THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION EXPERIENCED BY FEMALE MAIN CHARACTERS UNDER TALIBAN REGIME IN DEBORAH ELLIS’S THE BREADWINNER

SITI NUR FAJRIYAH

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes the issue related to the representation of gender discrimination experienced by the Afghan’s women under the Taliban regime. The construction of gender discrimination is represented in The Breadwinner through the experiences of the female main characters of the novel. This study uses the theory of Stuart Hall’s Representation and Barbara J. Risman’s Gender as a Social Structure. The goal of this research is to dismantle the problem of gender discrimination. The result of this study is that the problem of gender discrimination is clearly depicted through some discourses in The Breadwinner. According to the data that have been analyzed, it is clear that all the female main characters of this novel are suffered under the Taliban regime. They are Parvana’s mother, Parvana, and her sister Nooria. Under the Taliban, they cannot do any kinds of activity in the public sphere because of the Taliban’s rules. One of them is the restriction to get the formal education. If they do not obey this regulation, they may get a punishment from the Taliban including slapping or beating. Then, from all this tradition, Ellis is inspired to write this novel because she wants to explore her disagree opinion toward what the Taliban has been done on the Afghan women. Through some discourses that have been constructed in the novel, she wants to show the people all over the world that the gender condition of the Afghan women really experienced the gender role inhumanly. In other words, she also wants to show that education is very important for everyone in this world, either for the men or the women.

Keywords: Representation, Gender, Discrimination, Taliban, Afghanistan

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