SOURCE: Majaj, Lisa Suhair. “West Side Stories.” Women's Review of Books 18, nos. 10-11 (July 2001): 25.

In the following review, Majaj comments on Mernissi's observations and tactics in Scheherazade Goes West, lauding the author for raising important questions about the ways women are marginalized and controlled in both Eastern and Western societies.

In her 1994 memoir, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi recalled her upbringing in a Moroccan harem. Although the women in the harem had limited physical mobility, they could go anywhere their imaginations could take them. Storytelling occupied a central role, and tales from the Thousand and One Nights—largely about women who took charge of their own liberation—were prominent. Through these tales, Mernissi came to see Scheherazade, the feisty storyteller who used her narrative prowess, intellect and courage to thwart her husband's murderous intentions, as a feminist role model. From Scheherazade's...