Antigone: Ancient Heroine or Early Model for Future Civil Disobedience? “I, whom no man’s frown can frighten, am far from risking heaven’s frown by flouting these. I need no trumpeter from you to tell me I must die, we all die anyway” (Roche 210). Antigone, a 441 BC heroine, created by Sophocles in the Oedipus Plays to do what is moral even, if it means disobeying the law. In Antigone, Antigone's brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, die in battle, but Creon refuses to bury Polyneices. Antigone; believing that, even in death, everyone has the right to peace; buries Polyneices. Consequently, Creon sentences her to death, but her willingness to accept the punishment of death, is the foundation to the effectiveness of her civil disobedience. Antigone
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Both Aimal and Antigone defied the laws of their culture and faced consequences. Antigone chose to disregard the new laws Creon created in order to honor the gods and give Polyneices a proper burial. Though it may have seemed foolish for a woman such as her to disobey the law, her actions are credible because she accepts the suffering and realizes she must “go thus cursed, unmarried, to dwell without a home” (Roche 212). Aimal as well acknowledges that now his country sees him as a traitor. Ramifications of his act included the local Imam releasing a fatwa, a religious death sentence where the public can kill the chosen victim, on him and his family. However, the difference between Antigone and Aimal, is that Aimal didn’t let the consequences stop him. Eventually, Aimal made it out of Afghanistan and came to America to continue his movement for peace; however, because of the danger, he can never return home. Z. Aimal represents the modern Antigone of civil disobedience, who works hard to fight for justice and peace. But in the long run, both Aimal and Antigone fight for what they believe in, as many other individuals across history have done, each being “a passionate champion for world peace”(Rotary Club of Santa Rosa
Both Aimal and Antigone defied the laws of their culture and faced consequences. Antigone chose to disregard the new laws Creon created in order to honor the gods and give Polyneices a proper burial. Though it may have seemed foolish for a woman such as her to disobey the law, her actions are credible because she accepts the suffering and realizes she must “go thus cursed, unmarried, to dwell without a home” (Roche 212). Aimal as well acknowledges that now his country sees him as a traitor. Ramifications of his act included the local Imam releasing a fatwa, a religious death sentence where the public can kill the chosen victim, on him and his family. However, the difference between Antigone and Aimal, is that Aimal didn’t let the consequences stop him. Eventually, Aimal made it out of Afghanistan and came to America to continue his movement for peace; however, because of the danger, he can never return home. Z. Aimal represents the modern Antigone of civil disobedience, who works hard to fight for justice and peace. But in the long run, both Aimal and Antigone fight for what they believe in, as many other individuals across history have done, each being “a passionate champion for world peace”(Rotary Club of Santa Rosa