Malala Yousafzai: A Struggle for Women Education and Conservative Bias of Urdu Media

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the critical views of Urdu media in Pakistan regarding Malala Yousafzai and the role that she has been playing for promoting the cause of female education. The young school girl, Malala, transformed her personal struggle for education during the Taliban regime in Swat, Pakistan, into a global movement for girls’ right to education. She survived the Taliban’s assassination attempt of October 2012 and now advocates for girls and women rights, particularly those in the conflict zones. The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the youngest in history, has been viewed with skepticism, mainly in the conservative Urdu print and electronic media in her home country. The influence of Urdu media is considerably large in forming and shaping public opinion, that’s why it is important to study the role of media in promoting or the hindering the cause of women rights. Discourse analysis was conducted while using secondary sources, such as blogs, biography, speeches of Malala and the articles of Dr. Sultan Rome, Ansar Abbasi and Orya Maqbool Jan published in Urdu media forms the basis of this study. The findings of this research reflect the conservative and patriarchal bias of Urdu media regarding the aforementioned case.