In 5th century BCE India, a revolutionary spiritual leader made an unprecedented decision. Gautama Buddha, defying the rigid patriarchy of his time, created a parallel order of fully ordained female monastics. His own stepmother, Mahapajapati Gotami, became the first bhikkhuni (nun) after approaching him three times, finally standing barefoot and dust-covered until he relented.

"Women are capable of realizing the fruit of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship," Buddha declared, establishing spiritual equality in a world that denied women even basic rights.

For centuries, women flourished in this system. The Therigatha (the oldest collection of women's spiritual poetry in the world) preserves their triumphant verses: "Free am I, free from three crooked things: mortar, pestle, and my crooked husband," wrote the enlightened nun Mutta.

Then everything changed.