Women in Oppressive Islamic States

Jake Stryker


Laura Darrow

Eng 102

7/27/2010

The theme I find the most important in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is the open oppression of women in society. The reason I think this is so important is because similar situations have happened throughout history and are happening in places around the world today. The Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale is governed by an falsely altruistic but truly misogynistic right-wing religious party. While the measures taken to control women in The Handmaid’s Tale are more extreme than they are in any actual culture, there are cultures out there that make an effort to control many aspects of women’s lives in their states. The Handmaid’s Tale is in a way, a response to a fear of change in these oppressive states. Only, instead of a change for the better, the fear is that conditions could become worse if nobody cares enough to make them better.

While some Islamic states have feminist movements and women have gained more freedom than they ever had before, radical Islamist groups are trying to push them back. Two places that discriminate against women are Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Both of these places have radical Islamist groups in place such as the Taliban. In Afghanistan, “an overwhelming number of women are illiterate. More than half of all brides are under 16, and one woman dies in childbirth every half hour. Domestic violence is so common that 87 per cent of women admit to experiencing it”. (Olivia Ward, Ten Worst Countries for Women.) In Saudia Arabia, “women are systemically marginalized, forced to veil themselves, may not go out without a guardian or work in public places. Women become detainees in their husbands’ homes.”. (Munir, Islamic Fundamentalism and its Effect on Women). In The Handmaid’s Tale, most women are forbidden to read and write. The handmaids are not allowed to go out on their own or even to where they want to go, “Why would we want to go from here to there? We would be up to no good and they would know it.” (Atwood 31). Even when Offred walks to the market, she must dress so that she is covered up, and must keep her head bowed down. This is the modest thing to do.

In many traditional Islamic societies, women are made to wear the burqa in public, or even in their house if there is a man around. The burqa is similar to the handmaid’s outfit, except the only opening is a slit for the eyes. The Taliban took to even more extreme measures, “In February 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul and issued new regulations ordering people to blacken their windows, so that women would not be visible from the outside” (Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban). To me as an American and a westerner in general, these restrictions on women’s liberties are shocking.

Some Muslim women have spoken out against radical Islamist groups trying to control women. Other women have been beaten or killed for daring to speak out against prevailing authorites. Verse 4:34 of the Quran reads in part “Those [women] whose nushuz (disobedience) you fear, admonish them, and abandon them in bed, and strike them. If they obey you, do not pursue a strategy against them. Indeed, God is Exalted, Great" (Quran 3:34). According to the Quran, if a woman disobeys, you may strike them. This reminded me of Moira’s beating in The Handmaid’s Tale, when she tried to escape from the Red Center. She disobeyed by trying to escape, and in return they caught her and beat her, “It was the feet they’d do, for a first offense. They used steel cables, frayed at the end” (Atwood 91). This is yet another practice held in common with radical Islam. Saddam Hussein’s son Uday commonly prescribes “falaqa”, or foot whipping on people who displeased him (Uday Foot Torture, Youtube).

The women in the Red Center in The Handmaid’s Tale were there to be groomed to believe certain things, look and act a certain way and learn that there are consequences for speaking up. The women are there to be brainwashed. From a western perspective it seems like this is what must have happened to the Muslim women who claim pride in the restrictive orders imposed on them by their religion. One woman named Oumkheyr speaks of this pride in an eerily Gileadean fashion, “I wear the burqa for the simple reason that I am a Muslim and the Koran says that I must wear the full veil in order to be modest. I am proud of my Muslim faith and my modesty. I am proud to follow God's law” (Why I’m Proud to Wear the Burqa, CNN).

In Gilead, the strict new measures imposed on women stem from a religious group who interpreted the teachings of their faith in a most extreme way. As Aunt Lydia tells the women in the Red Center, “Ordinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary” (Atwood 11). Through time, her hope was that the women will forget their former freedoms, and that their offspring will never know them and therefore will not miss them. They will be taught to feel shame when they think thoughts that are not sanctioned by the people in charge. This seems like what may have happened in Islamic societies. Women who stand up for these things do so because it is what they know. Many women in western societies see the burqa as a sign of oppression, and many women in Islamic societies hold the opposite view. They see it a liberating and spiritual symbol, proud to wear it because they are pleasing their God. Traditional Muslim women in more open, western societies often feel shame as well. When they get a job and are required to conform to a dress code, they may experience “emotional responses of guilt, shame, and embarrassment that in turn trigger complex emotional responses.” (Research on Emotion in Organizations xxi)

These controls and even acceptance of these restrictions happens frequently when a religion has major control over the population and the society itself. Women who are proud to be Muslim and follow Islam’s strict laws may do so only because it is designated by their God and their religion. It is harder to reject an idea if it is a main tenet of one’s religion. If a person does so they face discrimination, punishment and exile. This is why I believe it is a detrimental thing for society to be governed by a religion. As we have seen throughout history, while religious texts may not change, the people in charge who interpret their meanings do. Any writing is open to interpretation, and oppressive regimes try to find a way to relate their agendas to a part of their scripture. If they can do this, they are allowed to pass unjust laws that betray the meaning of religions, while using quotes from religious texts as the pretext for their tyranny.

I do believe that the women’s world of Islam does need reformation, but we must be careful how we go about it. Trying to force democracy and freedom of choice is not the way to implement freedom. We must get Muslim women to speak openly, hear their views both pro-veil and against. We must not act superior or denote them as stone-age thinkers, but learn to respect their views. If we can learn to respect what they have to say, they may do the same to us, and then progress can begin to be made. A Muslim woman named Fatima Gailani is prepared to fight for this progress. There is a quote of hers in Jan Goodwin’s book Price of Honor, “It is time for Islamic women, the majority of whom are moderate, to take a stand. But to do that, we need to have a thorough knowledge of our religion” (78).

Sources

Ward, Olivia. "Ten Worst Countries for Women." Thestar.com. 8 Mar. 2008. Web. 26 July 2010. .

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.

"Research on Emotion in Organizations." Research on Emotion in Organizations, Volume 4 : Emotions, Ethics and Decision-making 4 (2008): Xxi.

Munir, Lily Zakiyah. "ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN." Emory.edu. Web. 29 July 2010. .

Uday Foot Torture. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 28 July 2010. .

Oumkheyr. "Opinion: Why I'm Proud to Wear the Burqa - CNN.com." CNN.com. 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 July 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/04/france.burqa.ban/index.html>.

Goodwin, Jan. Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994. Print.



Quran. 4:34. < http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/Pages/adifficultverse.html>