Analyzing US Justifications for Afghanistan Intervention: Women's Rights

Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? (Lila Abu Lughod)

This analysis explores the current war on terrorism, questioning whether anthropology can offer critical insight into the justifications made for American intervention in Afghanistan, specifically concerning the liberation or saving of Afghan women.

Skepticism Regarding Focus on Muslim Women

The author suggests it is easy to be skeptical about the focus on Muslim women when considering the initial US public response. She analyzed two key manifestations of this response:

1. PBS NewsHour and Laura Bush's Address

The author examined an interview on PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and First Lady Laura Bush's radio address to the nation in November 2001. When asked to provide background for a segment on Women and Islam, the presenter's questions were:

• Hopeless and General: "Do Muslims believe in X, are Muslim women allowed Y?"

The author countered this by asking if such questions would make sense if the subject were changed to Christianity or Judaism.

The Problem with Cultural Focus

The questions prioritized knowing about the culture of the region and its religious beliefs regarding women over exploring the history of repressive regimes and the US role in that history. The author argues that this approach prevents serious exploration of suffering.

This framing inevitably created dichotomies such as:

• West X East
• US X Muslims

Laura Bush's Rhetoric

Laura Bush’s speech failed to maintain important distinctions. There was a constant slip between discussing the Taliban and discussing terrorists, almost merging them into a single entity. This blurred the separate issues of Afghan women’s poverty and ill health with their exclusion from employment, schooling, and even basic freedoms under the Taliban.

Furthermore, the speech created a sharp separation between:

• The civilized, who supposedly champion the rights and breaks for the women and children of Afghanistan.
• The Taliban and terrorists, characterized as cultural monsters seeking to impose their world on the West.

She connected the military action in Afghanistan directly to the liberation of women from being imprisoned in their homes, framing the fight against terrorism as inherently a fight for women's rights and dignity.

A Final Caution

The author cautions against confusing modesty with being uneducated.