Legal Decease Of Freedom In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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Legal Decease of Freedom
In The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead follows the Biblical rules determining the chain of statutes; this use of a religious constitution hugely restricts such fundamental personal freedoms of the citizens of Gilead. These essential freedoms may be expressed as the freedom of belief and freedom of choice which impacts both the religious beliefs and the lifestyle of the citizens. Today, most Muslim-majority countries adopt numerous aspects of Sharia law, a legal code derived from Quran and Hadith, which circumscribes many personal freedoms. In both situations, the restriction of freedom may cause the establishment of chaos and citizens to have inner conflicts.
When a country’s laws …show more content…

In The Handmaid’s Tale, just after Offred and Offglen encounters the Japanese people, Offred elaborates “Their heads are uncovered and their hair too is exposed, in all its darkness and sexuality. [ . . . ] Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized, they used to call it” (Atwood 28). Dress code in Gilead is one of the main strict and draconian rules which everyone needs to apply; “darkness and sexuality” are what the Bible and most of the other religious texts strictly forbids. In order for people to not to see each other’s face, Gilead makes their citizens, especially women, to wear extremely conservative clothes. Similarly, in Muslim-majority countries, men wear keffiyeh while women wear the traditional Islamic headscarf covering the head and hair, called hijab, which is advised to be worn according to the Sharia Constitution. When such personal choices concerning, for instance, appearances are being shown as enforcements in lifestyle and are placed in the text of the code, some citizens may unfortunately take it a step further: A man is accused of beating his four year old daughter up to death because she …show more content…

A religion’s “rules” must stay between the devout people only as taboos; implication of sect in the legislative system and governance not only threatens the wellbeing of country’s own citizens, but it also prevents any kind of brain drain into the country which is an essential source of progression for any community. Therefore, governments should only be serving for the well being of the citizens, peace and democracy among the country; the youth should embrace the values United Nations strictly recognizes and be aware that it is best when the religion is separated from governance. Secularism must be recognized which is a case only possible if there is a massive change in the governments of these religious countries; massive changes comes with the actions of citizens. All citizens must be informed about the inconveniences caused by religious laws more frequently for a change in government since the censorship in media is extremely common in these countries. Hence, the youth should be more focused on bearing the messages objectively among the country. That transformation of the ideology of the youth can most efficiently be achieved by them having conversations and strong friendships with other teenagers of more democratic countries which recognizes

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