In Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, Gilead is a hyper-religious dystopia that has taken over what used to be the continental United States. The drama series is based on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a novel in which women have lost all rights and individual women who are known to be fertile are given to childless upper-class families as Handmaids and forced to become pregnant for them. The Handmaid's Tale adaptation stars Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, called Offred by the Waterford family to whom she was given. June is a rebellious Handmaid who chronicles her life under the oppressive regime.

Gilead is an autocratic theocracy under an authoritative, extremely regressive Christian rule. Women in Gilead are only useful as wives or breeding stock and are not allowed to own property or have any money of their own. Most of these rules are taken directly from the novel, which Atwood based on real rules and laws that governments and societies around the world have enforced throughout history. Everything in The Handmaid's Tale is something that real women have suffered in the past or are currently experiencing. Gilead culture is reinforced by commanders like Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), and it takes all of the worst oppression that women and girls have faced and applies all of it at once.

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While the television series adaptation mostly focuses on Gilead itself, and specifically the trauma that June experiences at the hands of the Waterfords, there are some instances in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale where the world's opinion of Gilead is clear. Canada, Gilead's neighbor to the north, doesn't recognize Gilead as a nation of its own and still protects the remaining United States, which is now headquartered in Alaska and has pockets of resistance throughout the lower 48 states. The No-Man's Land between Gilead and Canada is similar to the DMZ between North and South Korea and is a buffer area between the two countries. Other major countries, such as China and India, send aid to the U.S., which supports Fred Waterford's assertion that Gilead is not recognized as a sovereign state. It's safe to assume that, on the world stage, Gilead is seen as similar to a terrorist regime.

Canada has made it clear that they do not recognize the Gilead government. In The Handmaid's Tale, refugees from Gilead flee to Canada and are protected. The Canadian government also supports the pockets of the U.S. that are not under Gilead control and treats Gilead as a hostile rogue state. The Canadian and British militaries conduct exercises near the border between Canada and Gilead, ready to protect Canada from Gilead should they try to spread their regime northward. Gilead is cut off from the rest of North America by its own design, and the leadership is not happy that they are not able to maintain the U.S.'s trade relationships, causing the region to suffer from food and supply shortages. The relationship that Gilead has with Mexico is a little warmer than the government's relationship with Canada. Mexican diplomats have visited Gilead, though the country still doesn't seem to be in their favor. While Gilead has isolated voices of support within the borders of other countries, most governments make it clear that they don't recognize Gilead as a legitimate nation.

Waterford is right that the rest of the world sees Gilead unfavorably. The human rights violations that its oppressive government commits against its citizens make it difficult for Gilead to maintain favorable relationships with foreign nations. Also, Gilead's hostile take over of the United States government makes it similar to a terrorist state in the eyes of the world. The Handmaid's Tale presents a nightmarish version of an American dystopia, and in the world of the show, most governments agree that Gilead is dangerous.

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