Every religion is very complicated by lots of forbiddances and limitations. Every religion has its peculiarities and religions differ by these peculiarities. Islam is not an exception. Muslims are very religious people; religion is one of the main parts of life for most of them. It may be said that religion is not even a part of life it is a way of life for Islamic people. One of the main peculiarities of the Muslim religion is the treatment of women. There are a lot of limitations to them and in most cases, they take it for granted: it must be so. But some people disagree with it, who want to fight it and win the freedom of choice and freedom for social life for women.
The autobiographical story “Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood” about the difficult life of a Muslim woman was written by Fatima Mernissi, one of the most famous female scholars in the Muslim world. “Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood” is a collection of Fatima Mernissi’s memories from her childhood.
Fatima Mernissi wrote her story from the first-person narrative about the life of a girl between four and nine years old. The story depicts the life of women in the harem, how they were discriminated against by men. The story tells us about the domination of men in the Muslim world. The work of Fatima Mernissi represents the reader with light stories, sometimes even humorous, but behind this humor hides the real life of women, who are under twenty-four-hour control by men.
One of the main aims of the story is to tell the reader that women in the Islamic world, in harems are cornered but not defeated, that they are controlled, but not paralyzed, and that if they are even hurt, they are not broken. The author underlines in her story that she will continue to tell the world about unfairness in the Muslim world and about her disagreement with it. The story gives us an understanding of the differences between all-known Turkish harem and modern Islamic harem. The Islamic harem is a gathering of wives, daughters, aunts, and grandmothers with no right for freedom under one roof and under the supervision of the male part of the family.
Fatima Mernissi wanted to tell the world about the real state of things in Muslim harem, about the real life of women there. We get to know that women in harems live in an environment of exclusion and seclusion. They have not any freedom: to leave the harem they must ask for permission and they can leave their quarters only accompanied by men.
Every part of the story tells us about the limitations of freedom to Muslim women. Fatima Mernissi also represents the reader with disagreement of women and with their powerless positions. Mernissi ends her story with the words, “If you cannot get out, you are on the powerless side” (Mernissi 1994-242). These words give us the whole picture of the state of affairs in the Muslim harem.
Fatima Mernissi inserts the description of different types of harems in her book. She dwells upon urban and rural, relatively contemporary and historical, literal and metaphorical harems. The rural harem differs from urban in the way that there is no need for walls or gates if you live in the countryside. The reason is that there is no place to go. Even you come out of the house, you will see the only field in front of you. Living in an urban harem is something different.
Women are staying behind walls and gates in the rural harem as they have lots of places to g, but they are forbidden. Women are limited from social life and have to care only about domestic affairs. (Mernissi 1994)
Fatima Mernissi also tells about “imperial harems” and “domestic harems”. Imperial harems represent the readers with historical harems, which “flourished with the territorial conquests and accumulation of health of the Muslim imperial dynasties” (Mernissi 1994-34). These conquests began from the dynasty of Omayyads. Domestic harems continued to exist after the Muslims were colonized by the West. Domestic harems continue to exist now and they are the examples of contemporary harems in Mernissi’s book.
The architectural features of Mernissi’s harem play one of the main parts while understanding the social map and how status, power, authority, privileges, obligations, constraints, and freedoms are distributed among the women of Mernissi’s harem.
Upstairs was the maze of rooms for the female part of the family. Upstairs was the only place where women could feel themselves not so bound. The furnishing of the small rooms with white floors and walls was very simple. (Mernissi 1994-16) This part of the house represented some sort of freedom: women were not seen by men there, so they were uncontrolled.
The courtyard was the most public place in the house, that is why women were not allowed to stay there too long and children were not allowed to play there and have some fun. The life on the territory of the courtyard was the most proper and strict. Mernissi’s description of this place pushes us to the idea that the courtyard was the symbol of women’s imprisonment. This appeared to be the place of work that was unpaid and where the intellectuality was stifled. The courtyard was the place where men could show all their power and domination under women. (Mernissi 1994)
Rooftop, a terrace, or a second floor was the place forbidden for men. Women could pray, share their emotions and thoughts at that place. Fatima Mernissi remembers that when she was a child she liked to go on the terrace and watch the female couples walking the street. She also tells that there was an opportunity to come from their roof on the roof of the neighboring house or even in the street. (Mernissi 1994)
These named architectural features of the house (upstairs, courtyard and rooftop) give us an opportunity to divide the whole territory of the house into the parts of influence. The whole territory may be considered as a social map: there are places where women were not allowed to come and places where they have at least minimum but still control. The terrace and upstairs are the places where women can be free for some times, but no more. The walls and gates are the main signs of boundaries and seclusion for Muslim women in harems.
Space is gendered in the complex ecology of the urban harem depicted by Mernissi. The social map of the territory of the house shares this space between the men and women who live in the house. The notion of space is broader and more complicated than it may seem from first sight.
The space, which a person enters, has its own rules, and to break those rules means disrespect and disobedience. The place where the person can feel free shows his or her position in the society, roles, and codes which they represent, his or her relations with other members of the family, between man and woman.
The Lebanese princess Asmaham and a Persian queen Scheherazade seem to be one of the main characters of the story even taking into consideration that they did not participate in Fatima’s life directly. These two persons were the symbols of women’s freedom in the Muslim world, they were representatives of females.
These two women are the symbols of liberty. Mernissi wanted to consolidate the Muslim women under the name of the famous Scheherazade. Her aim was to show that free women exist even in the Islamic world, that their solidarity under this name is one of the ways to maintain freedom in their lives.
Using these two figures Fatima Mernissi wanted to give women power and abilities to fight for their rights to have the same opportunities and rights as men have. These women were the objects of admiring for Mernissi and thanks to them she found power in herself to contradict the modern world.
It is very important to have some idols, some people for following, especially if there is no inner power to contradict the customs which seems to be unfair. These characters and their lives exemplify, epitomize in the universe of the harem reconstructed by Mernissi, she wanted them to be examples and give women the power to tell about their rights and their value.
Mernissi’s book is about confinement, how the lives of particular groups of women were confined by the visible and invisible walls and boundaries of life in a particular social, political and cultural institution. We used to think that women’s discrimination in the modern world exists only in Muslim culture. But it is a universal mistake. The modern world is full of different unfairness. We just do not often meet them, and even when we meet them, do not often notice or regard such cases as discrimination.
The modern democratic world is full of the situation when men want to limit women’s freedom of choice. Women of the whole world unite to fight this discrimination; they want to show that they are of the same abilities and powers as men. Modern European women do not stay behind visible walls but they are restricted but invisible limitations. There are some political and cultural duties that can be taken only by men.
Some people think it is not fair; they want to take the same rights as men do. But before taking up their obligations, could you think a little and imagine a woman in the role of a miner, or electrician, or some other difficult job. Women want to be in the right position with men but sometimes do not quite understand what it means. Women should be women, but still, men should take into consideration women’s opinions and desires. Frankly speaking, I do not have a strict position on this question as there are lots of situations that may need a different approach.
In conclusion, European people cannot understand Islamic customs in the way they treat women. It may be very strange and even hostile to other nationalities and religions but it is the part of Islam religion and we should respect and percept them as they are. Freedom is the only notion which all people want and desire with the same power, as freedom is one of the main parts of people’s happiness and peace.
Works Cited
Mernissi, Fatima. Ward, V. Ruth. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1994.