 | Dorothy O. Helly, Susan Reverby - History - 1992 - 372 pages
...the private quarters of a house and by extension the female members of the household are its harem. The word harem is a term of respect, redolent of religious purity and honor. With the exception of its reference to the women of a family, it is not gender-specific. Indeed, the... | |
 | Mary Flanagan, Austin Booth - Social Science - 2002 - 604 pages
...describes, the harem was in fact a sacred place, taboo only in the sense of being holy, inviolable ground. "The word harem is a term of respect, redolent of religious purity and honor," and Mecca is the most revered harem in Islam. The term "is gender specific only in its reference to the... | |
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... is a space to which general access is forbidden or controlled and in which the presence of certain individuals or certain modes of behavior are forbidden. That the private quarters in a domestic residence and by extension its female residents are... 