Over the last decade, Afghan women have become symbolic barometers for the sociopolitical success or failure of international intervention in Afghanistan. Journalists, some academics, and many policy analysts from the West portray Afghan women as oppressed by local social, political and cultural conditions, only in the process of emergent liberation through international intervention. Such descriptions of Afghan women fail to provide a nuanced portrait of their lives and they do not address the diversity of their experiences. Furthermore, the extensive role of Euro-American liberal feminism is part of US-led imperialism and neocolonial aid and development in Afghanistan. Such feminism is imperialist because it links women's rights with US-led military operations in Afghanistan, rather than questioning the scope and scale of military occupation and international development interventions.
Much gender-based liberation through development connects women's power and authority to their ability to earn. While earning an income can improve the overall wealth of a family, women's economic labour alone will not improve their lives or status within their homes or communities. Women throughout Afghanistan have historically earned income through carpet weaving and other handicrafts, and continue to do so. Such paid labour fits within existing patriarchal structures rather than subverting them.