As a girl who grew up in Iran during the rise of the Islamist regime, I witnessed institutionalized extremism. People began to isolate themselves as theocracy took hold, women's rights were crushed, marginalized groups were demonized, and morality police began their brutal enforcement. In a matter of months, the civil liberties we had counted on disappeared.
In unsettling patterns that evoke memories of my childhood in Iran, I've recently observed that "morality police" aren't exclusive to paramilitary guards of the Islamic Republic. They're a worldwide force. In 2019, dictatorships with their own version of morality police enforcers outnumbered democracies globally. And in democratic nations across the world, there is an alarming presence of authoritarian leaders who use divisiveness, fundamentalism, and misogyny as a political strategy.
Even in the United States, the current trend of extremism reminds me of my childhood. The attack on women's rights, book banning, and the war on marginalized people such as the LGBTQ+ community have now become commonplace. The bigotry and intolerance have even crept into the most progressive states in the country. In Temecula, California, the school board president made a baseless accusation that Harvey Milk, the pioneering human rights figure, was a "pedophile." The board then voted 3-2 to ban the social studies book that contained information on Milk from an elementary school.
In Iran, I witnessed the regime stir up moral panic within their base over and over again in order to crack down on books, the arts, civic discourse, and anything else that threatened their vice-grip on the people. The theocrats and their morality police enforcers convinced their base that their laws and crackdowns protected the country from "indoctrination" by corrupt influences that undermined people's "freedom." Sounds familiar?
Politicizing independent institutions, spreading disinformation, exalting executive power, crushing criticism, and marginalizing vulnerable communities are all pages from the authoritarian playbook. But why are the Christian nationalist morality police going after emotional intelligence education? After all, social-emotional learning (SEL) teaches pupils how to process emotions, how to engage in sound decision-making, and how to have healthier relationships. This isn't something new introduced by the liberal agenda but a variation of this has existed under different names for decades in the education system. You may have encountered SEL in your own school experience as soft skills, self-development or character-building—tools aimed to help develop healthier, more functional members of society. A meta-analysis involving 213 SEL programs shows that they indeed improve academic achievement, social competency, and healthy development. Another study shows that for every $1 spent on SEL programs, $11 of long-term gain is reaped in terms of reduced crime rate, better health, and increased earnings.
It turns out that the relentless crusade of the morality police against such programs persists because lifelong social-emotional learning is a key ingredient in vibrant and healthy democracies. A shining historical example of prioritizing the self-cultivation of citizens can be found in the success of Nordic countries' transition from authoritarian and poor societies to rich and functional democracies in the span of a few generations. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark's evolution can be attributed to their embrace of an adult educational approach called bildung. A predecessor of SEL, bildung fosters personal development including how to maintain and repair relationships and how to become coauthors of democracy. Young adult students in the Nordic bildung schools were given the freedom to form their own opinions in the classroom, engage in civic discourse, and return as community organizers to their own villages and hometowns. And it only took about 10 percent of the population to become educated and empowered to enable a remarkable transformation to a healthy and functional society.
Here in the U.S., Highlander Folk School in Tennessee embodied the democratizing leadership of the Nordic model and was attended by luminaries such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. The creation of folk schools can be attributed to shaping the civil rights, environmental rights, and labor movements. This type of education nurtures individual and collective agency, promotes preemptive peacebuilding, and dismantles the politics of divisiveness and fear. It's no surprise that any of this would make the morality police extremely uncomfortable.
Fundamentalists and their morality police also benefit from keeping SEL out of schools because lower emotional intelligence correlates with authoritarian ideology. A 2019 study measuring both the emotional/cognitive abilities and political ideologies of nearly 1,000 Belgian students showed that students who scored lower on the cognitive/emotional tests were more likely to have higher scores on social dominance and authoritarianism assessments. The authors of the study suggested that people with lower emotional intelligence have less empathy and therefore less capacity to assume others' perspectives. Empathy is the pro-social behavior that helps us step out of our lonely silos and cultivate and strengthen relationships. It reduces prejudice, increases relatedness, and paves the road to collaboration. In other words, cultivating empathy poses an existential threat to the rise of authoritarianism. It makes sense that the morality police much prefer regular active shooter drills over practicing empathy in classrooms.
If society members practice lifelong social-emotional learning, their capacity for being with their own discomfort would also increase. They would be less likely to demand a safe space from disturbing parts of our history such as the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, and social realities such as gender non-conformity. They wouldn't be as driven by their discomfort to wage a war on books, women, refugees, or marginalized communities.
As with any educational curriculum, current SEL programs are not perfect and require regular fine tuning and effectiveness evaluation. But we're at a crossroads: We can allow a committed fraction of the population to careen the country toward authoritarianism. Or we can prioritize self-cultivation that includes nurturing and restoring our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with the world. Our future could look the Nordic example or like the theocracy I escaped from.
Ari Honarvar is the founder of Rumi with a View, dedicated to building music and poetry bridges across war-torn borders. Her award-winning novel "A Girl Called Rumi" tells the story of a 9-year-old Iranian girl's struggles against the regime.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
