In 2001 , the Bush administration began expressing their concerns for the situation of women under the Taliban regime . According to Hunt , it invoked the struggle for women 's rights and women 's liberation as a rational to justify the invasion of Afghanistan . This increased gender awareness can be interpreted as part of a framing strategy which conflated the War on Terror with the fight for women 's rights as a proxy for universal human rights . In the eyes of many feminists , the rescue of oppressed women from the Taliban became the powerful normative legitimation of the invasion which obtained broad public approval . More importantly , this strategy could align itself with feminist groups , that are traditionally pacifist , and could win their approval , thereby removing a critical opposition . The doubts in the government 's commitment to further women 's rights through war arose due to its lack of interest before 9/11 . It was only after the terror attacks , that politicians in the US and in Europe began broadly supporting women 's liberation from the Taliban . Despite its usual non-violent stance , the Feminist Majority Foundation ( FMF ) supporter the policies of the Bush administration and is therefore regarded as one of the most vocal feminist supporters embedded in the War on Terror . Although the FMF saw the government 's increased gender awareness as a success of their ‘ Stop Gender Apartheid ’ campaign , their involvement in Bush 's political project was strongly criticized by other NGOs and the critical public because their role was considered to be legitimizing . Hunt sees embedded feminism as a concept that was used to advance the engendered war story of the Bush administration that the invasion of Afghanistan could liberate Afghan women . It has further created a division between feminist groups that supported the war and those groups that refused to get involved in the usurpation of feminism for war . A division also emerged between " Western " feminists who strived to save the " Other " women from an orientalised enemy and Afghan feminists who criticized the notion that war could liberate them
9/11
September 11 attacks
Embedded feminism