"The Handmaid's Tale," the dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, was first published in 1985. Atwood depicted an America polluted by radiation, which caused an epidemic of infertility.
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Power is then seized by the commanders, who turn the country into a religious and military dictatorship known as the Republic of Gilead. The few lucky ones who had managed to escape fled to Canada, to freedom and perhaps clean air and zero carbon emissions.
The women of Gilead were divided into newly created social classes, each of which had a strict dress code. The few females who remained capable of bearing children – a.k.a., the handmaids – were taken to work in the homes of the commanders and impregnated in the presence of their wives.
The novel received critical acclaim and won a series of awards and in 2022, was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
And although "The Handmaid's Tale" is considered science fiction, Atwood drew inspiration from real life. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2018, she said that the idea came to her in 1981, four years before the novel was published after Ronald Reagan was elected president and the "religious Right was on the rise."
In the 1970s, the second wave of feminism reached many achievements, Atwood said, and there was backlash. There's always backlash. In the 1980s, people started saying that women should stay at home. And I thought, well, if they stay at home, then how are you going to get them back there?
Similar fears arose in 2017 when Donald Trump became president of the United States.
Speaking to Variety, she said, It's shocking. We've already seen events like this. Right by the book. The lies of the propaganda, the replacement of people in key positions in the justice system – because every totalitarian regime controls the justice system. And on top of that, the Nazism. It was Hitler or Goebbels who said that if you tell a lie frequently enough, people will come to believe it. Lie big, lie a lot. We've seen it. And it's not about the Left or Right, even left-wing regimes have acted this way. It's about whether a country is a totalitarian regime or not.
Although Trump "disappointed" in terms of totalitarianism, Atwood's novel spoke to readers even over thirty years later, and the paranoia on the Left found a new artistic outlet.
In 2017, "The Handmaid's Tale" was adapted to television by Hulu and was received by some as the correct depiction of the opposing camp.
The crimson robes worn by the handmaids in the book – and the white bonnet added by Hulu costume designers later – have come to embody globally the threat to women under the patriarchy, and have been used in protests elsewhere. US women opposing Trump's conservative Supreme Court nominees donned the garb, as did Iranian women demonstration in Britain in support of the hijab demonstrations in Iran, and Polish women calling to preserve abortion rights.
Most recently the robes and bonnets dominated protests against the judicial reform in Israel.
About 1,000 women wore them at a recent rally in Tel Aviv, organized by the Bonot Alternativa, or "building an alternative," women's rights group.
One of the organizers said of the recent events, "We don't want them to decide when we get to go out or where on the bus we get to sit." She seemed to truly believe that the new government was looking to have a say in every aspect of her life. She sounded scared, as was Atwood in her time.
It was not the first time the crimson robes were used in protests in Israel. In 2019, supporters of Opposition Leader Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, including his wife Lihi, donned the garbs to protest the Haredi lawmakers' proposal to allow gender-segregated events in public institutions.
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The protests continue to be well-branded in 2022, reusing all kinds of symbols, from communism to Black Lives Matter, and even cries of "Shame" inspired by a scene from Game of Thrones.
Atwood even reported photos of the protest, as she does with every demonstration featuring symbols from "The Handmaid's Tale," including the one in London last week that was held in solidarity with the women of Iran, who are truly oppressed.
But in Israel, it seems the Left does not entirely understand the ultra-Orthodox community, and if someone is made to believe that its members see women as slaves and birthing machines, then no wonder he or she will come to see the worst in them.
