biggest town in Swat. In fact, there are 175,000 people who live there Yousafzai, 2013: 39. Because many people live there, Mingora is not as fresh as before. The
fresh air is polluted by vehicles and rubbish. Then beautiful trees on the hills and mountains are being chopped down for timber.
We lived in Mingora, the biggest town in the valley, in fact the only city. It used to be small but many people had moved in from surrounding villages,
making it dirty and crowded. It has hotels, colleges, a golf course and a famous bazaar for buying traditional embroidery, gemstones and anything
you can think of. The Marghazar stream loops through it, milky brown from the plastic bags and rubbish thrown into it Yousafzai, 2013: 7.
2. Setting of Time
According to Hugh Holman and William Harmon, setting of time is the time or period in which the action takes place Holman and Harmon, 1986: 468.
The setting of time in I Am Malala is around 20
th
and 21
st
centuries when Taliban officially establish their group in Swat. This establishment creates severe
condition in Swat because Taliban destroy everything that they think haram or forbidden. For example, in the beginning of Taliban’s regime, around 2007,
Taliban raid houses that they claim are being used as massage centre. They close down DVD’s shops and make bonfires of CDs and DVDs. On July, 2007, Swat
becomes a bloody district because Taliban use their power to kill the innocent people.
By nightfall on 10 July, when the siege was finally over, around a hundred people had been killed including several soldiers and a number of children.
The news showed shocking pictures of the wreckage, everywhere blood and broken glass, and dead bodies. We all watched in horror Yousafzai,
2013: 60. On October 8, 2007, Taliban destroy Buddhist statues because they believe
that the statues and painting are perceived as haram and sinful.
It took them two goes to destroy it. The first time they drilled holes in the rock and filled them with dynamite, but that didn’t work. A few weeks
later, on 8 October 2007, they tried again. This time they obliterated the Buddha’s face, which had watched over the valley since the seventh
century. The Taliban became the enemy of fine arts, culture and our history Yousafzai, 2013: 58.
They also destroy Emerald Mountain by selling the beautiful stones and chopping down the precious trees to buy their weapons. Furthermore, around
2008 until 2013, they destroy the important thing for society’s development which is school. Taliban think that education is a western culture and infidel.
By the end of 2008, around 400 schools had been destroyed by the Taliban Yousafzai, 2013: 68.
In March there was an attack on a girls’ school in Karachi that we had visited. A bomb and grenade were tossed into the school playground just
as a prize-giving ceremony about to start. The headmaster, Abdul Rasheed, was killed and eight children hurt between the ages of five and
ten Yousafzai, 2013: 147. When Taliban establish their group, they also impose strict rules for
Muslim men and women in Swat. For men, they should keep their beards and abandon the practices that Taliban perceive as bad habits, like smoking, using
heroin, and chars or hashish Yousafzai, 2013: 52. For women, they should not go outside only if there are accompanied at all time by a mahram. They are
banned from working. They should not go to school. Women are not allowed to laugh or even speak loudly because it risks sexually exciting males. Then they
should wear burqa Yousafzai, 2013: pp. 31.
3. Setting of Social Circumstances
According to Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature, setting of social circumstances defines as the general environment of the characters, for
example religious, mental, moral, social, and emotional condition through which
the people in the narrative move Holman and Harmon, 1986: 465. However, setting of social circumstances in I Am Malala that are analyzed are tradition,
religion, and family.
a. Tradition in I Am Malala
The Swat people call themselves as Pashtun, an ethnic group who lives in Afghanistan and North-Western Pakistan. As Pashtun, they are obliged to use
Pashtunwali or a set of
unwritten Pashtun’s traditional code of conduct. They are honor nang, revenge badal, chivalry and bravery gayrat, hospitality
melmastia, and gender boundaries purdah and namus Rechman, 2015: 299. If they violate it, they will get a punishment based on Jirga or council of elders.
However, this study will only deal with three codes of Pashtunwali that are founded in the autobiography I Am Malala, they are nang, badal, and melmastia.
First is nang or honor. This code obliges Pashtun people to defend their honor as a group or individual when someone offends it, “We fight and feud
ourselves so much. But we always come together against outsiders who try to conquer our lands” Yousafzai, 2013: 3. Besides, they should protect their honor
because their biggest fear is losing their face in society. For example, as Pashtun women, they should protect their honor by hiding their face whenever they leave
their house. If they are not, it will bring a shame to the family. Therefore, when Malala does not cover her face, her male cousin is angry with her because
Malala’s action will bring a shame to her family. One of my male cousins was angry and asked my father, „Why isn’t she
covered?’ He replied, „She’s my daughter. Look after your own affairs.’ But some of the family thought people would gossip about us and say we
were not properly following Pashtunwali Youzafzai, 2013: 30.
