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1elbakerone
This is my first time checking out this group so I'll beg pardon if this seems too odd a comparison. :)
I recently read the following two books The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (which I noticed were both mentioned in other threads). The former is a work of literary fiction set in Afghanistan under the Taliban and the latter is science fiction set in a futuristic dystopia called the Republic of Gilead. At first glance these books could not be more different, however (keeping in mind that I'm not what most people consider a feminist) both contain strong themes along the question of women's rights.
Atwood's novel - originally published in 1985 - tells of a world where pollution and radiation have led to declining birth rates and with most of the population sterile, those women who are able to have children are pulled from their lives and forced to live as "handmaids" with aristocratic families. The handmaid must wear a special garment in public and can only go out at designated times with designated people. Their only job is to bear children for the family and Atwood's novel is told through the eyes of one such woman who constantly longs for the freedom, career and family that was taken away from her.
On the other side of the coin, one of the main characters in The Swallows of Kabul is a woman named Zunaira. She is a smart and beautiful woman who is forced out of her career when the Taliban law declares that women cannot hold jobs. She is at the mercy of her husband and can only leave the house - fully covered in a burqua - if her husband is with her. Throughout the book she expresses her frustrations at the laws that have so drastically changed her life and stripped her of her independence and her identity.
I thought the parallel of Atwood's handmaid to a woman living under the Taliban was remarkable. Published over two decades apart in distinctly different genres the plights of these characters mirrored each other and represented the theme of freedom struggling under religious oppression.
I recently read the following two books The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (which I noticed were both mentioned in other threads). The former is a work of literary fiction set in Afghanistan under the Taliban and the latter is science fiction set in a futuristic dystopia called the Republic of Gilead. At first glance these books could not be more different, however (keeping in mind that I'm not what most people consider a feminist) both contain strong themes along the question of women's rights.
Atwood's novel - originally published in 1985 - tells of a world where pollution and radiation have led to declining birth rates and with most of the population sterile, those women who are able to have children are pulled from their lives and forced to live as "handmaids" with aristocratic families. The handmaid must wear a special garment in public and can only go out at designated times with designated people. Their only job is to bear children for the family and Atwood's novel is told through the eyes of one such woman who constantly longs for the freedom, career and family that was taken away from her.
On the other side of the coin, one of the main characters in The Swallows of Kabul is a woman named Zunaira. She is a smart and beautiful woman who is forced out of her career when the Taliban law declares that women cannot hold jobs. She is at the mercy of her husband and can only leave the house - fully covered in a burqua - if her husband is with her. Throughout the book she expresses her frustrations at the laws that have so drastically changed her life and stripped her of her independence and her identity.
I thought the parallel of Atwood's handmaid to a woman living under the Taliban was remarkable. Published over two decades apart in distinctly different genres the plights of these characters mirrored each other and represented the theme of freedom struggling under religious oppression.
2margad
Odd comparisons are favorites in this group!
What I find especially interesting about this comparison is that Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale over two decades ago (as you point out), in response to emerging trends in North America, long before Afghanistan was on our radar screens over here. The similarities are striking!
What I find especially interesting about this comparison is that Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale over two decades ago (as you point out), in response to emerging trends in North America, long before Afghanistan was on our radar screens over here. The similarities are striking!
3bostonbibliophile
When I first read The Handmaid's Tale the comparison to the Taliban struck me right away, and it was that which made the book so disturbing- that Atwood managed to predict so accurately what a government is capable of doing to women in the name of God. Scary stuff. Don't take your freedom for granted!
4PghDragonMan
I have yet to read Swallows, but I can already see another similarity. The previous poster, mariekat, touched on it, but I feel did not go far enough in naming it. That is not so much what government can do but how religion may be interpreted in any way one so chooses and the way people will fall into line with that interpretation.
While there is an underground movement against the prevailing government in Handmaid's Tale, and based on current events I'm sure there is an underground opposition to the Taliban, in both of these societies, an oppressive way of life is allowed to become the accepted norm.
While there is an underground movement against the prevailing government in Handmaid's Tale, and based on current events I'm sure there is an underground opposition to the Taliban, in both of these societies, an oppressive way of life is allowed to become the accepted norm.
