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Quote #10
Not that Grandfather ever entered Grandmother's receiving room. No man, not even Grandfather, ever set foot there, to my knowledge: his presence would have been a violation of the seclusion rights of any woman present who was not his wife or daughter or close relative. (My brothers and cousins, so long as they were mere boys, were of course a different matter). (107)
Ahmed reflects on the time spent in her grandmother's rooms at Zatoun. She remembers it as a comforting, nurturing space where the women of her family could exercise their power and mock the male authority figures in their lives. She speaks of having a specifically designated, all-female space as a benefit of sex segregation—as a right of the women in the family and of those women who visited them.
It's a model of perfection that Ahmed also finds at Girton College, where male authority did not exist. While the concept of women's space is an empowering concept, it's also a double-edged sword. By drawing sharp boundaries on a women's realm, it can be contained to a very small sphere of influence.