Gender Roles In I Am Malala

Due to past events, the Afghan government is now struggling to keep up with their citizens’ problems with living there. Bombing, wars, harassment, feminism, and abuse have been some of the main topics of bad events in the last few years in Afghanistan. Dystopia is a society that can be characterized with extreme hunger, poverty, misery, and the imbalance among the people; the Taliban taking over was the cause of how Afghanistan is still dystopian today. When one analyzes Ashraf Ghani’s choice to allow the Taliban to form, and the impacts the Taliban are still having on the people, one can realize how important genres of literature can be to educate the world about this dystopian

I am Malala is a heroic story about a young woman who stood up for what she wanted. This auto-biography is based on a teenager named Malala Yousafzi who stood up for girls education in her home country Pakistan. She also went against the Taliban because she didn't think it was right of what they were doing to her innocent village. When Malala was born very few people came to congratulate her parents because the birth of a girl is seen as a failure of the parents in her culture. She was born and raised in Sway Valley, Northeastern Pakistan. Swat Valley has beautiful scenery which attracts a lot of tourism until the Taliban took over the valley. Malala’s parents Ziauddin and Toor Pekai were very kind humble people from the mountain villages. Malala’s father was a very well educated man who grew up studying poetry and literature. He also started the Khushal School a three years before Malala was born. ”My father started the school three years before I was born, and he was a teacher, accountant, and principal—as well as a janitor, handyman, and chief mechanic.” (Chapter 1, Page 20) In Malala’s culture, girls are refused an education or even simply knowing how to read and write. Her father helped girls by starting the school and making a big influence on girls. Malala is truly a hero throughout this paper you will see how she changed everything.

Malala Yousafzai was a talented and brave young woman who had one goal in life: to get an education and encourage others to do the same. Born in Pakistan, Malala did not grow up with many resources, but she was lucky enough to have a father that shared the same goal as her. At the young age of fifteen, she was shot in the face by the Taliban for standing up for girls’ rights to an education. Although the recovery time was long and hard, the Taliban did not silence her as she continued her campaign. This eventually led her to opening her own school in Yemen and writing the novel I Am Malala. As someone who highly values education and bravery, her story made me interested in learning more about her culture, family, and experiences.

Violence, war, discrimination, and poverty: these issues have long been a part of Afghanistan’s history. Even though things in Afghanistan are getting better, war fills the country, and women and children have to learn to endure abuse, caused by men and the Taliban; they also learn to endure poverty. Considering this, it is no wonder why Afghanistan is in the terrible position it is in now. Many Afghan cities like Kabul are filled with things like violence and discrimination, and the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini takes place in Kabul. This book follows the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they suffer pain and discrimination received from the Taliban and their

Today in the post –Taliban era, women still struggle with their rights. Resolutions were produced and rights for women have advanced since September 11th but in order to move forward, much work needs to be done. Hundreds of years of repression for Afghan women will take a lot longer than a few years to actually revolutionize. There is violence towards women that are not practicing traditions customs and fear retaliations from the Taliban. Customs are difficult to change as well as government policies. (Bora Laskin Law). In Afghanistan, religious and cultural values, politics, and an uncertain acting government have played a major part in the struggle for women’s rights.

Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.

With the Taliban beginning its reigns on Afghanistan, darkness took over the nation. Terror became a more common installment into the minds of the citizens. Hearing the rumble of the jeeps, the bangs of the AK-47s, and the bombs setting off can send a shiver down anyone’s back. Families are torn apart, children forget what play time is, schools are destroyed. The injustice that the Taliban brought is defined through the cruelest of actions. “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” (Hosseini, 1) With their regime, the Taliban established radical rules that limited the country to all but making the essential function of speaking, barely legal. The effect of the Taliban begin to spread specifically towards Amir and his family. With the beginning the war, Amir sees his

The specific topic of this book is the oppression of women. Its overall purpose is to understand the women behind the veils and why the Muslim women take up the hijab. The purpose is also to show how

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini takes a solid focus on the lives of two young women, Mariam and Laila, who grow up in a struggling and turbulent Afghanistan. This book emulates the lives of those who have actually been affected by the extreme changes of power within their culture. From the Soviets to the Taliban, these people are caught in a war they cannot win but must deal with the consequences of. The lives of Mariam and Laila are consumed and silenced by those with power over them, namely males with traditional values. The book conveys the idea that even with an immense amount of destruction and terror wrought throughout Afghanistan, underneath lies a beauty that has been muted but it still provides hope for the future.

Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.

On October 9, 2012 a young girl named Malala was shot in the face by a group of

The novel is centered around the city of Kabul during the late 1900’s to the early 2000’s. During this period, the city was in a time of conflict. There were forces trying to seize control over Afghanistan. There were various social and economical classes throughout the cities. For example, Jalil Khan lives in a high class area where as, Rasheed lives in a low-to-middle class area. Prior to the Soviets control, there were multiple benefits for women in education and obtaining jobs. When the Taliban later got control, there were many laws made governing daily life. Many, if not most people risked punishment and would for example, use televisions to watch the new movie, Titanic. Living in Kabul was extremely dangerous with rockets flying wild and armed men patrolling the neighborhoods. In 2001 on September 11th, people in Kabul and all of Afghanistan, were informed on the news of the Taliban’s attack on the United States. Also they learn that the U.S. has declared war on Afghanistan. During this time period, the people of Afghanistan learned to endure and never lose hope.

In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, a picture of Afghanistan was shown during the time of war. The concepts Hosseini tried to promote in his novel are mostly of how women were seen during the years of the Soviet occupation, then the civil war and the Taliban dictatorship. The novel showed the drastic change in lifestyles, especially the lives of women, and what they went through in every aspect in their lives. Hosseini highlighted the horrors and terrors that a lot of women have gone through and the harsh treatments they faced in a war torn country like Afghanistan. Oppression and patriarchy are big themes Hosseini views in his novel, both political and personal.

Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.

The Taliban is well known for terrorism in western countries however their oppression in their own country is often overlooked. Oftentimes, places the Taliban hold control over suffer more than the western countries or target countries. Yasmina Khadra’s book, The Swallows of Kabul explicitly outlines the hardship suffered in Afghanistan. Through the suffering in the book, we see what the people of Kabul value the most as well as what the author values. Khadra was born and currently lives in Algeria which also faces oppression so the values portrayed from his characters and he will be similar. The book is about four individuals named Mohsen, Zunaira, Atiq and Musarrat and their lives in Kabul which was ruled by the Taliban. It is prominent that