Le Harem entr'ouvert

A series of intimate vignettes portrays domestic and social life in Tunisian households, focusing on salons, patios, and the rituals of women’s quarters. The narrator sketches portraits of notable residents, their fashions, gifts, conversations, and the ceremonies that structure daily existence, using detailed descriptions of interiors and manners to reveal power relations and sexual politics. Episodic anecdotes and scene studies alternate between sympathetic observation and critical commentary, assembling a mosaic of gendered spaces, patronage, gossip, and the tensions between tradition and external influences.