Torture His Feet What Torture Is Done With Frayed Steel Cables To The Feet? (Its In Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale)?

What torture is done with frayed steel cables to the feet? (Its in Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale)? - torture his feet

The book has no further details. I do not know if this is still a common form of torture, but the inaccuracy of the description I was very intrigued. What you can do to someone born with a steel cable hurt? He said his feet were "swollen legs and stifles seeded and, with the exception of color. They like the lungs. It sounds terrible!