Espasa, 2003

Why do Western men dream of a female beauty ideal so different from that of Eastern men?

Both Eastern artists, who recreated their amorous dreams in magnificent miniatures, and Western artists—“from Ingres and Delacroix to Picasso and Matisse”—have filled harems with women.

The author suggests that while in the West women of the harem have been depicted as harmless and static creatures, in the East they were shown as warrior women—dangerously changeable and provocative.

Fatema Mernissi unravels these stereotypes and dissects, with humor and intelligence, the complex relationships between men and women through a fascinating journey across literary and pictorial worlds.