The repression in the Handmaid's Tale "is a cakewalk compared to some of the...etc."

Oh, probably.  Yeah--come to think of genital mutilation, as one example.  But hey!  Big difference: it's happening waaayyy over there, somewhere else, somewhere hot, dusty, noisy, where they speak different languages and dress differently, too.  It's just...somewhere else--as you say, "regressive societies."  

The Handmaid's Tale supposedly takes place in our very own western (still, mostly white, civilized) world.