Invisible Nation: Why Authoritarians Fear & Target Women and Democracy explores how patriarchy, petro‑masculinity, and authoritarianism form a single system that links control of women’s bodies to control of land, borders, and resources. 

Women have always been at the forefront of resisting authoritarian regimes, yet their contributions are routinely overlooked, even as male strongmen build personality cults, demand vertical loyalty, replace truth with propaganda, and delegitimize independent authorities. Drawing on Soraya Chemaly’s work on “border‑patrol masculinity” and the limits of the male‑supremacist imagination, and Anna Malaika Tubbs’ research on the erasure of Black women, mothers, and caregivers, this Hopeful Conversation connects everyday harassment and domestic repression to militarized foreign policy and fossil‑fuelled strongman politics. 

In dialogue with the film Invisible Nation and Taiwan’s woman‑led democracy under threat, we’ll ask how feminist refusal, care infrastructures, women‑led diplomacy, and cross‑border solidarity can offer a different model of security—one based on interdependence, limits, and shared flourishing—and why what is good for women’s autonomy is not incidental, but foundational, to any real democracy and lasting peace.

Watch the film in advance (3/4-3/12) and join us for the panel, which you can access from Sunday 8th March.

PANEL PARTICIPANTS

Moderator

Vanessa Hope, Director of INVISIBLE NATION

Vanessa Hope is an award-winning producer and director who has produced multiple acclaimed films in China including Berlin International Film Festival selection, Wang Quanan's The Story Of Ermei and Cannes Film Festival selection, Chantal Akerman's Tombee De Nuit Sur Shanghai, part of an omnibus of films, The State Of The World. She has also directed and produced several doc shorts, including China In Three Words, an official selection at DOC NYC. Hope made her directorial feature debut with the documentary All Eyes and Ears, an exploration of the complex links between the U.S. and China featuring former President Obama’s US Ambassador to China and premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Hope’s additional producing credits include Sundance Film Festival selections, Zeina Durra’s The Imperialists Are Still Alive! and Sarah and Emily Kunstler's Academy award shortlisted feature documentary, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe and their award-winning SXSW film, Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. She served as Executive Producer of Paula James-Martinez’s Born Free. 

Vanessa and her husband, Ted Hope, share a company, Double Hope Films. Prior to her film career, Vanessa worked on foreign policy issues at the Council on Foreign Relations with Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies Elizabeth Economy. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago in Anthropology and East Asian Studies and completed the coursework for a PhD at Columbia University before going into film.

Panelist

Soraya Chemaly

Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning author and activist. As a cultural critic, she writes and speaks frequently about gender norms, social justice, free speech, sexualized violence, politics, and technology. The former Executive Director of The Representation Project and Director and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, she has long been committed to expanding women’s civic and political participation.

Soraya’s most recently released book, All We Want is Everything: How We Dismantle Male Supremacy, has been called “a potent rallying cry for a beleaguered feminist movement.”  In it, she challenges dearly held beliefs about gender and equality today, drawing clear lines between the dynamics of intimate inequality and global anti-feminist, anti-democratic backlash and machofascism.

Her first book, Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, was recognized as a Best Book of 2018 by the Washington Post, Fast Company, Psychology Today, and NPR and has been translated into multiple languages. She is a contributor to several anthologies, most recently Free Speech in the Digital Age and Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change The World.  Soraya is also a co-producer of a WMC #NameItChangeIt PSA highlighting the effects of online harassment on women in politics in America.  Her work is featured widely in media, documentaries, books, and academic research. 

Panelist

Anna Malaika Tubbs

Anna Malaika Tubbs is a 2X New York Times Bestselling author who grew up in Dubai, Mexico, Sweden, Estonia, Azerbaijan, as well as the United States. Influenced by her exposure to all kinds of cultures and beliefs, Anna is inspired to bring people together through the celebration of difference. Anna holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University. She takes from her academic background and produces content that is easy for others to connect with and understand. 

Anna has published articles on topics ranging from celebrating motherhood to addressing the forced sterilization of Black women as well as the importance of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity. Her writing has been featured in TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, Motherly, Newsweek, The Guardian, and more.

Her first book, titled The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, was published by Flatiron Books in February of 2021. A New York Times’ Bestseller, a New York Times Editors Choice, and an Amazon Editor’s choice, the book has achieved critical acclaim and has been featured in various national outlets. Her second book Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us came out in May of 2025 and it became an instant New York Times’ Bestseller, a USA Today Bestseller, an Amazon editor’s pick, and was recently shortlisted for the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism.

About Invisible Nation: Unprecedented access to Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, centers this portrait of the constantly colonized island, as it struggles to preserve its hard-won democracy, autonomy, and freedom from fear of authoritarian aggression. Thorough, incisive, and bristling with tension, Invisible Nation is a living account of Tsai’s tightrope walk as she balances the hopes and dreams of her nation between the colossal geopolitical forces of the U.S. and China. Invisible Nation captures Tsai at work in her country’s vibrant democracy, while seeking full international recognition of Taiwan’s right to exist. At a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the ever-present threat of authoritarian aggression around the world, Invisible Nation brings a punctual focus to the struggles of Taiwan.