Malala Yousafzai as an Empowered Victim: Media Narratives of Girls’ Education, Islam, and Modernity

Abstract

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani youth activist who has become a global icon for her advocacy of girls’ education, youth agency, and gender empowerment. Yousafzai started The Malala Fund, and her activism has become an inspiration for local and global organizations working on youth related issues. Through conducting a discourse analysis of newspapers published in the USA, we argue that this media discourse presents her not only as an agent but also as a victim. Our analysis reveals how this media discourse modifies Malala Yousafzai’s own narrative. It constructs her as a symbol of the oppression of the Muslim girls as well as the empowerment of youth to be acquired through Western education and modernity. This chapter highlights the need to critically engage with the global discourses of girls’ education, youth, agency, and gender empowerment that may be embedded in the problematic dichotomies of modern West versus unmodern Islam.