"Saving the Muslim Woman"
Dr. Basuli Deb (English, Women's and Gender Studies, UNL)
On November 17, 2001, then first lady Laura Bush addressed the nation via the president’s weekly radio speech, becoming the first presidential wife to do so. Emphasizing, “The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women," she reminded other nations of their global responsibility, by virtue of a “common humanity,” to ally with the US War on Terror. She appealed to the world to kick off a global endeavor against the violence on Muslim women and children in Afghanistan upheld by the al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
In Basuli Deb's talk transnational feminism confronts imperialist feminism as she traces what “Saving the Muslim Woman” came to mean as the war unfolded in Afghanistan and Iraq.