Civil Disobedience In The Oedipus Cycles

As of today, upwards of 65 million girls around the world are out of school. In places such as Pakistan, girls are purposely kept out of school by groups like the Taliban and denied basic rights. This oppression is in no way justified and should attended to by doing what is right, even if it means going against the regime like the character Antigone in Sophocles’ The Oedipus Cycles or in today’s world someone like Malala Yousafzai who despite being a young teen, fights for girls’ rights to education. Laws that revoke basic human rights are meant to be broken with civil disobedience because everyone is morally entitled to basic rights, and the oppressive forces that stand as barriers must be overcome.

Civil disobedience while opposing direct

forces appeal to a higher power of morality and justice. When Antigone states, “What things I suffer, and at what men’s hands, Because I would not transgress the laws of heaven” (Sophocles 228), it is made clear that Antigone’s main priority was to not diverge from the laws of the gods because the consequences of those would harm all of those in Thebes.

Meanwhile, the disobeying of Creon’s edict would only harm her. In actually, Antigone was going for the greater good of all the people which Creon obviously failed to see when his hatred for Antigone’s brother Polyneices overshadowed his better judgement to help the kingdom, which should have been his number one priority. Not only was Antigone willing to commit the deed with all the risk that came with defiance of the law, but when caught she also admitted to take the blame and wholeheartedly accepted her punishment for nothing but upholding the rules of basic morality. Another, more recent, instance this occurred was with Malala Yousufzai and the battle for girls education against the Taliban. The lengths this group would go to are extreme, “In October 2012 Malala Yousafzai [a girl of only 15 years of age] was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Swat when she was returning home

from school in a van”(Syed Fazl-E-Haider 73). Like Creon, almost 2500 years ago, the Taliban will stop at no lengths to do what is good for themselves. With the oppression they are causing through prohibiting education, they hope to easily persuade people of their rightness and continue this vicious cycle of oppression and false justification. Meanwhile, activists like Malala, though they may be young in age as Antigone was, are willing to face all hardships to stand on the moral high ground and give girls the basic human right to education. Even today, after being shot Malala still continues to persevere with all the danger and speak her mind about education despite it being against the rules of the regime.
In most cases civil disobedience only advocates for the minimal rights everyone should be entitled to.

Education or the right to a burial after one’s demise is not a privilege. In fact, it is a basic right of every human. When Antigone stated to Ismane, “He is my brother. And he is your brother...Creon is not enough to stand in my way” (Sophocles 191), these basic rights is what she had in mind. Forgetting the fact that it may be the god’s law, it was justice that should have been granted to Polynices’ body and that is what Antigone was trying to get for her own brother. Thoughts extravagance or rebellion weren’t going through the mind of this young girl. Overstricken with grief from having lost everyone she had once loved, Antigone only wanted the bare minimum for her brother. Consequently, she did whatever it took to grand him that justice everyone else had received. Just so, in Pakistan Malala is trying to spread the word about education. In a speech Malala stated, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education” (Baker 96). As Malala stated education is a basic right and it should be. Race, gender, religion, social stature, or disability must not be a determining factor to who is entitled to their own basic right. This is exactly what Malala is trying to spread throughout the world so her fellow girls in Pakistan can get their basic right to education. Malala’s acts, like Antigone, aren’t asking for much either. Malala only desires for her and all the girls

around the world to share her joy in education, a feeling that has no substitute. She desires to grant them their own ability to reason, which is in no way a sin.
When oppression silences the voice of many, meanwhile revoking basic rights, civil disobedience is needed in order to bring through the voice of justice, morality and reason. While Malala desires to get girls education, and Antigone, for a proper burial for her brother, they all have one thing in common. All acts have an underlying cause of granting basic rights to those who have had them taken away. These unjust regimes must go on no longer than the oppressive forces they place upon their people and actions taken in the form of civil disobedience are definitely justified. Whether it may be through taking affirmative action or speaking of ideals, justice must be brought to those who have had it snatched from them exactly how Antigone did 2500 years ago or Malala and countless others are currently in the end justice is justice.