“Aunt Habiba said that anyone could develop wings. It was only a matter of concentration. The wings need not be visible like the birds’; invisible ones were just as good, and the earlier you started focusing on the flight, the better. But when I begged her to be more explicit, she became impatient and warned me that some wonderful things could not be taught. “you just keep alert, so as to capture the sizzling silk of the winged dream,” she said. But she also indicated that there were two prerequisites to growing wings: “the first is to feel encircled and the second is to believe that you can break the circle…A third condition…is that you stop bombarding people with questions. Observing is a good way to learn, too. Listening with stitched lips, wakeful eyes, and quivering ears can bring more magic into your life than all the hanging around you do on that terrace, spying on Venus or peeping at the new moon!”

20 The Silent Dream of Wings and Flights

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood

Fatima Mernissi