Harem Within Mernissi

Exploitation of the Female Mind: Fatima Mernissi’s exposure of the manipulative male in “The Harem Within” The ways with which Fatima Mernissi explains the reason for the power struggle between genders are carefully introduced in “The Harem Within”, a chapter from Dreams of Trespass. Mernissi assumes the identity of a female child, born into an Islamic family, in an attempt to elucidate the root of the gender bias that takes place not only in her family, but almost all Muslim communities; the complexities surrounding male dominance and female oppression, in Islam, with respect to “...qa’ida, or invisible rule[s]” (Mernissi 728) are examined. The author implicitly indicates that men and their conniving ways are to blame for the power inequality,
21). Through a detailed study of “The Harem Within”, one can understand exactly how Fatima Mernissi uses insightful comparisons of control and imprisonment, distinct imagery of the possession of women as objects, and clever phrases, revolving around the idea of men writing ruthless rules
When the family sets out to embark on a journey to a relative’s farm for a picnic, “...the children, divorced aunts, and other [women] [are] put into two big trucks [that were] rented for the occasion” (Mernissi 726). By creating this image of women being stuffed into the back of trucks as cargo items for delivery, Mernissi establishes the power distribution in Islamic society, in which all of it resides with men. As Patricia Jeffery examines the situation, in her book review, “...the differences between male and female [do] not matter in childhood, but they dominate the lives of adults” (“Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Childhood (Book Review)” par.1). This assertion of single gender dominance appears once again when Mernissi explains how the “...women on [her grandmother’s] farm belonged to Grandfather Tazi” (Mernissi 728). This striking image of possession draws attention to the recurring idea of men taking advantage of women. Moreover, the illustration of women being locked up all day within the walls of a confined area alludes to a more psychologically related idea of power. The entrapment of women in a harem by men can arguably be put side by side with man’s necessity to contain women, as he would contain items into a box of valuables, to establish more concrete boundaries of possession. These