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MALALA YOUSAFZAI’S LIFE UNDER THE TALIBAN MOVEMENT: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND FEMINIST APPROACH by

Putu Yunita Wacana Sari

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Cultures, Udayana University

Abstrak

Studi ini membahas tentang aspek psikologis dan feminis dari kehidupan seorang gadis Pakistan dibawah gerakan Taliban yang berkembang di Pakistan sejak tahun 1990-an. Malala Yousafzai, pejuang hak pendidikan yang berasal dari Swat Valley, Pakistan, menjadi sasaran Taliban dan ditembak di bagian kepala, namun secara ajaib bertahan dan melanjutkan kampanyenya atas pendidikan. Kisah hidup dan penolakannya terhadap gerakan Taliban tertulis dengan jelas didalam sebuah autobiografi yang berjudul “I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban”. Pengaruh dari gerakan Taliban terhadap perkembangan psikologis dan kepribadian Malala Yousafzai selama tinggal dibawah gerakan Taliban serta jenis feminisme yang terefleksi dari Malala Yousafzai berdasarkan situasi hidupnya dibawah gerakan Taliban, dianalisis dengan teori literatur yang dikemukakan oleh Wellek dan Warren (1955), teori psikologis yang dikemukakan oleh Bernhard (1953), teori kepribadian yang dikemukakan oleh Maslow (1970) dan teori feminisme yang dikemukakan oleh Tong (1998).

Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa gerakan Taliban memberikan pengaruh yang besar terhadap perkembangan psikologis dan kepribadian Malala. Selama hidup dibawah gerakan Taliban, Malala berubah menjadi wanita muda yang selalu optimis, tak perduli betapapun sulitnya keadaan sekitar. Terlepas dari fakta bahwa Malala terlahir dan dibesarkan dinegara yang memperlakukan wanita berbeda dengan laki-laki, usahanya untuk memperjuangkan hak atas pendidikan bagi perempuan sangatlah keras. Hal tersebut dapat dikategorikan sebagai sebuah feminism yang liberal, yang menempatkan hak sebagai prioritas utama diatas kebaikan.

Kata kunci : Psikologis,kepribadian, feminisme

  • 1.    Background of the Study

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2000), autobiography can be defined as one of the literary works that belong to non-fiction. As a literary genre, autobiography is a form of writing, which is narrating the story of one's own life written by him or herself. There are many aspects of literary work which can in principle be derived into intrinsic and extrinsic aspect. The analysis in this study is focused on psychological and feminist approach of the autobiography writer’s life under the Taliban movement. In this study, the autobiography that was analyzed is entitled I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and

was Shot by the Taliban. Malala Yousafzai’s is one of over a million girls who lived in Pakistan which is ruled by the Taliban. Malala’s reason in writing the autobiography was to raise her voice on behalf of the millions of girls around the world who are being denied their right to school and realize their potential. Her hope is that her story will inspire girls to raise their voice and embrace the power within themselves.

  • 2.    Problems

Based on the background, there are three problems discussed in this study. The problems are as follows:

  • 1.    What is the influence of the Taliban movement on Malala Yousafzai’s psychological development?

  • 2.    How was Malala Yousafzai’s personality during her life under the Taliban movement?

  • 3.    What kind of feminism that is reflected by Malala Yousafzai based on her life situation under the Taliban movement?

  • 3.    Aims

In response to the problems, the aims of this study are as follows:

  • 1.    To find out and to analyze the influence of the Taliban movement on Malala Yousafzai’s psychological development.

  • 2.    To analyze Malala Yousafzai’s personality during her life under the Taliban movement.

  • 3.    To analyze the kind of feminism that is reflected by Malala Yousafzai based on her life situation under the Taliban movement.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data used in this study were taken from the primary source, in this case Malala Yousafzai’ s autobiography entitled I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. They were collected by applying documentation method and analyzed descriptively using qualitative method. It deals with interpretation which needs an intensity of understanding.

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

  • 4.1 The Analysis of the Taliban movement’s Influence on Malala Yousafzai Psychological Development

Malala’s psychological development can be seen through the Human Motivations theory proposed by Bernhardt.

  • a)    The Aspect of Appetite

Malala’s appetite was on education which was to be the first in class. Malala’s appetite was on education which was to be the first in class. This can be seen from:

“ ‘By the age of seven I was used to being top of my class.’…. So when we did the end-of-year exams and Malka-e-Noor came first, I was shocked. At home I cried and cried and had to be comforted by my mother.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 56)

Those quotations explained that at the beginning, her prominent appetite was to defeat her rivals and always become the first in class. However, her new appetite developed through the emergence of the Taliban movements. This can be seen from:

…. “Coming first didn’t matter if you couldn’t study at all.” …. (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 134)

From her statement, ‘Coming first didn’t matter if you couldn’t study at all’ it clearly explained that since the emergence of the Taliban movements, becoming the first in class wasn’t her prominent appetites anymore as if she could not go to school.

  • b)    The Aspect of Wants

The importance of education has been embedded in her soul since childhood and became increasingly important since the emergence of the Taliban. It can be seen from:

“My parents never once suggested I should withdraw from school, ever. Though we loved school, we hadn’t realized how important education was until the Taliban tried to stop us. …. The Taliban could take our pens and

books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 121-122)

Through the quotations above, it can be seen that Malala wants to struggle for her as well as the other girls rights to education, based on her belief that education is important than any other things in the world.

  • c)    The Aspect of Emotions

One of Malala’s emotions was anger, it appeared since her rights of education were seized by the Taliban. This can be seen from:

“We were not fans of the Taliban as we had heard they destroyed girls’ schools and blew up giant Buddha statues….” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 70)

Besides anger, Malala’s other emotion was fear. One of the causes of her fear to the Taliban movements was the numbers of the Taliban’s cruelty she had ever known. Her fear of the Taliban can be seen from:

“When I was in the street it felt as though every man I passed might be a talib. We hid our school bags and our books in our shawls.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 112)

The Taliban gave such a big influence to Malala’s psychological development especially her emotions. Her anger and anxiety developed gradually due to the emergence of the Taliban.

  • d)    The Aspect of Feelings and Attitudes

Every experience that individual has and every activity she engages are evaluated by being pleasant or unpleasant. Malala has the unpleasant feelings during her life under the Taliban as could be seen in:

“I was confused by Fazlullah’s words. In the Holy Quran it is not written that men should go outside and women should work all day in home.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 95)

Malala did several things as the reactions or what is considered as the attitudes of her feelings of unpleasantness to the Taliban movement. As described on her autobiography:

“I went on as many as radio and TV channels as possible. ‘They can stop us going to school but they can’t stop us learning’, I said.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 135)

From the previous quotations it could be seen clearly how feelings and attitudes are connected and cannot be separated from each other.

  • e)    The Aspect of Environment

Malala’s self-assertion or her tendency to overcome the difficulties was developed through the emergence of Taliban as she stated in her autobiography:

“The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013:122)

“I was a bit nervous but I knew it was important as many people all over Pakistan would be listening. ‘How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?’ I said.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013:118)

From all of the Human Motivation aspects, it can be concluded that environment was the most influential thing to the Malala’s psychological development. As every aspect of the Human Motivations were all happened through the big influence of the environment in this case the Taliban movements. 4.2 The Analysis of Malala Yousafzai’s Personality during Her Life under the

Taliban movement

Malala’s personality development since the emergence of the Taliban can be clearly seen through the Maslow’s Herarchy of Needs.

  • a)    Physiological Needs

Apart from Malala’s fear of being banned from attending school, her other worry during her life under the Taliban was water. As can be seen from:

“But there was no clean water and people started dying from cholera. The hospital could not cope with all the patients and had to erect big tents outside to treat people.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 120-121)

While Malala’s family giving some water to some of the people around them, one of their neighbours got frightened:

“ ‘What are you doing?’ he asked. ‘If the Taliban find out you’re giving water in the month of Ramadan they will bomb us!’ ”(Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 121)

Through the previous statement, it can be clearly seen that though the people were in a complicated situation their fear of the Taliban remained the same.

  • b)    Safety Needs

After doing various kinds of rejection to the Taliban movements, Swati’ s finally found a stream of light. As can be seen from:

“The pressure from the whole country worked, and Fazlullah agreed to lift the ban for girls up to ten years old – Year 4. I was in Year 5 and some of us pretended we were younger than we were.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 138139)

About a week after they had returned to school, a peace deal had been struck between the Taliban and the provincial government.

“And it was hard to believe it was all over! More than a thousand ordinary people and police had been killed. …. And now it was all to stop.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 139-140)

The people of Swat Valley especially Malala were happy though it was still became a doubt for them that after got mad and broke everything, the Taliban suddenly accepted the peace deal.

  • c)    Love and Belongingness Needs

In her autobiography Malala had explained a bit of her love story. As can be seen from:

“ He had written, ‘Now you have become very popular, I still love you and know you love me. This is my number, call me.’ ” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 196197)

At this level, Malala’s needs pattern was inappropriate to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As can be seen from:

“I gave that note to my father and he was angry. He called Haroon and told him he would tell his father. That was the last time I saw him.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 196-197)

It can be seen clearly through the previous quotations, that Malala’s father prohibited the relationships between Malala and Haroon. Besides, Malala had not revealed his interest to Haroon. Therefore, after satisfying her physiological and safety needs, love and belongingness needs were not important to her.

  • d)    Esteem Needs

Malala’s esteem appeared gradually through the emergence of the Taliban movements especially due to her father motivation. As can be seen from:

“ ‘How can we do that?’ I replied. ‘You were the one who said if we believe in something greater than our lives, then our voices will only multiply even if we are dead. We can’t disown our campaign!’ ” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 188-189)

The quotations clearly explain that Malala’s esteem developed through her great passion of education especially to gain the girl’s rights of education.

  • e)    Self-actualization Needs

Malala had reached self-actualization, which are the highest needs according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As can be seen from:

“I don’t want to be thought of as ‘the girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but ‘the girl who fought for education’. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.” (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 261)

Her self-actualization can be seen through some of her speeches in campaigning the girl’s rights of education.

  • 4.3 The Kind of Feminism Reflected from Malala Yousafzai based on Her Life Situation under the Taliban Movement

The diversification of men and women had occurred since ancient times in Pakistan. As can be seen from:

…. and my grandfather would not help them out because I was not a boy.

(Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 47)

Malala’s rejection of the inequality way of treating women even occurred before the emergence of the Taliban in Swat Valley. As can be seen from:

I am very proud to be a Pashtun but sometimes I think our code of conduct has a lot to answer for, particularly where the treatment of women is concerned. (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 75)

Her rejection to the Taliban movement developed since the Taliban started to seize her rights of education by prohibiting girls from going to school. Malala’ s self-motivation encouraged her to start spoke and fought for girl’s rights of education. As can be seen from:

In my heart was the belief that God would protect me. If I am speaking for my rights, for the rights of girls, I am not doing anything wrong. (Yousafzai, I am Malala, 2013: 117)

From the previous statements, it clearly explained that, although Malala was born and raised in a country where women treated differently to men, she realized that she has the same opportunity in having the chance to get the education since education is the basic rights of human being.

  • 6.    Conclusion

It can be concluded that, The Taliban movement gave such a big influence to Malala Yousafzai’s psychological development. She changed gradually to a mature and brave young lady. During her live under the Taliban movement, Malala Yousafzai’s personality development can be clearly seen as she was able to face all the difficulties, from her environment. In the end, though she was being shot by the Taliban, her dreams to fight for girls’ education remained the same. Besides, through the previous analysis, it can be concluded that the kind of feminism that is reflected by Malala Yousafzai is Liberal Feminism which positioned ‘rights’ as priority over the ‘goodness’.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Bernhardt, Karl S. 1953. Practical Psychology, New York: McGraw Hill Book Company Inc.

Feist, J., & Gregory J. Feist. 2009. Theories of Personality. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Companies, inc.

Hornby, A.S. 1974. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kunto, Ari. 1985. Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Yogyakarta: PT. Bina Aksara.

Tong, Rosemary. 1998. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, Secon Edition. United States of America: Westview Press.

Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. 1955. Theory of Literature. London: Lowe & Brydone Ltd.

Yousafzai, Malala and Christina Lamb. 2013. I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.