Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood

Chapter 6 begins with a description of the farm harem where Grandmother Yasmina lives. The farm consists of a large T-shaped building, with the right side occupied by women and the left by men, and a bamboo fence forming another hudud, or frontier, between the two sides. Surrounding the harem are gardens, the men’s rather austere while the women’s is “overrun with strange trees and bizarre plants and animals of all kinds” (50), because each wife has a small area to raise whatever she likes.

Yasmina lives not in this main harem, which contains Lalla Thor’s luxurious quarters, but in a neighboring pavilion where she can be as far from Thor as possible. Yasmina’s friend Tamou occupies the second floor of her pavilion, and Fatima goes on to retell the story of Tamou’s arrival at the harem in 1926.

Tamou comes from the Rif people—Moroccans who defied the European invaders “long after the rest of the country had given up” (51)—and has fled her home after the Riffan leader was defeated. Tamou’s people are trapped in the Spanish Zone, and she asks Grandfather to provide them with food and supplies.