Do Afghan women need saving? This study focuses on the discourse of the USA’s First Lady Mrs. Laura Bush in the years (2001-2009) and how she represents the women in Afghanistan in the context of the USA-led intervention in Afghanistan. My aim is to understand how the USA intervention can be legitimized through Mrs. Bush’s argumentation of bringing human rights to Afghan women. In the analysis in this thesis, Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis is used in combination with feminist and postcolonial theory to understand her discourse about the women in Afghanistan and how her resulting discourse functions in connection with the USA-led intervention in Afghanistan. The study concludes that Mrs. Bush constructs the Afghan women as in need of help and in connection the USA as the helping hand who have an obligation to save the women in Afghanistan. In combination with strategic use of ‘embedded feminism’ and an oriental discourse Mrs. Bush’s discourse functions to make the USA-led intervention in Afghanistan seem legitimate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-45801 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Møller, Silke |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS), Silke Møller |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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