New Age Islam

Islam, Women and Feminism

05 Oct 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

The Afghan War and the Myth of Women's Rights

By Madeleine Bunting

Ten years ago the West closed down the debate on Afghanistan with stories of oppression. The reality is far more complex still. This isn't just history, the conflation of western aggression and women's rights has underpinned the last 10 years of conflict. Laura Bush has expanded on her 2001 themes at regular intervals ever since. In 2010, Time ran a cover photo of a girl, Bibi Aisha, whose nose had been cut off, and used the headline: “What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan.” As my colleague Jonathan Steele points out in his fascinating new book, Ghosts of Afghanistan, Bibi's story didn't quite fit the template of brutal Taliban. But it didn't much matter. The plight of Afghan women was a rallying cry that didn't allow for discussion or nuance. There was enough truth — such as the worst maternal mortality in the world — to silence any doubt. This simplistic morality tale of how American soldiers would advance the rights of Afghan women fits neatly into the thesis put forward by Susan Faludi in her book, The Terror Dream. Here she analysed how, after 9/11, Americans used historical myths, of cowboys rescuing and protecting weak women, for instance, in a bid to make larger sense of the attack. -- Madeleine Bunting http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamWomenAndFeminism_1.aspx?ArticleID=5626