ABSTRACT
The headline read: “Afghanistan: Violent world where women live in fear.” The story described women’s experiences in Afghanistan under the Taliban-the burquas, the ban on higher education, the careful supervision of daily activities-and quoted Eleanor Smeal, head of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Stories like these proliferated in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent “war on terrorism,” as the news media scrambled to explain a once little-known land to their audiences.
