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Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood
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List Price: £12.99
morocco.lehi.co.uk Price: £11.99
Availability: Usually dispatched within 9 to 12 days
Manufacturer: Perseus Books,U.S.
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 964.0082
EAN: 9780201489378
ISBN: 0201489376
Label: Perseus Books,U.S.
Manufacturer: Perseus Books,U.S.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 1995-08-14
Publisher: Perseus Books,U.S.
Studio: Perseus Books,U.S.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: interesting, relaxing
Comment: Nice book - describing her childhood. All readers should bear in their minds, though, that Morocco is not like that anymore. This is a story from her past.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great memoir of a fascinating culture
Comment: This is a profound and philosophical memoir of a period of time when nationalism, women's issues and changing male-female relationships had a formative impact on this woman's childhood.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ignore the Title; this book is a Must Read
Comment: Insightful. Clever & Amusing. Beautifully written. An interesting & worthwhile read. I could not put down this book & I could not stop laughing. Highly recommended.I look forward to exploring other works by Mernissi.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book with a mediocre title
Comment: I would have given this book a 10, but subtracted a point because of the title. I agree with Kirkus' review (below) which suggests a more appropriate title, _The Making of a Muslim Feminist_. The present subtitle, _Tales of a Harem Girlhood_, is not only sensational and provocative, but detracts from the real subject matter of the book. Yes, the book does contain tales of a harem girlhood in a sense, but more importantly it provides a rich, eloquently told description of a culture in which women were (and still are) held back from achieving their potential because of prejudice, ignorance, and blind obedience to a dysfunctional cultural tradition. I find this book to be an enlightening account of the life of an intelligent, courageous woman for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration. After first reading _The Veil and the Male Elite_, what Mernissi has to say in _Dreams of Trespass_ provides insight into some of the events and perceptions of her early life that helped shape who she is today. I highly recommend this book, but would urge readers to first read some of her non-autobiographical works (then you can more fully appreciate her autobiography).
Customer Rating:
Summary: A delightful book.
Comment: The author, Fatima Mernissa, was a professor of Sociology at Muhammad V University, Rabat, Morocco. The book tells of her life growing up in her father's home. It describes the richness of her life, living among an extended family of cousins, aunts and sisters. It tells of nights of communal story telling and play acting, of special outings like going to the public baths and the movies and life in the country side. The men in the book have no names but the women are richly described with their many interests and backgrounds. What makes this book interesting and different is that it is told from the point of view of a 10 year old girl rather than an adult looking back on her childhood. Therefore the book is full of wonder as she is seeking to describe life, trying to figure out what life is about and seeking to define the concept of harem. She discovers that a harem in the city means being locked inside a very large house with a guard on the door and having to seek permission of the men of the house before a woman is permitted to leave, however in the countryside, harem means something much different. The book gives one another picture of women in the Muslim world.
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