The Handmaid's Tale, Behind the Veil and Dislocating Cultures

The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian, speculative work of fiction. The state of Gilead is essentially the worst-case scenario of how society may be in the future. However, because the novel was written in 1985 it could be argued that Atwood was writing then of events that are current now. Of the many themes that run through the novel the concept of “freedom to and freedom from” particularly struck me—especially in terms of the relatively recent and ongoing class between the West and Middle Eastern societies. Atwood writes “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it” (24).

The concept of freedom to and freedom from is eerily similar to Fatima Mernissi’s summary of the differences and similarities between Islamic and Western exploitation of women. In Beyond the Veil, she writes “While Muslim exploitation of the female is cloaked under veils and hidden behind walls, Western exploitation has the bad taste of being bare and over-exposed” (269).

Atwood’s and Mernissi’s commentaries further overlap in this passage, where Aunt Lydia says “The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them” (55). This description represents the general appearances of women in the West. While Muslim women may be shrouded, most women living in Western societies are objectified and overexposed.

Another similarity between Gilead and some Middle-Eastern states is the government regulation of communication, transportation and public elections. In Gilead “Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn’t be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them…” (174).

These restrictions, coupled with the clothing women in Gilead must wear evoke the traditional view feminists in developed countries have of women in the East. But, such a dichotomy—between the West and East—is misleading and does not represent the true complexity of the clash between both cultures. Uma Narayan summarizes this dichotomy by writing “…the concerns and analyses of Third-World feminists are rooted in and responsive to the problems women face within their national contexts, and to argue that they are not simpleminded emulations of Western feminist political concerns” (543).

Neither way is ideal—both deny agency and choice, whether overtly or not.

One Indian-American Muslim woman, Asra Nomani, has written a memoir, Standing Alone, about her personal journey to bridge the gap between her cultures. To listen to a NPR interview with Nomani click here.