In the year 2010 Wikileaks leaked a classified CIA document which shows the use of feminism as part of
"possible PR strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan".
As mentioned on Wikileaks, those strategies were trying to:
"focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries [...] sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women".
They intended to link the "Afghan Mission" to "priorities" of French, German, and other Western European "publics".
For this "thought-provoking" and "out-of-the-box-approach" a strategic communications expert of the CIA was invited.
Furthermore Wikileaks stated that this leaked memo:
"is a recipe for the targeted manipulation of public opinion in two NATO ally countries, written by the CIA."
In the mentioned memo itself, the idea of using Afghan woman to humanize the war can be found at the very end:
"Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing the ISAF role in combating the Taliban because of women’s ability to speak personally and credibly about their experiences under the Taliban, their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory."
The goal of emotional identification within the female audience seems obvious and the memo even states that, in general, women are more likely to be against the war and:
"Outreach initiatives that create media opportunities for Afghan women to share their stories with French, German, and other European women could help to overcome pervasive skepticism among women in Western Europe".
Sources: https://wikileaks.org/wiki/CIA_report_into_shoring_up_Afghan_war_support_in_Western_Europe,_11_Mar_2010
https://file.wikileaks.org/file/cia-afghanistan.pdf