Gendered Orientalism: The Narration of Sisterhood and Western Intervention in Afghanistan

Abstract

This study analyses how the sympathetic discourses highlighting women’s issues in Muslim countries reaffirm the binary of the civilized West and the barbaric East. The research draws upon bell hooks^[1] views on sisterhood that challenges traditional gender-based exploitation and Maryam Khalid’s study regarding the significance of gender in Orientalism. In addition, the article interconnects with Hamid Dabashi’s vision of the contribution of native intellectuals. The theme aims to analyze selected writings of activists to detect how their narratives justify western preconception of woman suppression in eastern society and legitimize NATO’s intervention in Afghanistan. Through a qualitative method of evaluation of the literature analysis of different activists’ works, this research discovers that the proponents of politics of sisterhood from Muslim countries in their campaign for women’s rights falsely portrayed NATO’s occupation of Kabul as salvation for Afghan women. This research will help in uncovering how a politicized depiction of the Afghan women supports the Western agenda that Muslim women require to be rescued by the West. Furthermore, this paper highlights the role of women activists in the developing countries as native informers through a gendered comparison between NATO and the Taliban rule.

[1]   Bell hooks, with lower case, is the name of Gloria Jean Watkins, an American feminist author and social critic of old traditional traits towards women.