Educational Systems in Harem

As conveyed by Fatima Mernissi’s Dream of Trespass, the harem is prisonlike

place in which ,men are rulers and women are under strict control.Typically women were not

treted equally and did not benifit from the same educational system. The private and public

spheres were good venues of differentiation. Men were always worried about any attack to the

institution of harem life.Men Like Grandfather Tazi,Uncle Ali Cuasin Zin, and Jawad who

were free to go out of the harem had diffrent opinions about the life in the harem. Fatima’s

father says : “where will the troubled women go?”(16). On the other hand, women who were

living within the harem, like Lalla Memi, Lalla Thor, Habiba, Chama, LallaTam, Tamou, and

Grandmother Yasemina had differnt opinions. “Mother hated communal harem life.” Said

Fatima(6). Both traditional and modern views were supported by different family members

living in the harems.

There were different generations of women who were open minded and against the

harem system yet some were satisfied with it. There was modern and traditional classes of

women behind the closed doors of the harem with a common problem that had “no name”. This

problem had affected these women’s lives very seriously. However, they could only solve their

problem if they knew the causes, and one of the main reasons they got such great problems was

their illiteracy and lack of access to a traditional educational system. There was no widespread

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modern educational system for women in Morocco at the time of Merissa’s Dreams of Ttrespass,

They could attend Koran courses or a French school only with their father’s permission. Some

girls were allowed to have secular educations in some cities, but older women did not have

chance to obtain that kind of education. Those who were not able to achieve their goal would try

to ensure their daughters had better educational opportunities.

The male members of the family like grandfathers, uncles, fathers, brothers, and

male cousins tended to support limited education for women. Their aim of keeping women under

strict controls in harems might have two reasons: first, they might have been afraid of women‘s

power, second, they felt empowered when they limited women’s freedom. Men knew that

knowledge is power for everybody especially for women, and only comes through a real

education, not by imitating or blindly following traditional beliefs in traditional Koranic schools.

They knew that teachers like Lalla Tam, who was the headmistress of the Koranic school where

Fatima was sent, was teaching lessons like: “Education is to know the hudud, the sacred

frontiers.” (3) Men also knew that powerful women would never accept sharing their husbands,

so polygamy would come to an end; Hududs were established to keep women within limits.

Being educated or not had no difference for most women in the harem. Cousin Chama

was a good example because although she was literate, she was not allowed to listen to the radio

or read newspapers. To resist presented many theatrical plays to the women in the harem. Chama

was seventeen and always talked about “women’s invisible wings” and taught Fatima that her

wings would develop when she was older. Perhaps she was talking about the knowledge which

she would gain through education. (22) Aunt Habiba’s tales in the other hand made Fatima “long

to become an adult and an expert storyteller myself.”(19) Thus Fatima was able to treasure her

French education all the more because she saw the women around her being deprived of basic

knowledge.
 The men of the harem decided that, the children within the harem would be allowed to go

to schools just to learn religion. Letting little girls like Fatima go to Koranic lessons would

benefit the patriarchy because it would fill their raw brains with dominant ideas about domestic

life. This would allow men to capture, and keep women in harems like properties, without

resistance or disobedience from women. Fatima was discontent with this system and desired a

modern secular education that would allow her to learn the subjects the boys were learning.

Fatima was taught about “Qaida” and how it was man made against women. The women taught

her that these rules had no warning signs and that they were invisible, but would harm her if she

disobeyed. Grandmother Yasmina, explained Fatima that women do not know why they are

deprived of everything, even education. “Maybe the rules are ruthless because they are not

women made.”(63) Fatima would be the first generation to challenge these boundaries and

trespass into the modern world. Fatima’s question of whether she would be a happy woman she

said “of course you would be happy!’…you would be a modern educated lady …you will learn

foreign languages, have a passport, and devour books ….you will certainly be better off than your

mother.” (64)

Although men limited women, women like Lalla, the teacher, with their religious beliefs

had major effects on misguiding young female students who were studying at their schools, like

Fatima who learned that, “To be a Muslim was to respect the Hudud.” (3) Fathers let their little

daughters attend such schools to create a truly obedient generation which would stand behind the

frontiers of authority. Unlike them, Yasmina told Fatima not to “accept inequality, for it was not

logical.”(26)

The older woman, Grandmother Lalla Mani and Chama’s mother Lalla Radia were pro

harem and supported traditional education. The younger generation resisted and disobeyed.
Fatima’s Mother, Chama, and aunt Habiba displayed their discontent through their attitudes

towards prohibitions. Lalla Mani believed that: “if women were not separated from the men,

society would come to a halt and work would not get done…women had to stay in their place at

home.”(40) Tamou opposed Lalla Mani, because she “could shoot a gun, speak Spanish …she

had grown up to confuse life with fighting,….She made people aware of their inner force and

their capacities to resist all kinds of fates.” Gaining these were possible through modern

education not the traditional one. (55)

Women like Melika’s mother, and Uncle Karim’s wife, who liked music, were eager to

learn and gain their lost identity so “they left the harem and went to her father’s home …rather

than forfeiting her marriage.”(77) Women not only needed freedom but also modern education.

They were not even allowed to listen to the radio, which was locked in men’s salon. Secretly they

unlocked the door and tried to decode the MW, LW, and SW, the radio waves. Chama knew

French but not English so the women who wanted to listen to popular singers had to get help

from cousin Zin who knew English. They were in need of his knowledge to translate the lyrics

of Asmahan to them. Asmahan is a singer who had become a feminist because of her dancing life

style, she “entranced both men and women with the idea that failure or success did not matter in

the adventurous life, and such a life was much more enjoyable than a life spent sleeping behind

protective doors.”(107)

The modern Educational system was not supported by men like Fatima’s father, because

they believed learning non-traditional foreign subjects would make the young men to lose their

interest in farming. That’s why he wanted the children to stay with him in the countryside during

the summer. Young male members of the harem could speak in Arabic and French, listen to songs

in both languages, and read the newspapers too. Fatima and other young girls had to attend

Koranic schools in which, teachers like Lalla taught religious doctrine. This was the reason why
anti-harem women believed that traditional education was not enough for women. They needed

to benefit from new information, so they supported the modern educational system for female

family members. They were liberated by Egyptian feminist writers, such as Qacem Amin, but

because of the inherited problem of illiteracy they could not fully practice their desires. Fatima’s

mother was unable to read the feminist literature herself and wanted her husband, who knew a

foreign language to read it for her. Mother loved it, but because she was illiterate, she could not

read it herself, so she did anything to persuade him to read it to her. Qasem Amin’s book was like

a treasure for Fatima’s mother, because it freed a lonely and helpless woman.

Men in harems lived a very different life from the women. Most men were educated, could

read newspapers, books, and listen to radios. Perhaps this was the reason why Samir looked down

on Fatima and said: “you do not know anything.” After national schools for girls were opened,

Fatima’s mother wanted the family council to let her to attend those classes, and asked for special

permission. Mother wanted Fatima to be like Princess Ayesha and be able to swing between two

cultures, two personalities and two languages. Permission was granted and Fatima finally could

attend a modern school.

According to Fatima “modern school was so much fun ...from eating to speaking.”(199)

Fatima’s mother wants education herself but is told that “schools are for little girls.” When she

realizes that she is trapped she asks Fatima “‘you are going to transform this world, aren’t

you?’...long silence would follow her speeches, but the beauty of her images would linger on, and

float around the courtyard like perfumes, like dreams, invisible, but so powerful.” (201) As

Qasem Amin concluded in his book, “by urging Arab men to find ways to develop strength within

themselves and overcome their fear, women could shed the veil.” However father complained

that “Qasem Amin would destroy the harmony of Arab marriage.” In fact, modern education

targeted those lessons of traditional education which had marginalized women.(122) It also
destroyed men’s power over women, gender discriminations and polygamy which was practiced

in harems . Thus modern education proved to be map of freedom that would liberate Moroccan

women. 5