The Plight of Afghan Women in Sally Armstrong’s Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan (2002) and Fawzia Koofi’s The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan to the Future (2012)
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Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The present dissertation has compared Sally Armstrong’s Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan (2002) and Fawzia Koofi’s The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan to the Future (2012). It has investigated the way these authors reveal that the Taliban distort religion to justify their institutionalized oppression of Afghan women. To examine this point, this dissertation has brought into focus the way they seek to control their bodies and access to the public space. This research has also examined the influence of the authors’ backgrounds on their portrayal of Afghan women’s ability to struggle and their perception of the extent to which the Western intervention in the country has liberated them. To reach these aims, this paper has relied on Fatima Mernissi’s The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s rights in Islam (1991) and Lila Abu-Lughod’s Do Muslim Women Need Saving? (2013). The analysis of Armstrong’s and Koofi’s texts has revealed that both authors believe that the Taliban distort and misuse Islam to oppress Afghan women and justify their actions. Afghan women are subjected to severe restrictions on their physical appearance and access to the public sphere on religious grounds. The analysis has also revealed that the authors differ in the portrayal of Afghan women’s ability to resist oppression and their need to be liberated by the West. Armstrong differs from Koofi in her portrayal of Afghan women as voiceless victims to be rescued only by the involvement of the West.
Description
30cm ; 67p.
Keywords
Afghan women, Taliban, institutionalized oppression, misinterpretation, Islam, struggle, U.S. intervention, liberation/saving.
Citation
Literature and Civilization