| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 323 words from this article are provided below; about 775 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Middle East and Northern Africa

Search for Freedom. Directed by Munizae Jahangir. English subtitles. 2003; color and black and white; 54 minutes. Distributed by Women Make Movies.
In the year preceding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, feminist organizations in the United States and Europe focused attention on the plight of women under the Taliban. Much of this attention was undertaken in coordination with the progressive Afghan women's organization, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). These efforts led to congressional hearings and declarations by important policy makers, including then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, condemning Taliban treatment of women. The climax of the campaign, however, came after September 11, when the Bush administration cited concern for Afghan women as one of the reasons for its decision to overthrow the Taliban regime and install a new regime in Kabul.	1
It can be argued that, in the end, RAWA and its allies were as much manipulated as manipulators, but there is still little doubt that feminist organizations changed the nature of the debate on Afghanistan and the way the world perceived the country. In 2001, the blue burqa became as ubiquitous and powerful a symbol of injustice as the coat hanger had in the context of the abortion debate or the whites-only lunch counter for the civil rights movement.	2
While occasional news stories come out of Afghanistan, media attention has shifted elsewhere since the fall of the Taliban. Iraq has taken center stage, and reporters no longer clamor to find human interest stories that will tell their readers what Afghanistan is "really like." Nevertheless, there continues a steady stream of films, many of them having been first undertaken at the peak of Western interest in Afghanistan, that attempt to put recent and current struggles in Afghanistan into a larger perspective than mainstream media was able to do during its brief romance with Afghanistan.	. . .

There are about 775 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.