Essay - Dreams of Trespass Effects of Physical and Psychological Boundaries in...

Dreams of Trespass

***** ***** Physical and Psychological Boundaries in Fatima Mernissi's Dreams of Trespass

***** her memoir Dreams ***** Trespass (1994) Fatima Mernissi recalls her cloistered childhood within the walls of a modern-day harem in Fez, Morocco. In reading this memoir, several key questions come to mind, having to do especially with issues of boundaries, physical and psychological within the harem like the one of ***** *****. These are (1) how did living ***** ***** boundaries of a *****, impact Fatima Mernissi's psychological development as an au*****nomous human being (*****, by association, that of ot***** h*****m children); (2) does a female living within the boundaries of a modern-day harem seek to rebel more actively against ***** rules, and authority in general, than would a female not raised within such boundaries; (3) ***** ***** harem life inflect one's perception(s) and understanding to the world outside; and (4) why do harems survive, and in some instances thrive, in ***** parts of the *****, while in other parts ***** the world, ********** are rare, if not ext*****ct? Within this essay, I will explicate several chapters of the text, and then try ***** answer these questions, based on my reading ***** Mernissi's Dreams of Trespass.

***** Chapters 1 through 3 of ***** ***** Trespass, ***** Mernissi speaks often of the boundaries ***** life inside a h*****rem in Fez, *****, where she was born ***** 1940, and spent her formative years. As Mernissi states at the beginning of Chapter 1, for example:

When Allah created ***** earth, said father, he separated men from women, and put a sea between Muslims and Christians for a re*****son. Harmony exists when each group respects the prescribed limits of the o*****r; trespassing leads only to sorrow and unhappiness. But women dreamed of trespassing all the time. The world beyond the gate was *****ir obsession. They [emphasis fantasized ***** day long about parading in unfamiliar streets... [emphasis added] (pp. 1-2).

Moreover, as Mernissi recalls, childhood "***** ha*****y because the frontiers were crystal clear" (p. 3).

However, beyond childhood, harem ***** seem to yearn for knowledge and understanding ***** ***** world beyond. That which remains *****sterious, in fact, particularly when limits on 'trespassing" beyond the ***** are strictly proscribed, grows ***** compelling to the imagination ***** more it is forbidden or off-limits. Mernissi's mother, for example, *****s to walk the streets of Fez, alone, in ***** early morning hours, just ***** know what this is like. Clearly, harem ***** for women, presents a dilemma between the safety and security and the freedom ***** the world outside.

Mernissi begins Chapter ***** by stating ***** "Our house gate was a definite hudud, or frontier, bec*****use you needed permission to step in or out" (p. 21).

***** of that boundary, safety inside was assured. Still, ***** allure of the unknown world beckons. And ***** all women, even close family members, are as constrained. Gr*****mo*****r Yasmina, ***** *****, the author's maternal grandmother, "lived on a beautiful farm with cows and sheep ***** endless fields