[Spoilers Book] Prayvaganza Literacy Plothole

I always figured Gilead's anti-literacy laws for women were a bit like anti-literacy laws for black people in the US. Nobody really cared if an oppressed person could write their name, or recognize a few bible passages and local signs. The laws were intended to keep black people from developing a level of literacy that would help them to communicate, coordinate, and educate themselves.

Think of it like the former driving laws in Saudi Arabia. Even the most frothy fundamentalists realized that putting woman behind the wheel of a car was innately sinful. The argument was that if women had the option to drive, SOME women would 'misuse' the privilege to undermine the authority of their male guardian (they'd have affairs, take unapproved shopping trips, and visit people their guardians didn't want them hanging out with). Then, obviously, the whole community would collapse into slutty chaos. The goal was to control women's movement, and restricting drivers licenses to men was a means to that end.

But rural communities and bedouins pointed out that if women couldn't drive, then they couldn't help with a lot of the work that's required to sustain their communities. So the government just said, "Eh, fine. We don't care if women drive in rural areas". Nobody would look twice at a bedouin lady driving around really rural areas.

Rich communities with private roads also got an out - as long as the community monitored its own safety and didn't let women out of bounds, women drove pretty freely on compounds and private roads.

American servicewomen also were able to drive at times. Western women with military jobs don't form exactly form the bedrock of Saudi social structures. Conservatives folded pretty easily on that one, during the first Gulf War. The major concern was making sure that Saudi women didn't get any ideas from the Western servicewomen.

/r/TheHandmaidsTale Thread