Scheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi (Morocco)

Scheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi is part memoir, part cultural critique. Mernissi, a Moroccan feminist scholar, contrasts the “harem” of her childhood in Fez with the “harems” she encounters in the West—though not the kind with veils and eunuchs. Instead, she argues that Western women are often confined by beauty standards, ageism, and consumer culture just as much as Eastern women are by traditional gender roles. With wit and sharp insight, she flips the Orientalist gaze back on Europe and America, showing that every society has its own form of restriction.

It’s a book about freedom, power, and the illusions we live under—one that asks us to question whether the West really is as “liberated” as it likes to believe.

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Upcoming months' books:

October - Breasts and Eggs by Meiko Kawakami (Japan)

November - Lullaby by Leila Slimani (France)

December - The Vegetarian by Han Kang (South Korea)