When in March 1999 Mavis Leno, wife of talk show host Jay Leno, took up the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban as a cause on behalf of the Feminist Majority, the oppression of Muslim women in Afghanistan overnight became a cause of concern for celebrities, politicians, and public opinion. Highlighting the horrendous conditions imposed on Afghan women allowed for the construction of a discourse that painted them as helpless victims, and Islamic fundamentalists like the Taliban as brutal oppressors in the name of their religion. The resurrection of this trope conveniently ignored the fact that through the mujahidin, the Taliban had indirectly come into power and military might with the support of the US government which had provided such support to develop a counterweight to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

XREF: Connects to broader narratives about humanitarian intervention rhetoric masking geopolitical interests, and US foreign policy blowback.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 543