Harem: image and reality
by Leslie Farmer
During the six weeks in which I was traveling through the Arab world for this study of Arab women I devoted a rather disproportionate amount of time to the subject of the harem—in Arabic, “harem”—in hopes of dispelling some of the mystery—and misinformation—has clouded the West’s view of this now nearly extinct system [...]
History of the Arab Woman
by Leslie Farmer
In the last part of the eighth century, in the reign of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad, the marketplaces of the Abbasid empire buzzed with rumor. The rebellious sect of the Kharijis in Iraq was up in arms and its forces under Layla—poet, beauty and rebel leader—were giving battle again and again [...]
