looking after the children and preparing food to serve men in their hujra upstairs”
Yousafzai, 2013: 28.
B. The Influence of Setting of Social Circumstances on Malala’s Resistance
against Taliban’s Rules on Ideal Muslim Women in I Am Malala
In 2007, Taliban officially establish their group in Swat valley, Pakistan. This establishment creates severe condition there. Firstly, Taliban destroy
everything that they think haram or forbidden. Secondly, they make an interpretation on Sharia
and teach Muslim about the right ways of Muslim’s life. For this one, they create rules on ideal Muslim men and women to make sure if
the Muslim will avoid the action that can create a sin. Their rules for men include they should keep their beards and abandon the
habits that Taliban perceive as bad actions, like smoking, using heroin, and chars or hashish. For women, they should go outside only if they are accompanied by a
mahram all the time. They are banned from working. They should not go to
school. Women are not allowed to laugh or even speak loudly because it attracts men’s sexual desire. Then they should wear burqa Yousafzai, 2013: pp. 55-57.
Taliban’s rules create inequality between men and women. Under these rules, men can easily pursue their right and freedom, while women cannot. For example,
women should wear burqa, while men do not. Then women should not pursue education, while men do. It seems that these rules are made to imprison women in
their home and restrict them to the public life. Therefore, it can be easier for men to control women’s movement in society.
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.
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