Chapter 9: Nothing in Its Place

If you have read The Handmaid’s Tale or watched the series, you may remember that the handmaids were kept in a gymnasium before being sent to the households where they would serve. In the first book, this place is only briefly mentioned, and later described more clearly. But have you ever wondered why a gymnasium? It feels like an oddly unrelated space for such a purpose.

At first glance, it seems strange almost unrealistic to confine women in a sports hall for ideological control. And yet, to me, it never felt entirely fictional. I grew up in a society where spaces often lost their original meaning. A country whose history partly inspired Margaret Atwood’s imagination.

In Iran during the 1980s, a few years after the revolution, people told a short story to each other; a quiet joke wrapped in dark humor.

A foreign traveler visits Iran and passes a mosque where food is being distributed. Surprised, he asks a passerby:

— Isn’t a mosque a place for prayer?
— These days people pray at the University of Tehran (for a very long time the Friday praying ceremony used to be held at the University of Tehran)
— But isn’t a university for education, for scholars?
— If you’re looking for intellectuals, you’ll find them in Evin Prison (this is one of the main prisons of the country based in the capital.)
— Aren’t prisons for thieves and criminals?
— Not really. They’re busy running the country.

This may sound exaggerated to you, but this is a very common situation after a rapid revolution: nothing remains in its right place. And when the wrong people take power, things never return to where they belong, no matter how much time passes.

As we speak, forty-seven years later, not only does this joke still make sense, but even more misplacements have appeared. The most important one is the judicial system.

Following the protests on January 8 and 9, alongside the massacre, the regime arrested hundreds of people and arranged what can only be called pathetic trials. These civilians were deprived of their right to a lawyer and forced to stand before a judge and speak. The regime selectively released videos of these trials. In one officially published recording, the judge narrates the events himself, sentence by sentence, waiting for the accused to confirm each line as though the confession belonged to him.

It should not be forgotten that this regime always appears ready to take more lives. There are many ways to condemn the accused to life sentence, and, in almost all cases execution becomes a readily accepted verdict within this system.

In what kind of just trial does the judge intervene so directly and lead the court toward the conclusion he already has in mind? If a judge can guide everyone to the outcome he wants, then what is the point of a trial at all? Why does a court even exist?

So let me add another line to that old story:

— Shouldn’t judges be in courts, trying to bring justice to society?
— They were killed many years ago. Justice has been gone for a long time in this country.