2020 IB Extended Essays

offers a voice to religious women who are told their beliefs are the reason for their oppression. In God Dies by the Nile, El-Saadawi depicts multiple facets of religion instead of the strictly manipulated representation seen in The Handmaid’s Tale . This representation is important to the novel as an agent of change, as El-Saadawi is aiming to discredit the assumption that religious doctrine is the sole cause of female oppression. Comparably Atwood focuses on highlighting the dangers of religion and how it can be manipulated. God Dies by the Nile acts as a revealing force to expose and scrutinise the structures that contribute to female oppression whereas The Handmaid’s Tale ’s purpose is to warn readers against the ways in which religion can be manipulated and thus the portrayal is much more extreme and negative to communicate caution. 3.0 The depiction of theocracy There is a theocratic political environment in both Gilead and Kafr-El-Teen, where religion has become a tool of oppression used by those in power against minorities. In each novel, we see religion entrenched in the government and politics of each society. In The Handmaid’s Tale , Atwood shows the Gileadean authoritarian government using the psychology of entitativity as a means to oppress the female populace. Rigidly fortifying the women’s identity in society, the Handmaid’s are renamed as ‘of’ the man she belongs to. Offred is renamed because she now is the property of Fred and no longer has individuality and self. Moreover, Offred’s real name is not even revealed in the book, further highlighting the permanency of her identity loss. The lack of identity within their names is evident when Ofglen is replaced by “the new one”, Offred remarks about how “[she] never did know her real name. That is how [they] can get lost, in a sea of names.” ( p97 ). Removal of identity results in a numbness toward injustices within Gilead; Handmaid’s have become a faceless entity that are “lost” in both the colour of their dress and the name of their master.

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