Dreams Of Trespass Chapter Summary

Dreams of Trespass takes the reader into the author’s childhood growing up in a harem in 1940s Fez, Morocco. Fatima Mernissi is a sociologist at University Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco. She also is the author of Islam and Democracy and Beyond the Veil. This book focused on the boundaries that were present for women living in a harem during the 1940s. Fatima Mernissi gives a balanced view of her childhood in a harem and does not try to demonize the practice. She instead portrays harem life as a traditional means of living that became outdated once nationalists arrived and women’s rights were emphasized. For nationalists, women’s rights were a sign of a modernity. They could gain respect from the Western countries if they got rid of antiquated cultural practices like polygamy and harem life. Harem life was split into two

One prominent feminist featured is Huda Sha’raoui an Egyptian who fought and won the women’s right to vote. Women like her mother wanted her to grow up to become a modern woman and not continue the traditions of the past that they had to live by. The reason for closed-off harem life was that it protected and saved women from having to go out into public unprotected. They did not want other men to attack or maybe even rape the woman. Instead they could stay in a guarded compound with their extended family and live in the confines of the home. The hudud or sacred frontier is what prevented them from going out into the outside world. This powerful quote about the frontiers was given by Mina a former slave who lived with the family because she had nowhere else to go, “The frontier indicates the line of power because wherever there is a frontier, there are two kinds of creatures walking on Allah’s earth, the powerful on one side, and the powerless on the other.” Mernissi asked which side she was on and the reply was that “If you can’t get out, you are on the powerless