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Summary: Hope is the fuel of change...
Review: Despite a culture that upsets a modern woman's sensibilities, there is power and persuasion at work in Fatima's harem especially the power of words and stories. I thoroughly enjoyed this writer's retelling of her childhood and the dimensionality she's added to my picture of a Moslem woman.
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Summary: Harem life has many similiarities to American slavery
Review: Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi This history of a young girl growing up in a harem in Morocco is charming and thought provoking. Mernissi transports the reader to 1940's Morocco with her frank tales of childhood. Colorful vignettes and reminiscences tell the story of her youth and underscore the restrictive lives of harem women She tells of the methods women used to entertain themselves and each other in a world that allowed women to participate in few activities outside of the harem. Dreams of Trespass emphasizes the solidarity that occurred between the women that were so closely confined. Mernissi's numerous references and footnotes lend authenticity to her memoirs and tempt readers to further study. The vast differences between city and country harem life are particularly interesting, as the country harem in which her Grandmother, Yasmine, lives is much less restrictive than the harem in which she lives in the city. In the country, the harem is more a state of mind, as the women have free run of the surrounding countryside. The harem in which the author lives restricts the women of the family to the home. The gatekeeper will not allow any woman or child to leave the home unless an adult male family member has granted permission. The similarities between harem life and that of African slaves living on plantations in pre-civil war America was striking. Certainly there are many differences, for example, harem women were generally affluent and often had servants and slaves of their own to wait upon them while plantation slaves often had few resources to call their own. Both groups were totally dependent upon others for their upkeep and were not allowed to make decisions. Neither group had a sense of autonomy, because the freedoms experienced by both groups were dependent upon the will of their masters, husbands and fathers in the harem, owners and overseers on plantations. Mernissi's description of the possession dance that Mina participated in has its roots in Ghana and is reminiscent of the stories of slave celebrations in the United States. As Mernissi states on page 161 in a description of the women's behavior at the possession dance," It was as if the women had freed themselves for once of all external pressures". I can't help but wonder if the slaves weren't feeling the same sense of release when participating in their own celebrations. The same sense of camaraderie experienced in harems may well have been felt by slaves in their own restricted societies. Harems had their own rules of social order, as did those in slave's quarters on plantations. Hierarchy was determined primarily by age in both cultures. Stories, plays and other forms of entertainment were methods used to experience the freedoms that were forbidden. Perhaps the subjugation of people generates a desire for entertainment that includes the independence that they lack. The progressive feminism that existed in the harem was surprising in that the women were so very cloistered. They were allowed no radio or other means of information unless they had first secured permission from one of the men and yet they had a real sense of how little freedom they had and just how much of the world they were missing. Throughout this book, runs a thread of dissatisfaction and a desire for more education, opportunities and experiences. The methods used to rebel against suppression were almost comical. They smoked forbidden cigarettes and chewed outlawed gum and designed embroidery that did not fit the accepted rules of tradition. The women were very aware of how limited their freedoms were. "Running around the planet is what makes the brain race, and to put our brains to sleep is the idea behind the locks and the walls... the whole crusade against chewing gum and American cigarettes was in fact a crusade against women's rights as well...but men opposed them because they gave women opportunities to make decisions on their own, decisions which were unregulated by either tradition or authority" (Mernissi, p.186-187). It is apparent that the same tactics were used against the American slaves. Keep them ignorant, allow no decision-making and they will not cause trouble seemed to be the prevalent attitude on plantations. But no one figured out a way to prevent dreams, in the harem or on the plantations. And dreams of freedom were common and necessary in both societies.
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Summary: book
Review: Dreams of Trespass is a wonderfully written novel about a young girl growing up inside a harem. Fatima did an extrodinary job describing how the women of her family managed to wile away the many hours of their imprisonment. She also managed to vividly detail life inside the harem very effectively through the eyes of a young child. This book is a must read for anyone wishing to truely understand life inside the harem.
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Summary: Wonderful read!
Review: Dreams of Trespass is a wonderfully written novel about a young girl growing up inside a harem. Fatima did an extrodinary job describing how the women of her family managed to wile away the many hours of their imprisonment. She also managed to vividly detail life inside the harem very effectively through the eyes of a young child. This book is a must read for anyone wishing to truely understand life inside the harem.
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Summary: Life in a Harem Through a Child's Eyes
Review: Dreams of Trespass is an easy-reading book explaining life in a harem, through a young girl's eyes. By using a Fatima's young perspective, the book gives a fresh way to look at women in other cultures. Fatima takes the readers through her confusing life of trying to please her father by obeying tradition, and trying to please her mother by modernizing. Dreams of Trespass explains life in a Harem, which allows the readers to breakdown common stereotypes. This is an excellent book that explains the Islamic culture in an easy to understand way.
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Summary: A Child's Perspective
Review: Dreams of Trespass, written by Fatima Marnissi, is written through the eye's of a child who lives in a harem. Since it took the view of a child it was an easy book to read. As a child, Fatima struggles growing up. Her father is strictly traditional and her mother is open for change and wants her children to have opportunities that she never had. Before reading this book, I did not know what a Harem was. Now that I have read this book I have a better view on what it might be like to grow up in a Morrocan Harem.
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Summary: Dreams of Trespass is a Literary Jewel
Review: Fatima Mernissi creates a vivid and sympathetic picture of her haram childhood. Her description of the dying institution of the haram and the women within is heart-rending. Dr. Mernissi's mother emerges as a strong a poetic woman who has ambitions for her daughter reach far beyond the walls of the haram. This book is valuable both as an oral history and as a wonderful story. Dreams of Trespass is a literary jewel that should be on every thinking woman's bookshelf.
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Summary: A great book for readers of all ages!
Review: Fatima Mernissi did a great job writing this book. The idea of writing through a childs eyes makes it an easy book to read and makes the book great for all ages to read! With this book she did a great job explaining what life was like for a little girl living in a Morrocan Harem.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: I am not a feminist, but I have to say that this is the book every girl should read to feel true intellectual empowerement.
Not only does it give an extraordinary look into women's life in a Moroccan Harem, but it also portrays Islam, or the different ways of being Muslim, as a more insightful religion than usually advertized in Western culture.
I know this book has been enjoyed by men because I had to read it for an ethnography class and everyone loved it, but this is an excellent book for girls. Especially if they don't believe they have the means to get very far. It can make women feel guilty for not living up to their potential, especially in the western world were more opportunities for education and advancement are available.
This book is just beautifully written.
It also has some amazing beauty tips : )
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Summary: A Beautiful Story of Family, Love, and Strength
Review: I began this book with many typical Western preconceived notions. I expected the exoticized harem of one sheik with many wives that we hear about in the movies and in literature. However, this discussion of a real harem without all the exotic trappings shows Mernissi's family life and her experiences growing up while finding her place in the world. It is a story of family, but also Mernissi's own feminist story of breaking through the patriarchal walls and gaining a higher education and social standing despite tradition. Telling the story from the perspective of a female child coming of age shows the reader how far Mernissi came from her childhood locked within the walls of the harem. Mernissi's mothers, aunts, and cousins, while not able to escape the harem themselves, plant the seeds within Mernissi that allow her to find her own path in the world outside the harem.
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