Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi, Fatima Marnissi

Tales of a Harem Girlhood

How much do you really know about Islam? Are muslims really in favor of a "jihad" or holy war, to kill all the infidels? Are you one of the infidels they want to kill? Or are they just a sadly misunderstood religion of good people? With the global situation as it is, Americans and others need to understand more about the problems we are facing. Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi, Fatima Marnissi may be a source of good information for you.

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.

index

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross E. Dunn A Muslim Traveller of the 14th Century -- American Jihad by Steven Emerson The Terrorists Living Among Us -- American Muslims by M. A. Muqtedar Khan Bridging Faith and Freedom -- Christianity and Islam by Glover Shipp Bridging Two Worlds -- Cultures in Conflict by Bernard Lewis Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery -- The Culture of Islam by Lawrence Rosen Changing Aspects of Contemporary Muslim Life -- Daughters of Another Path by Carol Anderson Anway, Carol L. Anway Experiences of American Women Choosing Islam -- Discovering Islam by Akbar S. Ahmed Making Sense of Muslim History and Society -- Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi, Fatima Marnissi Tales of a Harem Girlhood -- What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims by Suzanne Haneef -- Extreme Islam by Adam Parfrey Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism -- Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza by Ziad Abu-Amr, Ziyad Abu 'Amr Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad (Indiana Series in Arab and Islamic Studies) -- Islam Today by Akbar S. Ahmed A Short Introduction to the Muslim World -- Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries -- Makers of Contemporary Islam by John Obert Voll, John L. Esposito -- Militant Islam Reaches America by Daniel Pipes One of the most far-reaching examinations of militant Islam written to date -- Muslim Child by Rukhsana Khan, Patty Gallinger Understanding Islam Through Stories and Poems -- The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Bernard Lewis The eleventh-century Muslim world -- Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks The Hidden World of Islamic Women -- The Ornament of the World by Maria Rosa Menocal, Harold Bloom How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain -- Osama Bin Laden by Anthony J. Dennis A Psychological and Political Portrait -- Price of Honor by Jan Goodwin Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World -- Progressive Muslims by Omid Safi On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism -- Some Far and Distant Place by Jonathan S. Addleton Muslim-Christian Encounters Through the Eyes of a Child -- Struggling to Surrender by Jeffery B. Lang Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam -- Sword of Islam by John F. Murphy Jr. Muslim Extremism from the Arab Conquests to the Attack on America -- Taking Back Islam by Michael Wolfe American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith -- Understanding Islam by Thomas W. Lippman An Introduction to the Muslim World -- Unveiling Islam by Ergun Mehmet Caner, Emir Fethi Caner An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs -- Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq A former Muslim looks at Islam