The Representation of Gender Discrimination in Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb’s I Am Malala

Abstract

This research analyzes the problem of gender discrimination based on the true experience of Malala Yousafzai and other female characters in I am Malala. Women in Pakistan are discriminated under the Taliban regime. They cannot get their right to get education, forbidden to go out of their home, and they are not allowed to hold any kind of jobs. They just confined to household activities and stay at home. This research uses representation theory by Stuart Hall to analyze the discourse of gender discrimination faced by the main female characters in the novel. This research uses qualitative method and the data are divided into two kinds of data. They are primary and secondary data. The primary data are taken from the novel including dialogues and sentences. The secondary data are taken from some references related to gender discrimination such as books, articles, theses and journals. The data are divided into two categories. The first is the representation of gender discrimination in Pakistan in 2012, and the second is about the critical position of the authors. As the result, this research shows that there are many kinds of gender discrimination toward the main female characters. Those are prohibition to get education, women limited access and obligation to wear burqa. These obligations are considered as violation of human freedom. In Pakistan men are considered as the dominant rules and women as the subordinate ones in the society because of that all people activities are differentiated based on gender by the Taliban. It makes Malala and Lamb really disagree toward the way how the Taliban treats women in the novel.