Dystopia

Dystopia “Dystopia: an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.” As ‘imaginary’ as this world may be, not only have we experienced situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but to this very day there are places that have and still suffer the Gileadean fate. Many assume the events scribed by Margaret Atwood in the Handmaid’s Tale are fictitious, but they are terrifyingly real. Many third-world countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Bahrain and many South-Asian countries share similar traditions as the Handmaids, such as covering up there body so that no skin is revealed. In Pakistan, woman can be raped, and unless full proof is shown, the man will be unharmed by the law, and the woman will most likely be jailed for pre-marital sex. Afghanistan police torture and rape innocent women for what seem to be unnecessary reasons. This is relative to Offred, the protagonist of the film, and many other handmaids’. They can be mistreated and raped, and most likely no one will believe them. Not only that, but this is such a violation of law, that she will be jailed and/or killed. Women are expected to follow strictly under the orders of men, or the Aunts, which coincidentally are still under control by men. They have a set course of day to day activity, which does not include, and shuns upon tasks such as writing and reading. Similar to the countries mentioned before hand, although recently women are allowed to read and write. Women in both Gilead, and many Arabic countries, are under complete control of the men of their society. If they do not follow their set instructions, the men are legally allowed to do what they want with them. Women have a set purpose, a singular purpose, re-production. However, this feminism does not end at their lifetime, it carries on through pregnancy. Two-thirds of the babies are killed due to imperfections. This is similar to South-Asian countries. In India, 16 million female babies are killed each other, due to the birth of a female not being allowed. "It feels as if you've been turned inside out. You've just given birth and finally you feel emptied. You're exhausted. Your breasts are painfully full of milk. And then you look at your baby. And you see that she's a little girl. And you know that you have to kill her." The difference here is, this isn’t a quote from such a dystopian movie, but from a woman in India. India is the real world, not Gilead. The 1700’s was a time of theocracy, and many were enslaved or killed due to their religion or color. If someone, even man, did not accustom towards societies current standards of life, they would be punished, severely. Only certain races or cultures were targeted, the main being Jewish, Islamic and Black’s. This is considerably similar to the Republic of Gilead.