Role Of Religion In The Handmaid's Tale

There has been an inconsistency between scripture and the role of women in society for hundreds of years now. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton once said, ”If the Bible teaches the equality of women, why does the church refuse to ordain women to preach the gospel, to fill the offices of deacons and elders, and to administer the Sacraments...?” And today many Muslim women view wearing a hijab as a sign of feminism in an otherwise sexually obsessed Western Culture. So how does religion affect women? How is it used to suppress? How is it used to liberate?

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale she heightens the conservative beliefs held today and how religion is used as justification for assigning roles to women. The main character, Offred, lived

in the society before Gilead and has to experience the extreme culture shift where she has to go through Gilead’s reeducation. The reeducation center had multiple propaganda mediums thrown at her at once, including a radical form of Protestant religion that was heavily altered by her government as a tool of suppression. However, because Offred lived in a time before Gilead, she remembers the Bible’s true verses and recognizes that it's words were altered to justify women’s new positions.
This idea of women being controlled by religion is not just found in this speculative-fiction novel, but in today’s world also. Just as women are told in The Handmaid’s Tale their roles in life were defined by a higher power, women today experience that same regulation. This can be seen by the teachings of the Bible; Women are largely confined to domestic life, Proverb 31:27, while men are left to be the sole provider for the family, Timothy 5:8, which is an unfair burden men must carry. Currently, antiquated belief is practiced in 18 countries where women cannot get a job without their husband’s permission because of the country's religious ideologies. The idea, however, that women’s roles, and by extension roles of men, are regulated by religion is found in more than just the Bible; the same idea is found in the Quran.
Fatema Mernissi is a famous Muslim feminist. She thoroughly believed that it was here culture that was manipulating the teachings of Muhammad to confine her to specific roles. In both Mernissi’s life and Offred’s life they have to deal with the competition of other women to be accepted by the male society. In The Handmaid’s Tale version this is expressed by the different factions of women’s roles, such as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas and how they fight amongst themselves, thus disabling them from forming together to better each other's lives and keeps them subjugated. While in Mernissi’s life, it was harems supported by her culture's religious beliefs that created this divisional pecking order. This keeps the women from immediately trusting each other and promotes competition for the Male’s attention.
Also, in both Offred’s life and Mernissi’s life they were not allowed the right to solidarity. If they ever wanted to travel out of the home they had to be accompanied, by a fellow handmaid for Offred and a male relative for Mernissi. Gilead’s reasoning for this is rather transparent; it prevents handmaids from escaping and forces one another to become a spy for the other. However, The reasoning why a Muslim women cannot be left unattended in the street is derived from the word of Muhammad saying, "A woman must not travel alone without a mahram. No man may enter the house of a woman unless there is a mahram with her.” His reasoning being that women are Allah’s weaker vessel, and that she is more tempted to stray or become over powered and commit haram. This denies the women autonomy and is another way of keeping constant watch over them. When the women do not get to experience life outside the home without their careful partner they are limited to the ideas and culture of the world because they cannot explore their surroundings on their own without the fear of being reprimanded or punished.
In contrast, there is one very huge difference between Islam and the heightened version of Protestantism found in The Handmaid's Tale: the importance of education for all Muslims.

In Atwood’s novel she describes ‘reeducation’ centers where the women are taught modified bible lessons and are forbidden from reading. This allows the government to control what kind of information these women receive and gives an advantage to the men. Essentially, the men get a new secret language and access to the past through their literacy, yet women are stuck with their reality of whatever the men decide to tell them. However, in Islamic culture has a strong hadith is the belief that all Muslims should seek and acquire knowledge, including women. This allows the women to read the Quran and interpret it as they see it, giving them a fighting chance to change unfair laws in Islamic theocracies such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan.In addition, becoming literate and educated allows Muslim women exposure to multiple ideas and a chance to independently think. This is where people like Fatima Mernissi root their beliefs and actions. However, this savior of the Islamic faith in respect to women's rights is coming under fire by Muslim extremists. Malala Yousafzai was a girl who fought for education for all children, especially girls, in her small village in Pakistan and was shot by the Taliban. She miraculously survived a bullet to the head with the help of Pakistan’s best efforts and later being transferred to a well equipped English hospital. While, the majority of Muslims believe and support her cause, the religious fanatics call any education of a female repugnant and threaten violence against the innocent to prevent it. In this case it is not directly the scripture itself that stifles women, but the fanatical minority of the religion does. Furthermore, Islam does an arguably better job at protecting women’s rights than Christian as seen by the

direct decree from the Quran that women can inherit from their family and receive monetary aid for a period of time after her husband’s death. In addition, many women argue that wearing a hijab is a feminist act, especially in western society. They see western women objectified and forced to be appealing to men’s attention, thus detracting from their personhood and that their hijab is a way to voluntarily opt out of that toxic culture. While this is true, the emphasis on women’s rights is opportunity and choice and donning a hijab is often not a choice, but rather a law. Because while women the U.S.A. may feel pressured by their peers to wear less, it is generally accepted if one decides to dress conservatively. In contrast to places like Saudi Arabia have strict laws enforcing female modesty deriving from Muslim teachings, including limiting the way the women dress to abayas and other traditional conservative dress. If these women cannot choose what they wear then they are denied self expression and this has the unfortunate effect of belittling and dehumanizing females. After comparing Christianity and Islam, two very similar religions, both monotheistic, people of the book, so is it any different in a polytheistic, orally based religion?
India, as a government, has recently put more emphasis on women’s rights in the past few decades as a form of population control, while at the same time aspects of classical Hinduism still persisting as a strong theme in law. June 17th, 2010 a young woman in India was humiliated by her townspeople when a large group of middle aged women, led by a man, dragged her outside her home ripping her clothes off and parading her around the town. With further investigation one discovers the mob’s reasoning, her brother was arrested for raping a four year old girl. Luckily, Hinduism places an emphasis on the innocence of children so this abhorrent molestation was clearly rejected by the society. So why did his sister have to bear his punishment too? The gathering wanted to send a clear message to the family that they are shunned because of the action of one family member. Furthermore, when this case was brought to court the defense tried to acquit them on women on the grounds that India’s protection of modesty laws only covered male-on-female attacks since it only used male pronouns in the law. In the end the mob was only fined for a vague caste vs. caste charge, but we're otherwise freed.
Particution in The Handmaid’s Tale is similar to what occurred in the previously mentioned paragraph and represents the dichotomy between family and women in the Hindu religion. All the family members, especially the women, are held accountable for the actions of their family members and thus are left more vulnerable to vigilante justice. Bhishma, a Hindu god, once said, “Whether the mother is able or disabled, lean or robust, the son is always protected by the mother”.Often times women will commit this to each other because they define themselves as the protector of their children, and when one fails to do so then she is punished by all. Much like how in The Handmaid’s Tale the Handmaids are responsible for beating rapist and often find a form of relief from this act in a way to defend their religious roles of mothers.
Religion carries a complicated relationship with women and their roles in society. It can be used to uplift, but special attention needs to be paid to promoting women’s rights so that society can prosper.