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How to Survive a Theocratic Dictatorship
According to my Middle-Eastern husband
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As the US election nears, it looks more and more like we’re going to install the man who has promised to become a “dictator on day one” and to usher in the theocracy of Evangelicals’ dreams if only they’ll put him in the Oval Office one last time.
For most of the people living in the United States, this will be our first rodeo with theocratic autocracy.
We’ve read about it in dystopian novels like The Handmaid’s Tale. We’ve worried about it as we’ve listened to our Christian Nationalist relatives speak on their intent to help undermine democracy through the courts and implement Project 2025. But we’ve never experienced it for ourselves.
American Nones in particular say the word “theocracy” a lot, but we don’t have the sort of visceral understanding that comes with living in one.
That’s why I thought now would be a good time to pass the mic to my husband, Mansoor,* since he spent the first 25 years of his life living in exactly the sort of society the United States is poised to become if Trump wins the election — a theocratic dictatorship.
