Despite all this, the treatment of women in this obscure country was singled out for especial attention in the west. Three main groups were interested in drawing attention to the plight of women; secular political opponents to the Taliban in Afghanistan, western feminists and the US government.
Secular opponents may have decided that framing the abuses of the Taliban as abuses against women would be more likely to generate sympathy in the west, as it had done recently in Yugoslavia and East Timor. Feminists took up the horror stories as examples of 'discrimination' against women, without mentioning that conditions men faced were comparable. Finally in 2001 the US government used concern for women's rights as a pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban were accused of requiring women to stay at home, forbidding women to work in any public place, forbidding the education of women and refusing to give women medical attention.
The Taliban themselves claimed that their policies were favourable to women, but made little attempt to promote a positive image of themselves and their policies outside of Afghanistan. Inside Afghanistan they seem to have made more of an effort, for example by crediting the creation of the Taliban to a desire by Mullah Omar to end the rape and abuses against women that were common place in the period before the Taliban, and by appealing to the idea that women needed extra protection during the period of fighting.
Exaggerated claims Almost all of the claims that were circulated about the Taliban treatment of women were greatly exaggerated while having a basis in truth. Considering each of the claims in turn then,
Women and education
Women and work
Women and health
Dress codes
Women and travel
(See Islam, Sharia law, hijab.)
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