“Of loss and of remembrance”: Harem as Home in Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage

Document Type : Original Article

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Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University

Abstract

This paper traces Leila Ahmed's remembrance in A Border Passage; a memoir recollecting her family home as a space haunted by sounds and shadows, and imbued by a lyrical tone. The memoirs explore the motif of loss as experienced by the text's female protagonist; unexpectedly missing the harem lifestyle she grew up to cherish. The recollections celebrate harem as home, bonding women together; a place of respite and sanctuary without which loneliness and insecurity prevail. The memoirs are, thus, written as a form of healing. The protagonist oscillates between the sense of loneliness and molestation in her father's house; a symbol of the absence of human bond, and her mother's family home; a place of female solidarity and a benign rhythmic lifestyle. As such, the memoirs are a counter narrative to harem life as oppressive and reductive, to one that is empowering and sustaining; a means to fend off paternal tyranny and celebrate maternal bondage. Such ideas run counter to Western feminist discourse, opting for Eastern concepts like the harem lifestyle which empowers women and their female bond.    

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