Mernissi Study Guide
As you read Mernissi's Dreams of Tresspass, focus upon the following points.
- Compare the mothers in the three books read so far.
- p. 19: Dreams and Stories
- Tresspass, hudud
- p. 21: French harem
- pp. 22-23: Old city—Medina; French city—La ville nouvelle
p. 23: The Ville nouvelle was like their harem; just like the women, they could not walk freely in the Medina - It’s all about violating
frontiers:
- p. 7: Listening to Radio Cairo, another place, another movement
- p. 17: Hanan violated frontiers
- p. 25: Yasmina had Hanan in contact with nature
- p. 25: “The farm was part of Allah’s original earth, which had no frontiers, just vast, open fields without borders or boundaries, and of that I should not be afraid."
- p. 9: Mother is rebellious, encourages Fatima to be rebellious
- p. 100: My daughter will never wear a veil
- p. 13 ff.: Meaning of Schehrezade—p. 13 ff.
- Mother a crypto-feminist, part of a wave of invisible feminism.
- p. 16: Comment on Schehrezade: a woman’s lifetime work “to tell stories to please a king.”
- Must become skillful with words: weaker people have to live by their wits
- p. 16: Where will the troubled women go? Father: in justification of harem
- p. 17: Women excelled in storytelling: Aunt Habiba, also had hanan.
- p. 25: Lalla for women; sidi for men (p. 25)
- p. 26: Yasmina, “Are we Muslims or not? If we are, everyone is equal.”
- p. 31: This woman does not respect hierarchies. Read: DOES NOT RESPECT FRONTIERS
- p. 32: HOW DID WOMEN SUBVERT FRONTIERS? ROLE OF STORIES: SHAJARAT AL-DURR
- p. 33: Naming of farm animals after bad men by Yasmina: the peacock after King Farouk
- pp. 34-35: NOTION OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY: NATIONALISTS DISCUSSED
POLYGAMY, SLAVERY, AND THE HAREM
- P. 36: Your grandfather was a nice man: but he bought slaves
- p. 36: NAMING THE DUCK LALLA THOR WAS YASMINA’S WAY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE CREATION OF THE BEAUTIFUL, NEW MOROCCO
- p.39: WHAT IS A HAREM: AN OPEN FARM OR A FORTRESS IN FEZ
- p. 40: Two Camps
- p. 43 ff: HOW CAPTURING WOMEN BECOMES NECESSARY TO SULTAN.
- pp. 45-46: CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS
- p. 49 ff.: Co-wife, Tamou
- p.55: NATURE IS WOMAN’S BEST FRIEND
- p. 60-61: Meaning of harem—FORBIDDEN AND SACRED
- p.62: QAIDA is about CONTROLLING SPACE
- p.64: Prescient prediction about Mernissi's future
- p.67: Pastilla
- p.75: No eating at fixed hours at Yasmina’s place
- p. 77: No individualism in the harem
- Father loved his wife
- p.78: The idea of the harem is part of the bigger discourse about
nationalism and traditions
p.78: “WE LIVE IN DIFFICULT TIMES ... OUR CULTURE IS THREATENED. ALL WE HAVE LEFT IS THESE TRADITIONS.” - P.81: Women entitled to 100 % happiness (according to Fatima’s mother)
- p.85: The semiotics of women’s dress
p. 119: if women dress like men, it is more than chaos, it is fana, the end of the world - p.91: Tradition and modernity existed harmoniously for men; the young men all wore Western attire
- p.94: SOCIAL COMMENTARY: The veil for the women equated with yellow
clothes for the Jews during World War II
She sees the larger picture; constantly going back and forth between larger historical events and the private occurences. - p. 106: Asmahan
- p. 113: Storytelling and movies
pp. 196, 205: Magic/Shour - pp. 127-8: Powerful female figures - role models
- pp. 130-1: HUDA SHA`RAWI
- pp. 133-34, 137 ff.: PRINCESS BUDUR
- p. 180: PRINCESS AISHA, P. 180
- p. 121: Qacem Amin, The Liberation of the Woman (1885)
- p. 166: Forbidden terrace; girls and boys looked at one another, etc.
- pp. 184-85: No separation of races in Morocco, like there is in
America
- p/ 187: A woman who ches gum is, in fact, making a revolutionary
gesture
- pp. 196-7: A world changing: Modern education for the girls
pp. 200-1: Powerful statement on the value of education - p. 203 ff., p. 205: "Dreams let you fly"
- pp. 214-5: Circumvention of time
- p. 207: Taqlid, Bid'a
- P. 242: The construction of difference
Citation: Afsaruddin, A. (2007, May 03). Mernissi Study Guide. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/women-in-islamic-societies/lecture-and-study-materials/mernissi-study-guide.
Copyright 2012,
by the Contributing Authors.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
