Handmaid's Tale Analysis

“For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground” (Biafra). John Biafra, who started the underground punk movement in 80s, thus expresses the ineffectiveness of prohibition. The fact is that in the past, nowadays, and probably in the future, neither of prohibitions of vital and ubiquitous elements of life had have a complete success on people. The history witnesses the prohibitions of vital elements such as ideas, cults, choices, and their short-term “nominal” successes. It’s called so because after necessities of human beings are named “crime” in order to those prohibitions; those necessities go underground, and people started to meet their needs in underground. Those elements get hidden out but never annihilated; even though
However, speculative world of the novel isn’t very different from the reality of the world. All things considered, Republic of Gilead has parallelism with today’s Islamic Republic of Iran about the restrictions imposed by government. Both governments are very strict about role of women in the society, and they curtail women’s freedom in the name of chastity. In both countries, women can’t dress up freely; they need to veil themselves. Moreover, they can’t walk around the city at will; they can’t become friends with men. Expectedly, they couldn’t attain their aim which is suspending people from any kind of sexual relationship founded on pleasure. Even commanders and officers of high degree in Islamic Republic of Iran slight the prohibitions as it’s seen in the novel when the Commander takes Offred into the club to enter into sexual intercourse. For example, Reza Zarei, the Tehran police chief, was busted in a hotel room with six prostitutes in 2008. He was in charge of vice in Islamic Republic of Iran when he was busted (Cohen). Arrest of Reza Zerai proves that prohibitions can’t wipe sex off the face of the
Most of the surveys which are made by international independent companies show that prostitution in conservative countries is more prevalent than in countries which permissive to people’s any kind of sexual demands. For example, according to a survey made by ProCon in 2010, percentage of men who paid for sex at least once in Cambodia, where illegalized fornication and prostitution, is four times greater than men in Holland where is famous with latitude to sex. 80% percentage of men in Cambodia paid for sex at least once in their lives (Percentage). This situation can be relatable to manner of Cambodia’s governance which is amenable to Buddhism. 95% of Cambodian people are Buddhist and according to teachings of Buddha, people who are captive of their sexual demands are considered as sordid. Government therefore imposes bans on sexual behaviors of people; however, those bans can’t stop people to meet their need of sex (Simha). Also, those bans account for augmentation of underground –illegal- sexual activities in Cambodia. Herein, similarities between Republic of Gilead and Cambodia become conspicuous. Existence of the club can be explained with same reasons behind the underground sex activities in Cambodia. In both countries, people go underground to meet their need with the prohibitions of sex. It shows that sex can’t be annihilated by prohibitions;