Dreams of Trespass

Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi

"Women dreamed of trespass all the time." This isn't the first line in Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi's memoir of her childhood growing up in Fez in the 1940s, but it is the line that has stuck with me. Words hold power for Mernissi and she often explores their meaning and function. She likens herself to Scheherazade, the storyteller of the Arabian Nights who wields words to survive. Its a good analogy; Scheherazade is a cultural touchstone who crosses many divides. Like Scheherazade, Mernissi isn't just the teller of her own tale. She writes about the lives of her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Her mother, a central figure in her story, is vibrant and opinionated, bucking the system at every turn and yet confined securely within it. A farm girl whose family harem was more of a mental than physical space, she struggles with the communal living of her urban in-laws. She nags her husband to set up an independent dwelling and urges her daughter to reach for happiness through education and modernity. Her loving husband does his best to walk the fine line between his wife's desires and his family's traditions. Mernissi observes it all from the sidelines, but she brings each parent, auntie and cousin in to clear and vivid focus.

Mernissi's book is one I often turn back to, a book that conquers frontiers and boundaries simply by discussing them frankly and sincerely. She begins her memoir with a grainy picture of a closed door and the chapter "My Harem Frontiers". I find her use of the word frontier interesting. In America, it conjures the unknown, discoveries yet to be made, hardships yet to be faced. But Mernissi's door is closed and for her the word has an entirely different meaning. She writes of hudud, the sacred frontier, a boundary between worlds. It divides men and women, but also cultures and religions. It also separates the powerful and the powerless. With Dreams of Trespass, Mernissi draws back this veil to reveal the common humanity in all of these diverse worlds.