'Theoretically deft and empirically rich, Imagining Afghanistan is a searing account of how imperial narratives facilitate 'humanitarian' interventions. Manchanda forensically dissects this orientalist imaginary forged from a large corpus of hoary clichés about states, tribes and eternal warriors, and deeply gendered portraiture of brown women in need of rescue from threatening brown men. A brilliant book.' Laleh Khalili, author of Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies