Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood Paperback – September 4, 1995

I know very few memoirs by Muslim women, and this one, about a childhood in Fes in the 1940s, is especially valuable, as the writing is a delight in itself. What privileged access to the world of women in a traditional Moroccan household, and written with what elegant wryness and grace. The rituals, games, and secrets of women and children whose lives were unimaginably restricted. An inspiration!

Reading this book while traveling through Fes, Casablanca, Marrakech and southern Morocco was a really informative experience. It gave important historical and cultural context of the experience of women in Morocco that still have reverberations today though there is a lot more freedom for women in the larger cities. It addressed the tension between the old and the new - the traditional and the foreign really well. It also captured a burgeoning feminist awakening in a new generation of Moroccan girls and women.

Though the book jacket and title suggest this is an exotic and lurid look into the hot, steamy and abusive world of Middle Eastern brothel life it is actually a humane portrait of familial relations within the confines of a harem (quite different than its reputation would suggest) and how they operate under foreign occupation. Fatima Mernissi understands the misconceptions about female domesticity-within Morocco specifically and the Middle East in general-and proceeds to cordially deconstruct and undermine western stereotypes at book's length. From the affectionate father that attempts to accommodate Mernissi's mother while both suffer under the constraints of patriarchy (a problem not uniquely Middle Eastern) to the private feminine community behind harem walls to the varied interaction with popular culture both local and foreign, this book doesn't offer pat indictments of anything, but, in a way that mirrors the harem, creates a space in which discourse can operate. The Harem is partly presented as a sacred space, one in which the Western gaze of the colonizer and the general gaze of the male cannot penetrate at will. Despite notions to the contrary, the activity that takes place behind these walls can be read as feminist and in some cases radical. Thus, Mernissi is a feminist, but one that works within the context of Islam, endlessly reconstructing traditional patriarchal interpretations of the scripture with those women can assert agency in. Like many Arab Women Writers she walks a tricky line between humanistic portraits of brethren that combat Orientalist stereotypes while also, as per James Baldwin's phrasing, putting her people's business on the street. Her mother, deprived of formal education but smart as a whip, provides deep-seated ire at her status as a woman, but the book isn't a stark and depressing, black and white reduction of everything to her situation. Like all good literature, it's complicated. The book is rich, too, in non-western literary and cultural tradition as well, from Sheherezade to Om Khoultoum, showing that binaries between Western "civilization" and Eastern "primitivism" are false and destructively counterintuitive. Worth a look!

This book is repetitive and drawn out which detracted from its charm and failed to hold my interest. There are moments when it is illuminating.

A very brave woman wrote this for all of us who grew up outside a Harem. Life there is wonderful in many ways, but also like a prison for the women. Fatima shows childhood, playing, being loved, discovering the boundaries of their society. I was sorry when the story ended.

I was rather surprised to see a couple reviewers blasting Mernissi for writing that seemingly "attacks the religion of Islam," and for misusing the term "harem." I'm quite sure our author knows exactly what a harem is, and I'm sure authors of MEMOIRS are more than welcome to display their personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions. This aside, Mernissi does not attack any religious institution in her book. She simply writes of her own mental progression, and the diverse influences on that progression throughout her youth. Do not read this book expecting political fireworks or a grand emotional saga. If those styles seem better suited for you, I recommend Savushun. This novel is a much gentler, more subtle investigation of the culture through the eyes of a young girl who is trying to make sense of her world. I find the innocence of this novel very endearing, and feel that the understated messages make this book a more powerful read than most memoirs. I hope to read this novel with my English students this year.

Anyone interested in Gender relations in the Muslim world should read this beautifully, brilliantly depicted description of a wealthy woman’s girlhood in Fes, during the pre-reform era.But it is an absolute must for anyone visiting Morocco, especially Fes, and especially women travelers.It puts a new twist on the life of women, who are still far too often behind closed doors in Moroccan culture, for those traveling there. It is a beautiful, disturbing, and fascinating window into the recent past of an invisible part of Moroccan society that it is very hard to get elsewhere. And it also holds truths and insight for women everywhere, in all times.(Plus, on a practical note. it tries to explain to explain the complexities of the hamam experience, so that traveling women might have a very distant hope of figuring it out without bungling everything up entirely, and without knowing Arabic. But really, that is a quite remote hope, even with her beautiful depiction of the details of it.)