In 1940, harems still abounded in Fez, Morocco. They weren't the opulent, bejeweled harems of Scherezade, but the domestic sprawl of extended families encamped around a walled courtyard that marked the edges of women's lives. Though born into this tightly sheltered world, Fatimi Mernissi is constantly urged by her rebellious mother to spring beyond it. Worried that Mernissi is too shy and quiet, her mother tells her, "You must learn to scream and protest, just the way you learned to walk and talk." In Dreams of Trespass, an enjoyable weave of memory and fantasy, it is clear that Mernissi's fertile imagination let her slip back and forth through the gates that trapped her restive mother. She spins amiable, often improbable tales of the rigidly proper city harem in Fez and the contrasting freedoms of the country harem where her grandmother Yakima lives. There, one of Yakima's cowives rides like the wind, another swims like a fish, and Yakima relishes twitting the humorless first wife by naming a fat, waddling duck after her.


From Publishers Weekly
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. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Through a series of vignettes and recollections, Mernissi describes what it was like growing up in one of the last bastions of culturally supported female seclusion in Fez, Morocco, in the 1940s. Within its walls, the harem held young children of both sexes; in-laws of several generations; divorced, widowed, or otherwise dependent female relatives; and even ex-slaves. The presence of the French, the inevitable incursions of the war, and the Westernization of the country itself exposed the family to much that clashed with the customs of their Islamic culture. The author was continually challenged by her mother and grandmother to look beyond the habits of the past, while her father's mother and aunts argued convincingly for the benefits of the old system. This is not a denigration of harem life; rather, it is a description of the conflicts these people faced as they moved out into the world, especially as educational opportunities opened up for them. A useful explanation of the culture as well as a fascinating and highly readable tale of some unique, intriguing women. Susan H. Woodcock, King's Park Library, Burke, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Sociologist Mernissi (Islam and Democracy, Addison-Wesley, 1993) has penned an engaging memoir about her own childhood in a Moroccan harem during the 1940s. In simple prose that allows the reader to see events through a child's eyes, she describes a world alien to most Westerners. The Mernissi harem is a large extended family in which female members, including divorced aunts and several wives for some males, are confined to their shared home and restricted in their behavior. These strong, colorful women are the focus of the book. They dominate household activities and frequently form a united front in dealings with male family members. While they accept their role in society, the women applaud changes in other Muslim nations and admire prominent women who promote these changes. The book ends abruptly before the author's teen years, suggesting that there will be a sequel. Recommended for Islamic studies collections, especially for young adults.Rose Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Every once in a while, a childhood memoir effortlessly transports us to another world in which we dwell happily for the duration of the book. From its opening--"I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, a ninth-century Moroccan city"--to its closing questions about the nature of power between men and women, this one reads as part fairy tale, part feminist manifesto. Sociologist and scholar Mernissi vividly paints an unforgettable world of women who created a rich life behind closed doors. Through her consciousness as a young girl, we see the weekly beauty rituals, feel the nurturance of living among so many women, and sense the comfort of age-old traditions. But also through her sharp-eyed perspective come descriptions of a changing world, dissatisfaction among the women over their virtual entrapment within the harem compound, and endless questions about the powerlessness she feels even as a girl. Amazingly, she manages to be nonjudgmental while still questioning the very foundation of Islam. A rare book, both magical and political. Mary Ellen Sullivan


From Kirkus Reviews
Prominent Middle Eastern scholar Mernissi's (Beyond the Veil, not reviewed) childhood memoir should be titled ``The Making of a Muslim Feminist.'' Readers expecting a narrative about a sultan's harem where voluptuous Venuses loll in silk-draped palaces will be disappointed; Mernissi's subject is the domestic harem of her extended family. After outlining the restrictive domestic hierarchy and Muslim decorum that literally imprison women, Mernissi reveals how her relatives find escape and rebellion in daily chores. A battle for women's rights is waged in her grandmother's fight to wash dishes in a river, her cousin's march to the movies, her aunt's expressive embroidery, and her mother's refusal to use modern French beauty products made by men. But rather than weave an intimate tale of growing up in 1940s Morocco, Mernissi has forged the incidents of her childhood into neat feminist lessons, each taught by a relative who is fashioned into an archetype: her aunt advocates escape into dreams; her mother says knowledge is the way out. Despite this and other flaws, Mernissi does offer a rare glimpse of Muslim women's home life--from co-wives' bickering to communal bath joys. Ultimately, her title proves ironic because, while Westerners associate the word harem with sensuality, that is precisely what is absent from these women's lives. As Aunt Habiba says: ``Why rebel and change the world if you can't get what's missing in your life? And what is most definitely missing in our lives is love and lust.'' So while not a balanced autobiography, this book does offer valuable insight. As fundamentalism grows in the Middle East and more women return to the veil, the repressive lifestyle Mernissi depicts may not be just a sad relic of the past but an ominous sign of the future. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

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. Photos.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco..." So begins Fatima Mernissi in this exotic and rich narrative. With a magical tale-spinner's words, this world-renowned scholar, one of the most eloquent voices of feminism in the Muslim world, weaves her own memories with dreams and fantasies of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her childhood. It is the magic of recreating a world of one's own, navigating beyond the frontiers, that Mernissi describes with great wit and color. In a book as evocative as anything found in A Thousand and One Nights, she writes of the politics of seduction and the harem as metaphor. Peopled with marvelous, wise, and funny women - all individualists - Dreams of Trespass is a provocative book whose rewards go far.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

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)

Library Journal

Sociologist Mernissi (Islam and Democracy, Addison-Wesley, 1993) has penned an engaging memoir about her own childhood in a Moroccan harem during the 1940s. In simple prose that allows the reader to see events through a child's eyes, she describes a world alien to most Westerners. The Mernissi harem is a large extended family in which female members, including divorced aunts and several wives for some males, are confined to their shared home and restricted in their behavior. These strong, colorful women are the focus of the book. They dominate household activities and frequently form a united front in dealings with male family members. While they accept their role in society, the women applaud changes in other Muslim nations and admire prominent women who promote these changes. The book ends abruptly before the author's teen years, suggesting that there will be a sequel. Recommended for Islamic studies collections, especially for young adults.-Rose Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

School Library Journal