“Come with me to the casbah.” If the invitation is uttered in just the right Lauren Bacall accent, the imaginations of most Western men perk up. It’s the promise of a visit to the harem, the inner, exotic sanctum, redolent of desert perfume. But the land of make believe has its roots somewhere and that’s the investigative track where we find the Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi.
Herself born in a harem, she has stepped from east to west and back again, watching and judging men and their fantasies of women. She’s found the answer in the ultimate Arabian temptress, Scheherazade, the clever story teller whose wit in devising a thousand tales kept her on top. But things change when Scheherazade Goes West.
Guests:
Fatema Mernissi, author of “Scheherazade Goes West” and sociologist at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco.