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415. Why Doesn’t Patriarchy Die?
Rahila Gupta with Ashwini Jaisim
Speakers
This conversation will shift your understanding of power, and of possibility.
In this session Rahila Gupta will examine how male dominance persists across radically different societies from theocracies to democracies, dictatorships to socialist states. Her co-authored book Planet Patriarchy asks what makes patriarchy so resilient, and where feminism is not just surviving but genuinely thriving.
In conversation with Ashwini Jaisim, content strategist and editor, the session centres on a revelation: a little-known women’s revolution in Rojava, Northeast Syria. Here, women are building a bottom-up democracy rooted in multi-ethnic inclusivity and ecological sustainability. It’s a radical reimagining of power that challenges everything we think we know about governance and gender.
Concluding with an audience Q&A, this session invites you to rethink power, resilience, and the possibilities of feminist futures, one where gender equality isn’t an afterthought but the foundation.
In this episode of BIC Talks, Rahila Gupta is in conversation with Ashwini Jaisim. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in Dec 2025.
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Speakers
Rahila Gupta
Rahila Gupta is a freelance journalist, author, and activist who has spent decades at the intersection of feminism, race, and justice. As Chair of Southall Black Sisters, she campaigns for black and minoritised women escaping violence. Gupta has authored and edited numerous books, including From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters (2003), Provoked (the story of a battered woman who killed her violent husband, later adapted into a 2007 film starring Aishwarya Rai, for which Gupta co-wrote the screenplay), Enslaved (2007) on immigration controls, and Turning the Page (2019), an anthology by the Southall Black Sisters support group. Her play Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong, a monologue in verse, toured internationally across London, Edinburgh, New York, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, earning multiple award nominations. She writes regularly for the Guardian, New Humanist, New Internationalist, and openDemocracy. Her latest book, British Feminism: Through A FiLiA Lens, was published in October 2025.
Ashwini Jaisim
Ashwini Jaisim is a content strategist, editor, and former co-host of the podcast Two Wise Chicks. She currently leads editorial initiatives at the Karnataka Golf Association and is the founder of Singularly Plural and The Singles Club India, two communities that support single parents and single adults across the country.
