I read this memoir in preparation for a trip to Morocco, and I found it fairly shocking. The author was born into a domestic harem in Fez in 1940. The book follows tales of her as a child growing up in what she defines as a domestic harem. Such a harem is very different from a royal harem, populated by scantily dressed women, many of them enslaved, who serve at the pleasure of a monarch and are guarded by eunichs. A domestic harem is an extended family living under one roof, polygamous or not. The women are literally kept under lock and key, without much opportunity to see the outside world, much less experience it.
Mernissi seamlessly weaves in legends, daily life, and the dreams of her people. She elegantly conveys a sense of their culture and religion as well as the unrest and the changes that are bound to happen as different cultures collide with the improvement of transportation and long distance traveling. The entire tone of this book is one of understanding and a quiet desire to open the eyes of the reader to what she once did not understand and what people of very different cultures are not likely to understand as well. Overall the book is moving and enchanting through the eyes of an eight year old Fatima as she pokes and prods in order to understand her own culture and why they must follow the rules and laws that they do.
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