Chelmsford Public Library

Dreams of trespass, tales of a harem girlhood, Fatima Mernissi ; photographs by Ruth V. Ward

eng

Includes bibliographical references

autobiography

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Dreams of trespass

bibliography

62170090

Fatima Mernissi ; photographs by Ruth V. Ward

tales of a harem girlhood

Overview: "I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco ..." So begins Fatima Mernissi in this exotic and rich narrative of a childhood behind the iron gates of a domestic harem. In Dreams of Trespass, Mernissi weaves her own memories with the dreams and memories of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her youth-women who, deprived of access to the world outside, recreated it from sheer imagination. Dreams of Trespass is the provocative story of a girl confronting the mysteries of time and place, gender and sex in the recent Muslim world. In a book as evocative as anything found in A Thousand and One Nights, Mernissi, who was born in a harem in 1940 in Morocco, writes with great wit and color of the politics of seductions, of the harem as a metaphor, and of the world beyond--every woman's inaccessible obsession

My harem frontiers -- Scheherazade, the king, and the words -- French Harem -- Yasmina's first co-wife -- Chama and the Caliph -- Tamou's horse -- Harem within -- Aquatic dishwashing -- Moonlit nights of laughter -- Men's salon -- World War II: view from the courtyard -- Asmahan, the singing princess -- Harem goes to the movies -- Egyptian feminists visit the terrace -- Princess Budur's fate -- Forbidden terrace -- Mina, the rootless -- American cigarettes -- Mustaches and breasts -- Silent dream of wings and flights -- Skin politics: eggs, dates, and other beauty secrets -- Henna, clay, and men's stares

Tales of a harem girlhood