Western feminism has been critiqued for creating an image of non-white and non-Western women as being in a lower socioeconomic position than they actually are.
[2] Palestinian-American historian Edward Said characterizes this phenomenon as part of "Orientalism" and claims that European scholarship, culture, and society perpetuated stereotypes about non-Western civilizations to justify control over them.
[6] In Southwest Asia and North Africa, colonial powers fixated on the Islamic veil as a symbol of oppression.
[7] In the colonial Philippines, Westerners were horrified by the social acceptance of women's exposed breasts in public, perceiving this as an obscenity that required intervention.
First Lady Laura Bush made several radio speeches claiming that the American invasion would help liberate Afghan women from Taliban oppression.
Additionally, Ahmed raises the question of whether "critical efforts to help women secure the status of full citizens... really need to be tied to U.S.