Bush and the Women of Afghanistan

The Bush administration was extremely bent on convincing the American public that invading Afghanistan was the right choice. Even though the events of September 11^th and the destruction of the twin towers were highly televised, this administration believed that they needed to get the United States population behind them. Bush may have felt the need to convince them because he barely won the presidential election and he felt vulnerable. He may have also felt the need to convince the American public that invading Afghanistan will not be another Vietnam in that it is an invasion without an end. One aspect he used to convince the American public is by using the violation of women’s rights in Afghanistan. He publicized the strict Taliban government’s treatment of women in what Stabile and Kumar deemed a gender apartheid. By portraying the women of Afghanistan as victims that needed to be saved from the irrational barbarian, the media supported Bush’s agenda because it reflects the notion that the United States needs to invade Afghanistan and save the women.

This “cynical and opportunistic use of women” illustrates how hypocritical Bush was (Stabile and Kumar). He said that they needed to save the Afghanistan women while in America he voted against the progression of women’s rights. Bush and his administration were not feminists. Another reason to save the women would be to further Western ideals in the Middle East. Women’s rights are often associated with a modern system and modernity is associated with the West. Shepherd explains how by portraying the Afghanistan women as the iconic third world woman, the United States sees it as a chance to exercise their moral responsibility to free these women. On the covers of newspapers and magazines, the women of Afghanistan were shown in their burqas which to Americans is a sign of backwardness and restriction, a violation of freedom that they must always protect. The juxtaposition between the Orient also known as the East and the Occident also known as the West furthers this idea of moral responsibility. When the women in Afghanistan are portrayed as helpless victims of the Taliban, the American public feels the moral responsibility to support the war, invade Afghanistan, and free the women like they themselves are free. Stabile and Kumar also explain how the invasion of Afghanistan is all a cover up for the protection of American interest in the oil resources. Bush used these women to maintain the United States stake in Afghanistan oil.

Another pawn in Bush’s role to continuously convince the American public to support the war is his own wife, Laura Bush. In Laura Bush’s speech, she says that the goal of terrorists is to oppress women. She outright says that. When she says this, she is aiming to further the notion that terrorists are anti-Western and anti-American. Her speech conveys the idea that the United States needs to step in and save the oppressed women because they care so much. The United States and the media could not have given less attention of the women of Afghanistan before September 11^th, and by caring all of a sudden, they reflect how Bush wanted to use them in his own game.