I have been asked to write a letter to Afghan women by the journalists of Zan Times, an Afghan women-led media in exile.
I accepted this invitation because the plight of women in Afghanistan matters. Four decades ago, I imagined the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale, in hope of raising awareness how easily it is for women to lose their social status, their roles, and their human rights. I had hoped Offred’s tale would inspire readers around the world not only to guard for women’s rights in their own countries, but to pay attention to other countries where women are intentionally and systematically made vulnerable, powerless, and subject to abuse and starvation.
I am writing this letter to you, the brave women of Afghanistan, who are struggling to preserve a few shreds of human dignity. Over the past four years, I have read a lot about the Taliban and the growing restrictions that define the daily lives of women and girls. The doors of schools and universities are shut to them. Women are forced to stay at home. They are reduced to their reproductive organs, and to roles as domestic servants, as they are in the Republic of Gilead.
In times of repression, when open protest means death, resistance goes underground. If you can, document what is happening and preserve what you have achieved previously: a certificate, a university degree, an award you have received. Keep these records close to your heart. The Taliban cannot take away from you your thoughts, your story, your words, your pen. Don’t forget who you are, what you’ve done, and the vision of possibilities that keeps you going despite all the difficulties.
The Taliban is not the only theocratic regime that ever lived, and unfortunately, they will not be the last as we are seeing the rise of authoritarianism globally. An important fight is to remember history – who we were, the things we did, the dreams we had – and pass it on to the rising generation, to the girls and boys and kids who are being born in the Taliban’s republic of Gileadin Afghanistan. These children have no way of knowing what really happened before them. For them, what the Taliban dictates and enforces as law, is the reality of life, how it has always been for them. And the totalitarian view of God is not the only view. If God is just and merciful, does He sanction the way you are being treated?
Dear women of Afghanistan, many of you who have recognized yourselves in Offred and Moira, I am sure you realize that the Taliban is trying to erase your intellectuality, numb your capacity to think, and to envision a better future for women. That is what the Taliban are afraid of. By writing, by continuing to run secret schools and online schools to educate yourself and the next generation, by documenting what the Taliban are doing, you are already a part of Mayday – the underground resistance movement in Gilead. But be very careful. Totalitarians are power-mad, they enjoy destroying people, and they are both ruthless and lawless.
I have often said that writing a utopian novel is difficult: human life is imperfect, and people have never been able to create a perfect Heaven on Earth, though they have no difficulty creating Hell. But perhaps, the people who are living a dystopian society from within, are the ones best suited to envision, not a perfect society, but a better one, where people are respected and the human potential for good is given more scope.
I am sending you my best wishes for solidarity, strength, and support, and for your fight for basic human rights. Basic human rights include women – they are full human beings, which some consider a radical idea.
Margaret Atwood is an award-winning author of more than 50 books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Her dystopian classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was published in 1985. She lives in Canada.
