Pearl Girls are a class of women in Gilead, and can be considered as a sub-class of Aunts. They are young women who act as Gilead's missionaries, going abroad to countries such as Canada to try and recruit more women to Gilead.
Attire[]
Pearl Girls wear silver dresses, white hats, and fake pearls, and carry silver backpacks.
Role[]
After nine years of training as Supplicants, Aunts-in-training perform missionary work as Pearl Girls. Their main work is to recruit young women abroad and initiate them in the ways of Gilead (their "Pearls"). Once their work is complete, they bring their "Pearls" back to Ardua Hall for the Thanks Giving ceremony and remove their necklaces for the next group of girls ready to depart for their own missions. They then become full Aunts.
Pearls are supposed to allow themselves to be "tempted" abroad. This means that they often allow themselves luxuries, such as ordering pizzas and staying in spacious condos. They are also given large sums of local currency and credit cards.
Like Handmaids, Pearl Girls always travel in pairs. When a Pearl Girl is ready to return to Gilead, the collected Pearl returns with her under the identity of her partner, who stays behind. The partner departs with the next Pearl that has been collected which assumes the identity of an incoming Pearl Girl. All documentation, including passports and temporary visas, are done via insiders at the Gilead Consulate or Embassy in the capital city of the country the Pearl Girl has been assigned to.
The Pearl Girls as a class were founded by Aunt Lydia in the aftermath of the botched National Homelands Genocide as a way to save Commander Jude’s reputation, as survivors were pouring into Canada from North Dakota, and receiving a large amount of international backlash.
Daisy sees Pearl Girls in Toronto quite often. Pearl Girls visit Neil and Melanie's store, The Clothes Hound, passing out pro-Gilead brochures, including ones concerning the story of Baby Nicole - unaware that Daisy is in fact the missing child made legendary at the behest of Aunt Lydia. Neil and Melanie warn Daisy to stay away from them, claiming that they are masters of recruiting vulnerable teenage girls, such as promising atheistic girls that they will liberate the women of Gilead.