This end of history interlude, when Communism was either failing or recycling itself into its opposite, also encouraged many latter day American political missionaries to proselytize for democracy as well as capitalism to urge China s leaders to abandon state controls not only over their economy, but over their political system as well.

But, while some Western feminist insights may be useful to Afghani women and other women in the developing world as they resist certain forms of male oppression, we should not assume as Western feminists often have that our job is to proselytize our feminism. On the contrary, the feminism expressed by women such as these Afghani heroines should educate us in the West about our own shortcomings.