109 Eide, Elisabeth (2016). War and Women’s Voices. he Gender Approach of Afghanistan’s Largest News Agency in Berit von der Lippe & Rune Ottosen (eds.) Gendering War and Conlict Reporting. Göteborg: Nordicom. 6. War and Women’s Voices he Gender Approach of Afghanistan’s Largest News Agency Elisabeth Eide Abstract his is a study of how Pajhwok, one of the largest Afghan news agencies, represents Afghan women. Women’s issues do not have a high priority, but when focused upon, women are oten invited to speak for themselves, elite women most prominently. Violence against women is a dominant theme, and attributed much to tribal traditions rather than to the war itself. Keywords: women, violence, tribal culture, marginalisation Introduction he latest invasion of Afghanistan (7 October 2001) led by the US sought legitimation for the need to ‘hunt down’ Al Qaeda, which had orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, and its allies in the Afghan Taliban. As years went by, it became increasingly clear that the war eforts had not led to the breakdown of those two extremist movements. Fourteen years later, the Taliban have regained much of their pre-9/11 strength, threatening stability in a majority of the Afghan provinces. Invaders also gradually sought legitimation of the war efort by referring to gender equality. he US leadership inferred that the invasion ater the fall of the Taliban led to the rapid emancipation of women. In his State of the Union address (29 January 2002), the US president George W. Bush declared: “he last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school. Today women are free, and are part of Afghanistan’s new government.” 1 His rhetoric demonstrated what has become increasingly clear: a very limited knowledge of the society in which the US military-industrial complex intervened (Eide & Skaujord 2014). he irst lady, Laura Bush, also made her voice heard in the early days through a radio speech, in which she declared that the war on terror was “a ight for the rights and dignity of women”, 2 thus conirming the criti-