Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood (Sueños en el umbral. Memorias de una niña del harén)

This is a charming book that tells the story of a young girl in the small world she grows up in, not small because it is just a room, but small because of the limitations the society/family she lives in puts her. A girl, and the other women that live with her, that, nonetheless, tries to fight the walls that surround her every walking day. In this semi-(never sure about how much truth are in these stories, so...) autobiographical account, Mernissi waves a world that doesn't change even if it is in constant fluidity, with the lines pushed one or the other way, with the women within the 'harem' having their liberty more or less 'free' depending on developments many times too far away for them to have any influence on (even if they suffer their impact). You have the rebel ones, the desire for freedom, the men that can't understand that rules can be changed... All the topics and the typical. The atmosphere, the characters, the struggle against sexism or gender relations is well depicted, with a clear message and interesting situations. However, it also seems pretty clear that Mernissi has written the book with 'Occident' in her mind, and some of the moments and situations seem to suffer from 'Orientalism', as they offer a view, an ogling eye on the situations, that seems to fit too perfectly, too nicely, with what a person from Occident should expect from growing up in Morocco. In that respect, it kind of reinforces what Edward Said criticized. What repercussions have this on the book? That's up to you to decide. The best: the atmosphere of the story The worst: pandering to the worst instincts of 'Orientalism' Read more: not really sure, so why not bring up the "كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة" ("One Thousand and One Nights") that plays so huge a role in the book? 6.5/10 (Spanish translation by Ángela Pérez Gómez)