Handmaid's Tale inspires Israeli women battling religious coercion
Hundreds of women clad in red cloaks and sporting white bonnets have been appearing in the past few weeks in several of the anti-judicial overhaul, pro-democracy demonstrations across the country.
Some 150 women clad in red cloaks and sporting oversize white bonnets obscuring their faces have taken to the streets in Israel, in the midst of the massive pro-democracy protest organized in Tel Aviv last week.
The organizers told Al-Monitor that their protest, inspired by Margaret Atwood's fictional book "The Handmaid's Tale", channels power through silence and is a dire warning to Israelis of what could come if the far-right gets the final word.
This was not the first time these women have marched while dressed as characters from the book and the Hulu TV series, depicting a dystopian society that relegates women to child-bearing slavery.
The plot takes place in a totalitarian state called Gilead, established following a second American civil war and ruled by radical religious extremists who turn women into the property of the state and its elites.
