I am Malala

I am Malala is predominantly set in Malala’s hometown, Mingora, the largest town in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. Swat is the region in which Malala is raised and educated and where she begins to advocate for female education. Malala’s attachment to Swat is clear throughout the book; the mountains, meadows and lakes, which tourists call ‘the Switzerland of the East’ and home to Pakistan’s first ski resort, is Malala’s comfort zone. The Swat’s population mostly comprises of ethnic Gujjar and Pashtuns, an ancestral tribe which predates Islam and to which Malala’s family belongs, and whose population is primarily located in Afghanistan and north-west and west Iran. Several relics from the Buddhist reign in the third century BC across 300 sites have been discovered by archaeologists but many of these were destroyed by the Taliban.

After Malala is shot, she and her family moved to Birmingham, England, in order for Malala to receive further treatment, and where the story concludes. The built up environment of Birmingham, with its similar looking houses and absence of mountains, sharply contrasts Swat and Malala experiences this deeply.

A number of events in Pakistani history are referenced in the book and inform the reader of Pakistan’s social and political evolution. When the British Empire abandoned its Asian territories, following the peaceful resistance of Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi, the area the British had controlled was separated into the present-day countries of India and Pakistan. With this separation in 1947, Pakistan became home to a larger percentage of Muslims while India became home to a larger number of Hindus. The economic growth and relative prosperity of Pakistan in the 1950s and 60s was short-lived when, in the 1980s, Pakistan came under the control of the violent dictator, General Zia, who radicalised the population. Zia made an alliance with the United States, promising them aid in its conflicts with the Soviet Union and, as a result, received large quantities of foreign aid and military training. It was during Zia’s reign that Osama Bin Laden traveled to Pakistan to help in their fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. By 2001, at the commencement of the American-led ‘War on Terror’, Pakistan’s new leader was General Pervez Musharraf. He also made a promise to aid the United States, this time in its struggle to fight terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden.

Despite its alliance with the US, Pakistan grew increasingly more radical during the early 2000s when, according to Malala’s narration, a large percentage of its citizens started to believe the US was a grave threat to the world and that the Jews were responsible for most of the world’s economic exploitation. It was during this time that the Taliban rose to prominence, using military tactics to attack aspects of Pakistani society it judged to be perversions of Islam, such as suicide bombers who blew up American buildings and female schools. It is widely held that it was the Taliban who were responsible for the assassination of two times Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation, and a promoter of women’s rights.

Pride

The film Pride straddles two distinct settings which are the home of the two main groups. The locations are separated by a wide expanse of water, denoting the perceived chasm between them. The film shows a small bus crossing the bridge of the water on several occasions indicating the bridging of the communities. On one side lies the small mining community of Onllwyn, Wales, an austere community of simple and functional buildings, and on the other side of the bridge, the bustling, busy world of London.

Onllwyn, Wales, drew its life force from the Dulais Valley mines, which were established in the mid-1800s and served as a source of income and central focus for the community. As early as 1920, there were over 100 workers at the Onllwyn mine, which had been connected to the rail network some 50 years earlier, making it part of a network of essential mines producing coal that would supply Britain’s energy needs. Made up of the four hamlets of Pantyffordd, Onllwyn, Dyffryn Cellwen and Banwen, Onllwyn is the legendary birthplace of Saint Patrick. It has two Roman forts and the remains of a Roman Road. The DOVE Workshop, set up after the miner’s strike, caters to the educational development of the area with its large crèche, IT and lecture rooms.

Onllwyn is seen in the film as a tough town; the miners are traditional and possess little but their dignity. Threatened by the government’s announcement of pit closures, the town becomes even tougher during the strike. Often pictured covered in snow, the cold encroaches on the village as does poverty, shown when the local van for driving miners to the pit breaks down and is unable to be repaired. Characters hold pictures or talk about relatives lost in the mines, reminding the audience of the already difficult life faced by a mining town.

In London, a busy metropolis, the central focus is a small gay bookshop, Gay’s the Word. The shop was opened in 1979 as books with homosexual content or by homosexual authors were not readily available in mainstream bookshops. As such, it formed a hub for the gay and lesbian community in that area, and was emblematic of the struggles that the community would face. Accused of being pornographic, the store faced legal proceedings revealing the narrow-minded approach of a seemingly homophobic legal system. The store also faced constant attacks and vandalism. In 1984, it was home to several groups who used the premises for meetings. One of those was Lesbians and Gays supports the Miners (LGSM). LGSM was founded at the store and worked from those premises until it grew large enough to move to the Fallen Angel Hotel for its meetings. In 2017, a blue plaque was unveiled above the bookshop in honour of Mark Ashton, gay rights activist and co-founder of LGSM.

London is depicted in the film in its dichotomy, where leafy and affluent suburbs such as Bromley, giving rise to Joe’s nickname, contrasts with a labyrinth network of nightclubs filled with London’s gay and lesbian community. The suburbs are quiet and restrained; small gatherings of people, usually in semi-formal clothing, guard their reputation and traditions. The clubs are vibrant and loud; music and lights transport the patrons from the day to day to a new bohemian world. Like the bookshop, the clubs offer their patrons sanctuary to be their authentic selves, without the usual reprisals and condemnation they would otherwise encounter in the greater society.