Malala Yousafzai 'By Sophocles' Antigone

Demo text hereAlthough almost every person experiences some type of discrimination, what is it like for a person to be discriminated against by members of their family, by their friends, or by their religious group, rather than strangers who do not know better? Malala Yousafzai is a young activist from Pakistan who has fought for her rights and the rights of all girls across the globe, specifically the right to have access to education, and she continued her fight even after being shot in the head. Antigone, from Sophocles Antigone, also is forced to fight for her life and her brothers rights because of prejudices she has faced, and gives her life for that. Both women, when faced with a challenge or unfair treatment, refused to back down, which

The Taliban followed on convoluted version of Islam, but because Malala would not follow their version of Islam, and stayed true to her own peaceful interpretation, they began discriminating against her. She continued to fight for her cause, even when she knew what the consequences could be, and her fight is what lead to her eventually being able to spread awareness not just through a blog on BBC, but at the nobel prize stage, where the world was watching her. She created change just by using her voice. Similarly to Malala, Antigone was also forced to stand up for her and her family's religious rights against the government, and this was the only way for her to be able to bury her brother. In Greek religion, people cannot move on to the afterlife until they are given a proper burial, and right which all people have, according to the gods. When Antigone learned her new king and uncle, Creon, made a proclamation saying no one could bury her brother Polyneices, Antigone saw this unfairness and knew she must bury him anyway, even if doing so meant death, because her

Malala, from a young age, went to school in her home of Swat Valley because her father ran a school there. Despite early on having access to learning, when the Taliban took over, “girls were stopped from going to school” for religious reasons or due to “social taboos” and when Malala realized all of this discrimination existed because of her gender, she realized her two options were “remain silent and wait to be killed” or “speak up and then be killed” and ultimately, she “decided to speak up” (Yousafzai). The Taliban took away so many rights that Pakistani women had before, and Malala knew that if she choose to be like so many other women in that situation, too afraid to speak out, she would never get an education and could never live the life she hoped for. She challenged them just by speaking out and spreading awareness, by taking action. Antigone also experienced discrimination because she is a woman, and her action was despite being told time and time again she couldn’t, she stood up for her rights anyway. Before she even buried her brother, Ismene, her sister, told her she could not because “we are only women, we cannot fight with men,” and Creon would not let her go because “If we must lose, let’s lose to a man at least!” because Creon felt powerless in losing to a woman he perceived as weaker, and left Antigone for