The Protagonist Malala Yousafzai in Real Life
The memoir, ‘I am Malala,’ by Malala Yousafzai and the film, “Made in Dagenham,” directed by Nigel Cole, advocate in favour of equality during situations of violence and intimidation, especially when they are deliberately threatened by those with power. The memoir supports the rights of female education whereas the film endorses the equal pay between men and women. In order to fight for equality, the protagonists encounter violence, involving physical force intended to cause harm and intimidation, by their their rivals that express a dominant and historically created power imbalance. Both author and director respectively, highlight the bravery initiated by the protagonists in the face of intimidation. Yousafzai and Cole expose how having strong relationships with family and friends can help ease times of extremely cruel and brutal behaviour and when confronted by opponents as a large audience, and additionally narrate the desired necessity to forgo the protagonists quality of life for the sake of justice.
The protagonists demonstrate courageous behaviour during times of intimidation by opposing rivals. When confronted by those with political and economic power the characters refuse to be intimidated or disputed. Malala faces intimidation by the Taliban as they threaten, “anyone who sides with the government against us will die at our own hands,” this represents the intention of the Taliban to intimidate and harm those against their beliefs. Malala values that “at night our fear is strong, but in the morning, in the light we find courage again. We were scared but our fear was not as strong as our courage,’’ this represents that even through the Taliban’s threats Malala was courageous enough to still continue to talk about her beliefs and expose her identity publicly, making her vulnerable to the Taliban, in order to speak up against injustice. Her father, a principal of an all girls school had to deal with being threatened by the Taliban, Malala was courageous even though she was brutally attacked by the Taliban, she went to school and become an activist is standing up for girls education
Yousafzai and Cole show the support of strong relationships between family and friends to overcome acts of brutality and intimidation. Malalas’s support from her father allows her to deal with the threats from the Taliban. Ziauddin Yousafzai plays as her biggest role model. He passes on a passion of freedom, education and equality to his daughter.
The author and director represent the necessity of the protagonists to sacrifice their wellbeing through the prolonged oppression for the sake of justice. When the characters face injustice they choose between exploiting their positions of power for their own benefit or using their influence to adopt a practical method to benefit all of society. Yousafzai portrays Malala in a position of power due to her awareness of the lack of girls receiving an education, in addition of her status as an activist standing up for girls education. Putting her at a position where she makes a virtuous decision to sacrifice her youth for the benefit for society. “I know there wasn’t enough money. After paying the rent and salaries there was not much left for food so we often had little for dinner,’’ this is revealed through a calm tone from Malala, conveying her acceptance of her poor situation for the better for society. Malala’s continuous fight for justice causes her to not only sacrifice her own life, but her families lives too especially her father. Whilst the Taliban was bombing numerous girls schools, ziauddin sacrificed his life and made it possible for girls to receive an education. “The Taliban are cruel- they have snatched her smile,” this explores Malala’s sacrifice of her appearance, in order to stand up for justice she allows her identity to be noticed by the public across TV’s and newspapers making herself a known target for the Taliban.
Malala sacrificed for her community, where it was being threatened by the Taliban having to make her move out of her homeland in fear of her safety. In a similar vein, Rita is placed in a position of power as she stands up for the equal pay between men and women putting her in an intimidating situation by the executives. Rita is prepared to deal with the financial consequences of the strike
