Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood

Mernissi begins this chapter by describing her child’s perspective of World War II: the German Christians, the “Allemane,” have been “preparing a huge and secret army for a long time” (93), and suddenly they invade France and conquer Paris. The Allemane have also “declared war on the Jews” (94), forcing them to wear yellow just as the Moroccan women must wear veils. Samir and Fatima wonder why these items of clothing are required, and Mother says it has “something to do with the difference maybe” (94)—differentiating women from men in one case, and Christians from Jews in the other.

Moroccan Jews live in a certain area of Fez called Mellah, and in Fatima’s opinion, they act and look “just like everyone else” (94). Like Muslims, the Jews love and worship their God, and Fatima thinks it’s natural for Jews and Muslims to live together in one city—but what she can’t comprehend is, “what were the Jews doing in the country of the Allemane?” (95). Fatima believes that Jews have “always hung around with the Arabs” (95), even accompanying the Arabs when they conquered Spain. Fatima’s teacher Lalla Tam frequently mentions this conquest, and she also spends a lot of time teaching Koran verses to the children, so Fatima mistakenly believes the Arab conquest is discussed in the Koran.