Introduction

The appalling state of human leadership results in destruction of our environment and non-stop war and violence. Oxfam faults “exploding inequality” as poverty increases.2 Since 2020, the richest 1% own almost two-thirds of all new global wealth. A record 340 million people need aid, according to the International Rescue Committee.3 Nine of every ten countries slid backward on the UN’s Human Development Index in 2021.4 Freedom House reports only 20% of the world’s eight billion people live in “free” countries, down from 46% in 2005.5 And many of the 20% face threats from authoritarian nationalists.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Index dropped the US to 41st, ranked between Cuba and Bulgaria.6 The US has the biggest wealth gap among G7 nations and income inequality has increased rather than decreased. The top 10% owns almost 70% of US wealth while the bottom half owns only 2%. It’s a “flawed democracy,” according toThe Economist’sdemocracy index.

Patriarchy is defined by Gloria Steinem as a society that favors men. It’s built on women’s division and men’s solidarity, observed Nurzhan* in Kyrgyzstan. Mulki* reported that in Afghanistan, “The pushback comes from the elders, from religious influences, and from the government, a patriarchal system that automatically pushes women back.”

Iran is another example of an extreme patriarchy led by old men where the legal system favors men in all spheres: polygamy, divorce, child custody, (a woman legally counts as half a man), and travel. Government leaders are male, women sit at the back of the bus, and women are prohibited from some fields of university study. Hence, the uprising that began in 2022 is about much more than clothing laws. An Islamic state since the 1979 revolution, morality is stern and unappealing to youth.7 A quote from founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini plastered on billboards in Tehran states, “The Islamic Republic is not about fun, it is about morality. There is no fun to be had in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” (Background is given inPassionate Uprising: Iran’s Sexual Revolution by Pardis Mahdavi, 2019).

Patriarchal sexism is not a past problem confined to older generations. A high school student in California told me,

Society is patriarchal. As a male, everything has literally always been easy for me. That is not the case for anyone who is not like me in color, class, or gender. Our society’s truly deplorable bias towards women is a strain on our collective unconscious.

Filmmaker Michael Mo