Becoming a woman is difficult. It's much more difficult to be a woman in such an authoritarian state when your identity is your biggest vulnerability. Authoritarian authorities all around the world have vowed to uphold the male-dominated system and subjugate women. The silence of women has become a crucial component in fuelling the presence of famous males in these cultures from the beginning of authoritarian governments. Authoritarianism and feminism are having a war against each other for decades.
Authoritarian governments consolidate and maintain power by establishing a strong central authority that looks to be all-powerful and instills nationalist ideas in its populace in order to quell any unrest. Male supremacy in society has been connected with political legitimacy since the establishment of fundamental government institutions, whereas women's job is to stay at home, cook, care for children, and remain uninvolved in political issues. They even don’t offer abortion rights in 2021 to women. Authoritarian authorities want to successfully limit the number of women in government since their presence is viewed as illegitimate and might easily provoke political revolts.
Women are oppressed in authoritarian regimes in ways that go well beyond politics
Authoritarian regimes not only lack the required female presence in government, but they also function under the influence of sexist male figureheads. Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's authoritarian leader, equated putting power and influence of women to trafficking, revoked women's voting rights laws, and barred them from speaking on public radios. Because authoritarian regimes can efficiently conceal their abuse from the public view, the media typically ignores these overtly sexist activities, which only emboldens dictators' harmful actions.
It's all a bit of a shock. This isn't something new. Fortunately, the issues that these ladies are dealing with do not have to be ignored. I feel that developing feminist movements is the only way to put a dent in male figureheads' elitist worldview. Traditional patterns in male-dominated civilizations that have existed for decades can be dethroned by questioning their very existence. Feminist movements are fundamentally about pushing for political, social, or financial equality for women, which is in direct opposition to authoritarian governments' present structures. This might be accomplished by utilizing social media networks to speak out about problematic leaders, joining anti-authoritarian rallies, or just increasing awareness about the challenges that women face in authoritarian regimes.
Pro-Feminist movements that are challenging authoritarianism
Pro-feminist Hashtags like #MeToo & #NotYourPerfectVictim, which eventually received a lot of pushback, sprung up all over the world. These tags were among the top 10 most discussed subjects on various social media platforms, prompting multiple women to share their sexual assault experiences, and the government even moved so far as to implement gender quotas at universities that disproportionately favor women. What kind of funding should feminist movements receive from donors when you talk of? Was also something decided by the authoritarian powers, but feminism has challenged it as well.
Conclusion
Keeping it short, these are some instances that speak about the conflict between authoritarianism and feminism. Now that you know the conflict, you should support feminism and speak for them.
