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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Yaya's favorite color?

2. Why did Mernissi cover her hair with her mother's scarf at the public baths?

3. How many rows did the harem reserve for themselves at the movies?

4. What was the "djellaba" that Mernissi's mother wanted to wear?

5. What kind of transportation did Mernissi's father and uncle use when she was a young child?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Lalla Radia believe that harems were wonderful?

2. Describe Zin's physical appearance.

3. What did Fatima Mernissi do as a child while she waited for her mother to wake up each morning?

4. What did the women of the harem do so they could listen to the radio?

5. What was Ahmed's role in the Mernissi household?

6. What part of communal life did Mernissi's mother hate the most?

7. What did Mernissi like about Chama's theory about how the harem first got started?

8. When did Tamou arrive at Grandfather Tazi's farm?

9. Describe the difference between the men and women's gardens on Grandfather Tazi's farm.

10. How did the harem in the city differ from the one at Mernissi's grandfather's farm?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did Mernissi fear the French soldiers as a young child? What did she and Samir witness regarding the soldiers that had a negative effect on them? Why does Mernissi say the French were greedy?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Mernissi's mother's search for happiness. In her restricted world, what choices did she make to try and improve her life? What did she tell her daughter about happiness?

Essay Topic 3

What role did Tamou play in Grandfather's Tazi's harem? In what ways did she live more freely as a woman? How did she encourage other women to do the same?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 893 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample