The kind of books that I love are the ones that keep me attached
to its pages until I finish it, provide
me with new information from different fields that sustains my attention
and interest and the ones that make me want to read other books that are
mentioned in them. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures,
Different Harems by Fatema Mernissi is
definitely one of those books. I enjoyed reading it from the first till the
last page and it triggered me to take notes and make further research on the
themes she brought out.
While Mernissi was on a book tour for her Dreams
of Trespass: Tales of Harem Girlhood, she
was curious about the different reactions she received from male journalists
when they knew that she was really born in a harem. The reactions differed from Americans to Europeans which
made her even more curious to carry on a research to know how the West
perceived the harem and
everything that is related to it. She discussed and made research with Western
intellectuals and journalists about how the West read, saw, studied and learnt
about the Harem and how their perceptions were affected either by the Western
version of the Arabian Nights (The Thousand and One Nights), the Western painting
about the East, and Hollywood movies. Furthermore, she presented how the East
differed in their definition of the harem and what it represented as an
institution where women’s power wasn’t underestimated. She also presented that
contrary to the West’s perceptions, the Muslim world presented Muslim women in
paintings and in literature as powerful heroines and leader who used their
brains more than their bodies and their eroticism or sexuality. She analyses
Scheherazade’s persona in the Arabian nights and how this celebrated heroine
who saved her nation from a despotic king Shahrayar based on her intellect,
knowledge and wit was misrepresented in the West and shrunk in an erotic body
and sensual dances in opera houses around Europe. Scheherazade’s weapon to
bring the king into his senses and reason was her skills of weaving words
together and producing stories that kept king wandering and thinking for months
without slaying her.
Mernissi also points out the importance of oral tradition
and story-telling in the Arab world. She goes back to earlier centuries to cite
that street story-tellers were censored at times because they were regarded as
dangerous figures for the ruling system as their power was manifested in their
words (they functioned as leftist journalists of modern times). She also
explains that Arabs were very late in documenting their oral traditions that
best expressed their true culture.
She delves in a journey of mutual learning with the French
journalist, Jacques, who introduced to his own harem and fantasies of the
odalisques paintings that are exhibited in different French Museums. Just
afterwards, Fatema Mernissi introduces Jacques to the harem of Harun al Rashir,
as he requested.
Quotes:
-“What changes do Western artists inflict on Scheherazade in
order to make her conform to their fantasies when she crosses their frontiers?”
“A woman should start with her easiest problems. Eliminate
the small things you can control.”
-“woman should lead her life as a nomad. She should stay alert
and be ready to move, even if she is loved. For, as the tale teaches, love can
engulf you and become a prison.”
-"I became almost self-confident. I say almost, because I realized early on that self-confidence is not a tangible and stable thing like a silver bracelet that never changes over the years. Self-confidence is like a tiny fragile light, which on and off. You have to replenish it constantly."
-"Travel is not about fun but about learning, about crossing boundaries and mastering the fear of strangers, about making the effort to understand other cultures and thereby empowering yourself."
“”That is what fear does,” I thought, “It blinds you to the
world’s beauties.””
