I Am Malala Character Analysis

In the autobiography I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, the theme of gender is represented well by a range of characters. However only two male and female characters fully represent the theme of gender: Malala’s mother and the Taliban leader Mualana Fazlullah (also known as the Radio Mullah). In Malala’s native city, Swat, Pakistan, the two genders male and female have very different roles in the home as well in society in general. Malala’s mother and Mualana Fazlullah are the best examples of the theme of gender.
Malala’s mother, Tor Pekai Yousafzai, represents the theme of gender well as she is a very traditional Islamic wife. The traditions of Islam and of the Pashtuns set many limitations and expectations on women. “My mother started school when she was six and ended the same term. … There seemed no point in going to school to
He set and reinforced the expectations of women in Swat. “A man goes out to work, he earns a wage, he comes back home, he eats, he sleeps. That’s what he does. Our men think earning money and ordering around others is where power lies.” (Yousafzai 116). Mualana Fazlullah preached this idea, and many members of the male gender in Swat listened. The only restriction that was set was that a man has to have facial hair and not defy the governing body.
The autobiography I am Malala contains two characters that portray the theme of gender very well. Both of these characters are extremely traditional, thus showing how the Pakistani and Islamic traditions impose many restrictions and expectations on women, and not so much on the men. A story on NPR/WLRN ran several weeks ago outlining the plight of women in ISIS areas, specifically how ISIS was selling women to keep soldiers, much like a barter system. Is this tradition, or have the radicals taken the restrictions and expectations of the female gender a little too