Women Talking

Women Talking was inspired by real occurrences in a remote Mennonite colony in Bolivia. Toews prefaces her novel with an author’s note, naming the genesis of the book and summarizing the horrific events that took place in the Manitoba Colony from 2005 to 2009. Time magazine called the rapes of women a “historic and horrifying case of gaslighting,” noting that the “abusers, men in their own community, told the victims, 3 to 60 years old, that their attacks had been perpetrated by ghosts” (Patrick, Bethanne. “Confronting Demons in a Mennonite Colony.” Time, 15 Apr. 2019).

As in Toews’s novel, the abuse in the Manitoba Colony was widespread. Erna Friessen, a Canadian Mennonite woman who worked with the women who experienced abuse in the colony, told Vice reporter Jean Friedman-Rudovsky that “[t]he scope of sexual violence within Old Colonies is really huge,” and that “more [women in the colony] have been victims of abuse than not” (Friedman-Rudovsky, Jean. “The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia.” Vice, 22 Dec. 2013). She added that the colony is “a breeding ground for sexual abuse” and that “[t]he first step is always to get them to recognize that they have been wronged. It happened to them, it happened to their mom and their grandmother, so they've always been told [to] just deal with it” (Friedman-Rudovsky).

Another similarity between the fictionalized colony of Molotschna and the historical Manitoba Colony is the reason the leaders finally sought outside intervention. Friedman-Rudovsky reported that “Manitoba residents told me that they handed the gang over to the cops in 2009 because victims’ husbands and fathers were so enraged, it’s likely the accused would have been lynched. (One man who was believed to be involved and caught in a neighboring colony, was lynched and later died from his wounds)” (Friedman-Rudovsky). These colonies, both the fictional and the historical, keep their secrets close and only seek outside assistance when circumstances demand it.

Although there are few cases as widespread and horrific as the one in the Manitoba Colony, Toews says that abuse in Mennonite colonies such as these is not surprising: “I was horrified but not surprised. The details were shocking but these types of crimes have always occurred in places like this. Extremist, closed communities are ripe for violence” (Onstad). In fact, denial and gaslighting still existed in the colony in Bolivia when Friedman-Rudovsky visited in 2013 and interviewed its members: “The Old Colony leaders I spoke with denied that their communities have an ongoing sexual abuse problem and insisted that incidents are dealt with internally when they arise,” he wrote, and added that “[a]nother minister denied that even this episode had happened” (Friedman-Rudovsky).

Similarly, the women in Toews’s novel—like the women in Bolivia—when confronted with an untenable situation, face the same two choices their ancestors did, according to Friedman-Rudovsky: “Centuries ago, the original Mennonites in Europe, faced with persecution, had a choice: fight or flight. Given their vow of pacifism, they fled—and they have been doing so ever since” (Friedman-Rudovsky). When the women of Molotschna choose to leave, although they are striking out for places unknown, they are following in their predecessors’ footsteps. The novel’s real-world context is thus inseparable from its consideration of both The Violent and Repressive Nature of Patriarchy and Keeping Faith in a Religion Steeped in Hypocrisy.