The real witch hunts weren’t about cauldrons or curses, they were about control. In early modern Europe, 3 out of 4 people executed for witchcraft were women: widows, midwives, healers, and women who dared to read, question, or live without a husband.
Their “crime” was independence, and patriarchy used superstition as a weapon. Entire villages were wiped out, trials filled with paranoia, and scholars like Jean Bodin even claimed women were spiritually weak and vulnerable to evil, a convenient excuse to police female autonomy.
And the truth is, the witch hunt never stopped. Today, women are still punished for saying no, for demanding rights, for existing outside male approval.
Mahsa Amini, Sana Yousaf, Marielle Franco, Anna Politkovskaya — different centuries, same fear of women who refuse to be quiet. The labels have changed. The violence hasn’t. If reading, questioning, healing or simply being independent made you a “witch,” would you have survived the hunt?
