Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood
The Chibok Schoolgirls and Atwood’s Handmaids
On the 14th of April 2014 nearly 300 girls were abducted from the Government Secondary School of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. The young students aged 16 to 18 were kidnapped by Boko Haram translating to ("Western education is forbidden"), an Islamic jihadist group. A spokesman of Boko Haram claims that the young women have been converted to Islam and married off to members of the group. The indoctrination of the Handmaids in Margret Attwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale eerily mirrors that of the stolen Nigerian girls. It highlights how dystopian fiction can become reality when religious extremism gains power and the ultimate effect this can have on the rights of women.
Approximately 276 girls were taken and although a few escaped the majority remain captive. The girls were targeted because they were students whose education Boko Haran condemned as a sacrilegious contradiction to traditional Islamic learning. “Western” education is considered a profanity in its own right but particularly when girls are the recipient. The belief of Boko Haram is that women should be “[used only] as cooks and sex slaves” (Dorell, 2014), that literacy is not required and is therefore a sinful indulgence.
The …show more content…
Abubakar Shekau said the kidnapped girls should have been married instead of in school and that “girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage”. The Chibok schoolgirls have reportedly been married to members of Boko Haram for a price of roughly $12 each. "We married them off. They are in their marital homes," [Abubakar Shekau] said, chuckling. The girls now serve as cook, cleaner and child bearer to their husbands (effectively combining the roles of Handmaid and
On the 14th of April 2014 nearly 300 girls were abducted from the Government Secondary School of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. The young students aged 16 to 18 were kidnapped by Boko Haram translating to ("Western education is forbidden"), an Islamic jihadist group. A spokesman of Boko Haram claims that the young women have been converted to Islam and married off to members of the group. The indoctrination of the Handmaids in Margret Attwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale eerily mirrors that of the stolen Nigerian girls. It highlights how dystopian fiction can become reality when religious extremism gains power and the ultimate effect this can have on the rights of women.
Approximately 276 girls were taken and although a few escaped the majority remain captive. The girls were targeted because they were students whose education Boko Haran condemned as a sacrilegious contradiction to traditional Islamic learning. “Western” education is considered a profanity in its own right but particularly when girls are the recipient. The belief of Boko Haram is that women should be “[used only] as cooks and sex slaves” (Dorell, 2014), that literacy is not required and is therefore a sinful indulgence.
The …show more content…
Abubakar Shekau said the kidnapped girls should have been married instead of in school and that “girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage”. The Chibok schoolgirls have reportedly been married to members of Boko Haram for a price of roughly $12 each. "We married them off. They are in their marital homes," [Abubakar Shekau] said, chuckling. The girls now serve as cook, cleaner and child bearer to their husbands (effectively combining the roles of Handmaid and