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Life in a harem is a recurring idea in the story. The author makes the point that there are two types of harems, the domestic harem such as the one her family has and the imperial harem which consisted of a master with a group of wives. Fatima says that most people associate the word "harem" with eroticism but that there was actually little of that in her own family's harem. In Fatima's case, the harem consisted of her paternal grandmother, her father and his older brother, and her mother and her uncle's wife. Each of the men has only a single wife though each has several children. The remainder of the harem is made of extended family and servants.