Today, everyone is aware of women’s condition in Afghanistan and the oppression they have been going through since the Taliban took control over the country in 2021. But there is more to the story of women in Afghanistan; their journey has been through many ups and downs over the last few decades.
This research paper will explore how the foreign policy of countries, including the United States, NATO members, regional powers like Pakistan, Iran, China, and others, has impacted the lives of women in Afghanistan since 2001. The analysis would be done from both Western and indigenous Afghan feminist lenses.
Afghanistan has become the focal point for competing foreign policy agendas since US US-led invasion in 2001, many of which claim to protect Afghan women. Early on, Women’s rights were explicitly invoked as a justification for military intervention by Western countries. Former First Lady Laura Bush, in 2001 in her speech framed the war on terror as a “fight for women’s rights and dignity.” This narrative was later criticized for using Afghan women as a symbol in a “white savior” war narrative. Scholars term this “embedded feminism,” noting that liberating Afghan women’s narrative helped legitimize war.