Required Reading

I believe that The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood should be required reading. A chilling account of how a religious group takes over America and creates a theocracy, where the government controls everything concerning reproduction. Women are divided into groups and are forced to dress in certain colors to donate what group they are in. Wives wear blue (only first marriages are recognized), Cooks and Household Help (composed of  unmarried older women too old for child bearing) wear green. And Handmaids (all second marriages and non-marital liaisons were declared adulterous the women's children were taken from them and they were arrested and forced to become Handmaids) wear red. Econo Wives wear striped dresses of all 3 colors. Handmaids are given to men in positions of power who do not have children and are forced to bear these men's children. (Under the new laws Men are not infertile if a woman doesn't get pregnant she is entirely to blame).  Anyone breaking the new harsh laws can be killed and hung on the wall or sent to the colonies where they are forced to clean up toxic waste. And under the new laws reading is forbidden for women.