Dreams Of Trespass Tales Of A Harem Girlhood

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi (1994, Hardcover) at the best online prices at. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood - Chapters 1 through 6 Summary & Analysis. Fatema Mernissi. This Study Guide consists of approximately 31 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your.

Fatima is born in a harem and her childhood is filled with the love and laughter of that lifestyle but is shaped by her mother's desire that her children have more freedoms than life in a harem allows. Fatima is born just an hour after her cousin, Samir, and her mother immediately defies tradition by insisting that there be a joyous celebration over the births of both children, not just the boy child. This is typical of Fatima's mother and she teaches Fatima that she must stand up for herself if she wants things in life.

Fatima, her younger siblings, her mother and father make up one wing of the household along with some relatives, usually divorced or widowed. Another wing of the house consists of Fatima's paternal uncle, his wife and children, including Samir. The matriarch of the family is Fatima's maternal grandmother who is very traditional, takes the words of the men as law and hates Fatima's mother for her forward and rebellious thinking. Fatima's mother has support from several of the women in the harem, including Fatima's cousin Chama who is openly rebellious. A divorced aunt who lives in the harem, Aunt Habiba, also believes in Fatima's mother's arguments but because of her precarious situation in the household, is unable to publicly support them.

Fatima's maternal grandmother is Yasmina who lives in a rural harem with her husband and his group of wives. Yasmina, though personally living in the confines of a harem, also bucks tradition on many minor points. She tells Fatima about the role of harems in society and predicts that Fatima's life will be better than that of Yasmina or Fatima's mother. Yasmina says that Fatima will be educated and the first step toward that occurs when nationalists create schools that accept young women and encourage girls to attend. Fatima's mother immediately petitions her husband to allow Fatima to transfer to that school and the family council permits all the girls to go. There, Fatima has her first taste of freedom, walking the distance between her gate and the school and feeling the power of being allowed to open doors to enter and leave rooms, which are freedoms forbidden by life in the harem.

Meanwhile, Fatima ages and matures. She studies the stories and lives of those around her, taking advice such as that offered by a servant named Mina who tells Fatima that she must always draw on her own strength. From her cousin Chama, Fatima learns about magic, incantations meant to create love or to keep love alive in a relationship. From her mother, she learns to desire freedom for herself and to imagine a life that is filled with happiness.

Dreams Of Trespass Tales Of A Harem Girlhood By Fatima Mernissi

This rich, magical and absorbing growing-up tale set in a little-known culture reflects many universals about women. The setting is a ``domestic harem'in the 1940s city of Fez, where an extended family arrangement keeps the women mostly apart from society, as opposed to the more stereotypical ``imperial harem,' which historically provided sex for sultans and other powerful court officials. Moroccan sociologist Mernissi ( Islam and Democracy ) charts the changing social and political frontiers and limns the personalities and quirks of her world. Here she tells of a grandmother who warns that the world is unfair to women, learns of the confusing WW II via radio news in Arabic and French, watches family members debate what children should hear, wonders why American soldiers' skin doesn't reflect Moroccan-style racial mixing and decides that sensuality must be a part of women's liberation. With much folk wisdom--happiness, the author's mother told her, ``was when there was a balance between what you gave and what you took'--this book not only tells a winning personal story but also helps to feminize a much-stereotyped religion. Photos. BOMC and QPB selections. (June)

Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood

Reviewed on: 05/02/1994
Release date: 05/01/1994
Genre: Nonfiction

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