“Bitcoin is out there every day, in the darkest corners of the world, helping people nobody else is willing to help.” - Alex Gladstein

The discourse surrounding gender equality is often dominated by contentious issues in the global west. Without detracting from the importance of these debates, their polarising nature often distracts from the foundation of the women’s rights movement. Far more media attention seems to be given to the pay disparities in Hollywood and on the football pitch, than on the systemic oppression and lack of individual sovereignty given to many women in impoverished areas of the world today.

It is important to note, most people in the world have absolutely terrible money. This issue is not contained to just women, but encompasses most of the people on the planet. (For more information on financial exclusion as a whole, check out my “bitcoin for commerce” article which covers this.) With that said, banking problems are often exemplified for women, with slow social liberalisation hindering their access to money. This blog will attempt to summarise what the Bitcoin movement is currently doing to help women circumvent their financial barriers, and how the use of energy money is giving social mobility to women who are held back by our conventional monetary systems.

Financial barriers for women

The biggest obstacle preventing financial inclusion for women are the barriers in place that prevent them opening bank accounts. In the most extreme cases, inequalities are written into the law, with 2 countries (DRC and Niger) stating it is illegal for a woman to open a bank account. In other countries the discrimination is not this blatant, but rather takes form in “second layer” restrictions, such as the difficulty to obtain national ID cards. In 9 separate economies covered by the WBL, married women can not obtain ID cards in the same way as men, with far greater time and effort required to prove identification and open an account.

Even in cases in which there are no legislative restrictions impeding women’s rights to banking, traditional gender roles within many impoverished families often leaves the husband with complete dominion over the families finances. Often women will have no great form of income, and with low job stability they frequently fall short of the minimum balance requirements to open or maintain an account. The WSJ estimates that 1.1billion women in the world do not have any access to financial services, meaning they can not obtain any form of insurance or credit.

A UN report compiled from 71 different countries determined that rates of domestic violence and abuse were highest in financially underprivileged areas. For example, in Egypt where less than ¼ of women have access to a bank account, 80% of women reported some form of domestic abuse. Unfortunately, women without access to means of financial inclusion are often the ones who need effective escape tools the most. Economic independence is crucial for their safety and empowerment, as an access to money gets rid of their dependability on their partner/families purchasing power, giving them an “opt out” strategy.

What role does Bitcoin play?

Bitcoin is the greatest tool in the world for alleviating poverty. Due to its remarkable ability to preserve value, even if a person is only able to save a few cents from their income, they are able to accumulate purchasing power, rather than have monetary regulation diminish their earnings. Coinciding this with the accessibility of the network, with any person with a mobile phone or access to the internet able to buy BTC, it acts as a perfect tool of escape for a woman existing in a system of oppression.

The Bitcoin movement is already doing some incredible work to further the financial inclusion of women across the globe. However, institutional reform does not happen on its own, but rather is reliant upon pioneers, doing incredible work implementing decentralised systems in a range of underprivileged areas. Below are a few inspirational stories of people on the frontlines of the women’s rights movement and how they used Bitcoin as a tool of financial freedom.

Sovereignty in Afghanistan: Roya Mahboob

One of the earliest and most influential examples of Bitcoin being used as a human rights tool is through the work of Roya Mahboob, the first Afghan woman tech ceo. A Renowned businesswoman in Afghanistan, Roya founded Citadel in 2010, a software development company that initially hired 85% women (unprecedented in Afghanistan at this time). Originally trying to pay her workers in cash, this proved to be ineffective, as the outdated hawala system relied on the approval of many intermediaries to transfer money to vendors across the country. Using an 8th century financial system to facilitate money transactions was slow even if the brochures took no issue with your payment, but if you belonged to Roya’s ostracised company at this time, there was a high chance your money would be lost before reaching its recipient. Even worse, as many of the highly skilled workers were members of traditional Afghan households, any payments attempted to be made directly to the girls would “be confiscated by fathers, husbands or brothers.”

Despite this happening still in the early days of Bitcoin, when the second layer protocol was hugely underdeveloped, the ability to send and receive money on an open market network revolutionised Roya’s ability to send money to her workers. The girls were provided with security of their assets away from all those trying to lay claim to them, with the peer-to-peer transactions occurring on an entirely permissionless network. Just to make matters better, Bitcoin inevitably performed better against local Afghan currency, meaning the earnings given to the girls a decade ago are worth a staggering amount in today’s market.

Unfortunately, despite the invaluable work of many humanitarian activists in Afghanistan, the situation has only worsened since the seizure of Kabul in 2021. It has been 3 years since women were allowed to go to school, with a return to the Taliban’s regime revoking all the social liberalisation that had happened over the previous decades. Both culturally and economically, the future looks bleak for reform in Afghanistan. Although the Afghani has climbed back since its initial capitulation in 2021, the ability to engage in free commerce has been significantly hindered by the Taliban regime.

With sanctions restricting trade, and the IMF holding all Afghan foreign reserves and the freezing of multi millions worth of aid, the necessity for an escape tool is greater than ever. The entire Afghanistan economy is being strangled by outside forces to combat the Taliban. Unfortunately, it is those subject to the poor financial institutions in place that suffer.

Work of Western organisations often only acts to compound the issue. Some of the biggest money transmitters in the world, such as the Western Union, have cut off services to Afghanistan due to regulation requirements. Pages such as GoFundMe have cancelled fundraising efforts for “compliance” reasons, for fear that sending money into Afghanistan will be deemed by international forums as pro-taliban. Countless movements that further the education of young women in the region, promoting their involvement in the workspace, will now be unable to receive funds through their traditional channels. Although initially claiming these restrictions would be temporary, 3 years later the Western union shows no sign of resuming services in Afghanistan. In 2020, 4% of the entire economy, (around $800,000,000) was financed through remittances from abroad, all money that the Afghan citizens will now have no access to. Bitcoin is the only secure method of donating money to the women of Afghanistan.

Protection against seizures: Hijabs in Iran

Earlier this year the Iranian parliament approved a law allowing for the deduction of money directly from women’s bank accounts who do not adhere to the mandatory hijab rules. Although the enforcement of this law was postponed by the guardian council, if adopted it would use facial recognition surveillance and examination of online content to identify females not following the rules. With extreme penalties for repeat offenders, any woman caught not wearing the correct headwear twice, will face a 240 million rial fine ($400).

The ability of financial institutions to de-bank anyone not conforming to the rules is an example of how fiat money is a tool for government control. In regions where the laws do not protect their female citizens, the government controlled currency will not protect them either. Bitcoin provides protection for the women in Iran from bank seizures and is the first layer of defence against a judicial system that does not have their interests in mind. Many charitable movements are already facilitating the education of Iranian women in smart contracts and Bitcoin technology, providing them with the knowledge they need to possess their own custodial tools. Although Iranian regulations have come down hard on BTC, including higher energy costs for bitcoin mining than when using energy normally, they can not stop the peer to peer networks operational within their borders.

The real takeaways from the Afghanistan and Iranian examples are this:

The Taliban can crush local business, suppress education programmes and impose financial barriers. The Taliban can not stop bitcoin.

Western institutions can impose economic sanctions, restrict humanitarian aid and cut off major financial transmissions. Western institutions can not stop bitcoin.

The Iranian government can impose fines, instigate bank seizures and politically censor their money. The Iranian government can not stop bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the best way to help those that nobody else is willing to help.

Refuge for sex workers

The marginalisation of female groups is not restricted to the developing world, with specific industries in the western world experiencing financial exclusion on a day to day basis. One such example of workers engaging in lawful activity, but being restricted from gaining access to their money is in the sex work industry. It is obvious that some sex work is rightfully illegal, but it is important to note that most of the industry (stripping, escorting, onlyfans) is authorized under most Western governments laws. Many banking platforms, such as Citibank and PayPal, have openly frozen accounts of workers in the legal portion of this industry.

The legality of sex work is rightly a grey area. However, to deem something legal within the judicial courts, then to allow its distribution and consumption widely across the economy, only to confiscate the rewards of the people providing the service, is an infringement from the financial sector on people’s freedom. A supplier of a product engaging in a lawful transaction, that the government is fully aware is happening and decides not to stop, should not be subject to debanking after the exchange has taken place. The overwhelming majority of the adult entertainment industry is consumed by men and provided by women, making it somewhat unsurprising the consumption and accessibility is unregulated, while the earnings are blocked.

As most financial institutions insist that the regulations are in place to combat the darker side of the sex trade, many legal adult entertainers have turned to Bitcoin as a method of facilitating their transactions. Many online platforms allow for donations of BTC straight into the workers account, removing the necessity for morally dubious third parties. As many online adult entertainment platforms are rife with scammers, the finality of transactions on the blockchain also protects the woman from payment disputes, in which the bank had previously often sided with the consumer. Although this example is harder to cast moral conclusions on, it is further evidence that Bitcoin provides refuge from account seizures and unjustified fines.

A brighter future for women

Third party institutions have never been able to create a monetary system that caters for everybody equally. Through limited access to banking, subjection to outdated social views and unjustified bank asset freezes, many women have had barriers preventing their full financial inclusion.

Bitcoin is a set of rules without a ruler. It is not free from bias and from financial barriers because of political choice or good leadership, as it is not dependent on leadership whatsoever. Rather the refusal to distinguish between the members of the network and the persistence in providing equal service to everybody, is ingrained into the code in which it will always adhere to. The systemic barriers rife in government run financial institutions simply can not exist within the Bitcoin network. As the adoption of BTC becomes more universal, the opportunity to “opt out” of corrupt cache systems should significantly increase the freedom and personal sovereignty of the world population. Bitcoin is the ultimate equaliser to storing and spending wealth, and should be at the forefront of the women’s right movement into the future.