what is the meaning of harem?
A novel Review
You are in HaremIf the world does not need you
You are in Harem
If what you have given never makes any difference
You are in Harem
When something that you have done is useless
(Bibi Habiba)
What is Harem? Is Harem only be found in Arab cultures or in fact can it be found anywhere, including in your mind? This question is a theme of the novel with the title Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. The novel was published by Adisson-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994 and the Indonesian translation was published by Qanita Publishing, April 2004. The author of this novel is Fatima Mernissi and it is inspired by her childhood. Fatima Mernissi is a feminist scholar from the Middle East and has written many novels that are already translated into English and French.
The story is about a girl named Fatima, who was born in 1940. Fatima grew up in Harem in Fez, Morocco. Most of the figures in this story are women with many characteristics, but the women who have a biggest influence in Fatima’s life are her mother, her grandmother (Lalla Yasmina) who lives in another Harem, her aunt (Bibi Habiba) who has divorced, and Mina, a slave. Through them, Fatima learns many things about the meaning of freedom and can look at her world with the optimistic viewpoint and free feeling.
Harem is the large lot with several buildings that is occupied by a big family with one head of household. The women who live in Harem are forbidden to go out. There are a lot of rules in Harem and it limits women’s rights. If they want to go downtown, they must be accompanied by the adult man.
There is a special room for men that is forbidden for women to enter. In this room, Fatima’s father and other men in Harem can assemble to smoke, discuss politics, and listen to the radio, music and news. And what have the women done in Harem to entertain themselves? They love sewing, singing, telling Arabian folktales and making the dance dramas which are created and arranged by themselves. They can express their opinions and feelings about their condition by these activities. Actually, these women in Harem know a secret place, if they want to escape, which is a terrace on attic floor. But Fatima was told that her mother and several other women never want to escape by that terrace because arguing with the gate guard if they want to go downtown is more honored and heroic (Page 102).
Another polemic in Fatima’s Harem is polygamy. Deep inside in their hearts, they never agree with this tradition but they have no power against it. The majority of co-wives in Harem have solidarity and respect for each other because of their shared condition. Now, almost 50 years is passed by, Moslem women are still fighting to erase polygamy but the men, who make the regulations, insist that polygamy is the law of Islam (Law of Syariat) and cannot be changed.
The plot of this novel kind a different with other books plot. In other book, you can find some plot from beginning to the end of story, such as introduction about many characters in the beginning and the solution of all the problems in the end of story. Well, the author of this novel didn’t write like that because she wrote the plot just like a personal journal plot. In every chapter, you will be introduced with a new figure depend on what the topic of she want to talk about.
This novel is divided into 22 chapters with different topics, such as Harem in The Mind, Story about Budur Princess, The men chambers and Forbidden terrace. But most of the topics are about the simple things that Fatima was found everyday in Harem, like laundry in the river, the opinions from Harem inhabitants about World War II, American cigarettes, boyfriend or even about make-up. From these all simple things, the author tries to discover many women problems in her environment by searching the definition of Harem.
In Chama and Khalifah chapter, Fatima begins the story with the question: what is Harem? In the beginning, she has simple definition about Harem, which is put four walls around the house, put the woman inside and then let the man walk out every time. That is Harem! But after that, Fatima wrote that in her Harem there are 2 groups with different opinions about its meaning. First, groups think that Harem has the positive meaning (Page 80). Harem is a good place because it provides everything that women need. What else can make women happier except the big palace with floor of marble, the small fountain, delicious food, gowns and beautiful jewels? But the second group including Fatima’s grandmother (Yasmina) thinks that Harem means to be enslaved and lose their freedom to move (Page 61). Yasmina told Fatima in Harem in the Mind chapter that “Harem” is a variety word of “haram” that mean something forbidden.
Although Harem is a place for the man to protect his family, his wives, children and sisters, it also can be looked as a personal spatial with many rules and boundary (hudud). It means Harem actually does not need the walls because someday when you have many rules and prohibitions in your mind means the same that you live in Harem. In the end, finding the idea about Harem without walls makes Fatima frighten (Page 106) because she was told that there always be the invisible rules (qa’idah) in everywhere that most of all are against the Arab women.
In Harem, there are always 2 paradigms, which are conservative (taqlidi) and modern (‘asri) (Page 326). The conservative group is the women from Fatima’s father family. They thinks and acts based on the traditional rules (qa’idah), such as having positive thinking about Harem, opinion that reading is not necessary for woman and sewing with traditional design. Another group is the women with modern paradigm which has an opposite opinion. Even though the fighting between these groups is happened slowly and silent but Fatima can feel it.
Fatima’s mother and Habiba (Fatima’s aunt) and Mina are the most important figure in Harem for Fatima and they against traditional group in Harem in many ways, such as in sewing their clothes. Generally women in Harem always sew in traditional design that repetitive, old-fashioned and also need a long time to make it but in Silence Dream about The Wings and Flying chapter (Page 326), Fatima wrote that her mother and Chama (her cousin) sew their clothes with modern design such as flying bird with many colors. The flying bird in Chama clothes is inspired by the story of the bird and the beast, one of the Arab ancient stories. The story is about the birds that can choose to move to other better islands if they don’t like their first place. The idea about looking something else in other places to find happiness when you are not satisfied with everything you have become interesting issues in Chama’s mind and Fatima’s also.
The other best point of this novel is that the author is very good in choosing the words to present her idea. You can find a lot of meaningful words in this novel as a part of the dialog, such as the poem in my first paragraph or such as Fatima’s mother definition about the meaning of happiness. She told Fatima that woman with 100% happiness mean a woman who has all her rights, including feel to love and to be loved, to move, to create something and free to compete. Another example is in Page 340 that Habiba told Fatima about the meaning of dreams. She said that dreams are something important for hopeless people because it will keep your pride and giving the direction of life.
This novel is interesting because although the setting is in Arab culture, the story reflects many universal values of women problem all around the world. The author wrote those things from the perspective a critical naive young girl and this makes those ‘heavy’ issues about gender and polygamy become lighter and simple. It is not too difficult to understand the theme of this story that is why this novel is one of the good novels about gender issues in the world today.
I really like this novel!
Comments