The Religious Right and The Handmaid's TaleMargaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale takes place in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States. A far-right religious movement assassinated the president and Congress and took full control of the government. The constitution was suspended and freedoms suppressed. Women found themselves completely subordinated in the new regime, usually entrusted to the legal care of a male “guardian.” Offred, the main character of the story, was lucky in many ways. Because she was still fertile, she was not labeled "unwoman" and sent to the "colonies", where thousands of individuals deemed undesirable by the government were sent to work in toxic factories and agricultural camps. Instead, her destiny was to become a "handmaid". The birth rate was declining in the republic, so a fertile woman became a hot commodity. As Offred had been divorced before the revolution, the religious leaders controlling the government saw fit to take her away from her second husband and second child and assign her to a "guardian", a man of high rank. Her only goal in life with the guardian was to get pregnant. Once a month, an insemination ceremony took place, during which the guardian attempted to impregnate Offred while his wife read passages from the Bible to them. All three remained clothed and there was no passion involved. During her life as a servant, Offred discovers more about Gilead. Her secondary duty (after becoming pregnant) was to go to town every day and buy food. She gradually makes contact with another servant, Ofglen, who introduces her to the underground movement against the republic. She ends up getting involved in a number of illegal activities and is ultimately forced to attempt to escape. The Handmaid's Tale is really about the role of women in society. If it were possible to eliminate the women of Gilead, it seems the republic would have done it. Instead, they are reduced to doing the one thing for which Gilead cannot find a substitute: producing children. They are so reduced that they cannot even feel passion or enjoy sex. Infertile women have an even worse situation; they are not considered women at all and are deported or killed. The message is that women are necessary to perpetuate humanity but should play no other role in the society they enable to exist..