Dreams of Trespass: Tales of A Harem Girlhood

By Fatima Mernissi. Addison Wesley, 1994, 242 pp. List: $12.00; AET: $9.50.

Reviewed by Karen Henry

She knew how to talk in the night. With words alone, she could put us onto a large ship sailing from Aden to the Maldives, or take us to an island where the birds spoke like human beings. [We] traveled so far that no gods were to be found, only sun-and-fire worshippers, but even they seemed friendly and endearing when introduced by Aunt Habiba. Her tales made me long to become an adult and an expert storyteller myself. I wanted to learn how to talk in the night. (page 19)

We enter each chapter of Dreams of Trespass through an exquisite photograph and are held there by the magic of Fatima Mernissi's words, proving that she has indeed become an expert storyteller. Mernissi's memoir about her childhood in an urban domestic harem in Fez in the late 1940s recounts the life experiences of her female relatives and her own reactions to the world around her. The book demystifies the harem and puts a face on Arab Muslim women in a personal and highly entertaining manner, exploring the nature of women's power, the value of oral tradition, and the absolute necessity of dreams and celebrations.

The comfort of tradition is recognized and celebrated while women's advances and past accomplishments also are applauded. The strong women characters—mother, grandmothers, aunts, cousins—have different responses to and methods for coping with restricted life in a harem. Fatima's mother celebrated her daughter's birth with the same level of enthusiasm usually reserved for boy babies; she claimed male superiority was nonsense and anti-Muslim. The nationalists' struggle against French rule and for gender equality gave strength to the women's occasional acts of rebellion. The intimacy of harem life allowed eight-year-old Fatima to observe and to participate as well as to question endlessly in order to understand what was happening in changing Morocco.

Her grandmother Yasima, although also part of a harem, lived on a farm where the women had access to the outdoors. She grew plants and rode horses, redesigned her clothing for more freedom of movement and told Fatima that the days were near when men would have only one wife and women would be equally educated. As the men held on to tradition, with the support of some of the women, most women argued for equality and change and found ways to express their desires. For example, cousin Chama and Aunt Habiba staged elaborate plays celebrating famous women's lives with all the women and children of the harem (and occasionally the young men) participating as members of the production or members of the audience. These plays helped Fatima decide that singing, dancing and sensuality were part of the feminists' lives and should not be forgotten; sensuality is a refreshingly natural part of life throughout the book.

In Dreams of Trespass we glimpse a world of Arab women struggling to maintain some aspects of tradition while emerging into a modern and freer world. As the women identify the nature and limitations of their power and the opportunities for change, they do not abandon their dreams. Mernissi tells us on page one that the women dreamed of trespassing all the time and that the world beyond the gate was their goal. But how they got to that world was an important part of achieving their goals: Confronting Ahmed (the gatekeeper) at the gate was a heroic act. Escaping from the terrace was not, and did not carry with it that inspiring, subversive flame of liberation. (page 60)

The power of the oral tradition, a tradition very important to the Arabs, is manifest in this book as it opens worlds, creates variety, provides sensuality and inspiration. Fatima's Aunt Habiba, who could take her listeners all over the world, says: When you happen to be trapped powerless behind walls, stuck in a dead-end harem, you dream of escape. And magic flourishes when you spell out that dream and make the frontiers vanish. Dreams can change your life, and eventually the world. Liberation starts with images dancing in your little head, and you can translate those images into words. And words cost nothing. (page 113.)

Magic flourished throughout this book as it educated and entertained us. It is wonderfully written and has the power to open Western eyes to a world often objectified and trivialized. In the process, it creates a new appreciation and understanding for the varied lives of Arab women.

Karen Henry is an Arab-American free-lance writer and lecturer from Michigan.