station. The militants would enter villages with megaphones and the police would flee. In a short time
they had taken over fifty-nine villages and set up their own parallel
administrations. Policemen were so scared of being killed that they took out adverts in the newspapers to announce they had left the force. All this
happened and nobody did a thing Yousafzai, 2013: 59.
On the contrary, Malala is voluntarily and endangering her life in order to opt out from Taliban’s oppression and her actions can be categorized as
resistance. According to Stellan Vinthagen in Understanding “Resistance”:
Exploring definitions, perspectives, forms and implications, “Resistance is an act done by someone subordinate, that is response to power, do challenge power, and
contain at least a possibility, that power gets undermined by the act” Vinthagen, 2007: 7.
As a woman who lives in a man’s world, Malala is treated as an inferior or subordinate by men. Meaning to say, she should be passive, silence, and obedient
when men, in this case Taliban, use their power to oppress and take her right and freedom. However, she does not keep silence, she wants to end the death cycle of
Taliban by resisting their rules. Actually, Malala’s actions in resisting against
Taliban’s rules on ideal Muslim women are influenced by setting of social circumstances in which Malala lives. According to M. J. Murphy in An
Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Student ,
“setting have a great effect upon the personalities, actions, and ways of thinking of the characters” Murphy, 1972:141. The setting of social circumstances that
will be analyzed in this study are tradition, religion, and family.