A different type of "escape" narrative appears in memoirs like Princess of the Harem (by Melek Hanım, 1872) or The Harem Within (Fatima Mernissi, 1994). Here, escape is often psychological or intellectual, not physical. Melek Hanım left her husband’s palace not to find "Western freedom" but to become a writer in Europe. Her bekstvo is a negotiation of identity, not a simple flight from oppression.
This paper examines Dževad Karahasan’s novel Bekstvo iz harema (Escape from the Harem) as a complex literary interrogation of identity, freedom, and the "Orient." While the premise suggests a narrative of physical liberation from a confined space, Karahasan subverts the traditional Western Orientalist trope of the harem as a site of exotic oppression. Instead, the novel posits the harem as a metaphysical space of existential safety. Through an analysis of the protagonist’s journey, this paper argues that true freedom is not merely the absence of physical walls, but a terrifying confrontation with the autonomy of the self. The novel ultimately suggests that the escape from the "harem" is an escape from the comfort of collective identity into the loneliness of modern individualism. bekstvo iz harema pdf work
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