Gender issues in Islam

12. What are the drawbacks or harms that you have experienced as a result of that relationship?
Not much, just I was defamed, beaten, caught, molested, and my character was questioned. My family life was destroyed, I was broken as a boy, what else could happen?

LGBT nonprofit organizations in Lebanon use social media videos to foreground the rights of sexual minorities in a society that institutionalizes homophobia. Employing content and thematic analysis to study twelve of these videos within the Lebanese sociopolitical context, I examine how the organizations enact the online affordance of visibility to transgress local hegemonic discourses and claim representativity and political rights. Engaging in politics online comes with the fear of offline homophobia. Lebanese LGBT nonprofits have therefore adopted strategies to mitigate offline persecution, including the invisibility of individuals within the visibility of the collective. They have also engaged in Pan-Arab activism and relied on local Arabic terms for sexual minorities to create a more nuanced activism for the Arab region than found in transnational LGBT activism.

Homosexuality is not just a matter of personal feelings. It has an impact on human individualism, behaviour, family system and public health. The structure of the human community and its norms has been affected. Early from history, the sexual orientation of developing children had been directed by the parental, cultural and religious nourishment. In this article, we placed out four important interventions on homosexuality. These are intersection, liberalism, biology, and religion. The intersectional analysis put light on the inclination of impetus and expression of the act of which the latter is placed at the stake of critique. The comparison of freedom of expression of human psychosocial behaviours is under talk in liberal analysis. We alert the nation, especially the young people and their parents on the biological and psychological health dangers inherent in adopting a lesbian, gay, queer, bisexual, or transgender identity. The rulings of religions including Christianity, Judaism...

Muslim women are frequently portrayed as the victims of an oppressive, patriarchal religion (Bartelink and Buitelaar, 2006, p.352), and there exists a popular belief in the Western world that Islam is inherently ‘bad’ for women. Indeed, in recent years, the ‘plight’ of women in the Muslim world has been used by some political actors as a justification (sometimes retrospectively) for military intervention in countries such as Afghanistan. Given this context, it might be assumed that women’s sexual and reproductive rights are not compatible with Islam. However, Islam is a very diverse religion, and its interpretation differs across the Muslim world (Hessini, 2007; Marcotte, 2003), from country to country, between Sunni and Shi’a, between different schools of Islamic law, and indeed, within communities themselves. This essay will focus on the Muslim countries of the Middle Eastand North Africa (MENA) region[1], looking primarily at the influence of Islam on women’s reproductive rights,...

The study reported how the Arab world perceived homosexuality criminalization and decriminalization in opposition or in alignment with approaches determined in the pre and post-colonial eras in different European and American countries. The focus of the article was to explore the foundations of both homosexuality and antihomosexuality legislation along with the historical background of the homosexuality issue. The study employed a meta-analysis of studies on homosexuality criminalization and decriminalization starting with the colonial period through the modern era. The methodology employed scientific literature in the analysis to make the study representative and not a priori stigmatizing. The analysis revolved around close readings of precolonial and postcolonial documents. The study looked at the historical evidence indicating the impact of imperial history on homosexuality as based on the dataset of 185 countries. The findings of the study underscored that the question of criminalizing or decriminalizing homosexuality in Arab countries remains debatable due to conflicting views of modernity on one hand and religious and cultural constraints on the other hand.

I have a vague memory of the first time I saw Barra magazine when I was a teenager. I purchased Barra out of excitement that it was in Arabic, and not just any Arabic: Its very title promised to offer material in colloquial Lebanese, barra being Lebanese for “out.” I don’t remember whether I understood the connotation at the time. I did know what gay meant, as I, like most people of my generation and socioeconomic background, grew up surrounded by American movies, series, and music. Gay was linked to the West, and in Arabic subtitles on local television was translated into shadh (deviant). I remember going home and reading Barra. This was, in fact, my first memory of reading about sex in Arabic, about sex in Lebanon.

I have a vague memory of the first time I saw Barra magazine when I was a teenager. I purchased Barra out of excitement that it was in Arabic, and not just any Arabic: Its very title promised to offer material in colloquial Lebanese, barra being Lebanese for "out." I don't remember whether I understood the connotation at the time. I did know what gay meant, as I, like most people of my generation and socioeconomic background, grew up surrounded by American movies, series, and music. Gay was linked to the West, and in Arabic subtitles on local television was translated into shadh (deviant). I remember going home and reading Barra. This was, in fact, my first memory of reading about sex in Arabic, about sex in Lebanon. I begin this essay with a teenage memory not to indulge a hyper self-consciousness, but out of a desire to make my writing and thinking process less opaque. It is out of a belief that reflecting on why we write-or struggle to write-about certain things is an essential step toward understanding the research we conduct. It is, finally, out of a conviction that the poetic and the political are inseparable and that "science is in, not above, historical and linguistic processes" (Clifford & Marcus, 1986, p. 2). Researchers on Arab sexuality often have paid attention to historical processes in the formation of new erotic configurations. This essay focuses on linguistic processes in the making of queer sexual identities in Lebanon. It deals with the methodological challenges of translation that arise when we attempt to make intimacies, erotics, and sex legible in an already globalized world, foregrounding an unease with language that is expressed by activists and scholars. Georges Marcus (Clifford & Marcus, 1986) writes that "Human ways of life increasingly influence, dominate, parody, translate, and subvert one another" and that cultural analysis is "always enmeshed in global movements of difference and power" (p. 22). The analytical categories we use as researchers are enmeshed in these global movements. Academic writing does not operate outside these flows; it is part of them. Given that so many gender and sexuality analytical categories were first developed for the Euro-American context, "how can we make sure that in studying gender systems in other cultures, we do not resort to another form of Eurocentrism, less obvious but more insidious because it is methodological rather than topical?" (Strasser & Tinsman, cited in Najmabadi, 2006, p. 18). How do we make sense of the appearance of putatively Euro-American categories of sexual affinity elsewhere? And how do we reflect on our own role as researchers in the production of subject effects through the categories we choose in conducting research on sexuality? What follows is a series of reflections on how words and categories around sex travel, and how both queer activists and researchers understand this movement.

Online fatwas" and "Virtual Counselling" are a major concern for the global community. The introduction, growth, and utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have created new public spheres where different concepts of coexistence between Islam and the State are discussed. With respect to cyberspace, the Internet brings ijtihad-related issues into sharp focus, when any individuals can proclaim themselves as an authority on Islam, qualified to make pronouncements and issue fatwas. Online religious forums are not exclusively to provide Islamic advice, but also allow Internet users to meet and interact with others who share their faith, beliefs, and values from the privacy of their homes. Whilst this advantage for petitioners has been overemphasized in cyber studies in general, in relation to Cyber Islamic Environments some unique themes are raised. These include issues linked to whether online Islamic advice is binding or not, and the implications on Internet users asking the question. Should advice ignoring the traditional Islamic models endorsed by al-Azhar or solicited by email be followed? Is the moral dimension the same as receiving a fatwa from a scholar in non electronic context? This article approaches some of these issues and examines how the Islamic sites change the process of decision making and construction of Islamic knowledge within Muslims. 1 Qur'an, 33 :70 2 The opinions of specific contemporary imams , pl. fatawa. 3 'Submission' to God. 4 Revelation received by the Prophet Muhammed, via the Angel Gabriel. 5 A traditional saying and/or report of the actions of Muhammad, pl. ahadith.

Terms of a Western discourse of homosexuality shape conflicts surrounding sexual identity that are faced by many Muslims, especially those who live in diasporic communities. Many use essentialized categories to articulate their sexual orientations and express incommensurabilities between their sexuality and their identities as Muslims. This article argues that discursive constructions of the Muslim as traditional other to the secular sexual subject of a modern democracy generate an uninhabitable subject position that sharply dichotomizes sexual orientations and Muslim family/religious orientations, a dichotomization that is reinforced by well-publicized backlashes against open homosexuality in several Muslim countries. Yet observations made during ethnographic field research in Pakistan, as well as scholarly evidence from other Muslim countries, suggest that many Muslims are less troubled by sex and desire in all their possible forms than they are by the peculiar modern practice of ...

Saya membaca jurnal beliau y Badrah uyuni dalam jurnalnya yang berjudul "zakat uang elektronik " di dalam jurnal tersebut menjelaskan tentang sebuah penelitian bahwa seiring perkembangan zaman dan teknologi, semakin banyak perubahan yang terjadi dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Termasuk dalam hal transaksi tukar menukar (keuangan). Begitu dahsyat inovasinya bahkan kebanyakan uang di dunia sekarang ini. adalah elektronik, dan uang tunai mulai semakin berkurang penggunaannya. Perubahan gaya hidup juga membuat minat masyarakat terutama milenial zaman now menggunakan uang elektronik untuk transaksi harian semakin meningkat. Dengan perkenalan internet, bank online, kartu debit, dan pembayaran online, dan bisnis internet, uang kertas ataupun alat tukar lainnya yang telah ada terlebih dahulu menjadi sebuah barang masa lalu. Dan dapat dikatakan bahwa saat ini adalah eranya Cashless Society.

In this introduction we set a number of sociological insights when looking at gender normativity in the Middle east, namely 1). The variability of hierarchies shaping norms; (2) the multiplicity of sources of authority on gender and sexuality that always coexist; (3) the existence of realms of activity in which the quest for pleasure seems to take precedence over dominant ethical goal setting, sometimes producing its own framework of normative expectations; and 4) the limits of our capacity as historians and social-science researchers to give a full account of the experience of sexuality. We then present the plan of the books.

Since the last decades, the Middle East has been portrayed as hostile towards homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. The overall public opinion represents them by facing suppression, whereas marginalization seems to be omnipresent and a suffer for Arabs. Although these statements are mainly spread by media and organizations from Western perspectives, there is more going on concerning political, religious and social points of view to such underexposed issue in the academic literature of Middle Eastern studies.
This bachelor’s thesis revolves around the (non-)existent LGBT+ rights in a specific regional context of the Middle East, namely Lebanon’s post-civil war society. Regarding this subject, recent legal and social developments make it a pioneer country of human and sexual rights in the region of the Middle East. Nowadays Lebanon is commonly considered “the safest resort” for LGBT+ communities, but still political, legal and even social conditions affect their behavior, way of life and position in society.
Therefore, this research mainly deals with a historical, political and social analysis of the present- day sectarian-divided Lebanon, with a specific focus on its relationship with processes of legalization of LGBT+ rights. Additionally, it questions Western notions about gender and sexuality concerning advocating LGBT+ rights, linking these to implemented orientalist and colonialist discourses and to the outcomes of a globalized world nowadays.
First, the thesis introduces the methodology. It addresses academic methods and materials that are analyzed in detail for this study. Furthermore, it acknowledges encountered difficulties, limitations, and possible controversies as to terminology, scientific or sociological concepts, and transliteration of terms from the Arabic language during the research process.
Secondly, the study sets up a historical framework, in order to understand the current sociopolitical environment, which determines and influences the fate of Lebanon’s sexual minorities. It begins with growing intervention and then the colonization of the Levant by foreign powers. Besides, it links past legislation with Lebanon’s political complexity, affecting (non-)existent LGBT+ rights in the country.2 Furthermore, the thesis mentions evolutions in politics, law and society between independence and pre-civil war period shortly. The historical framework focuses primarily on the post-civil war context in Lebanese politics and society, as this is the point of interest in growing attention towards LGBT+ rights.
Consequently, the next chapter introduces a theoretical framework, which complies with scientific and sociocultural concepts of sexology, either Western or Arabic notions. Furthermore, it focuses on Islamic legal thought and views on homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender people, as well as it analyses (mis-)interpretations of concepts in orientalist and colonialist discourses. Because of this, the study allows us to leave the “popular” Western discourse, which blames religion as the main cause for homophobia and transphobia, and therefore complies with substantiated arguments.
The thesis’ body consists of multiple examinations of existent, interchangeable or even oppositive attitudes towards LGBT+ rights. Firstly, it explores Lebanon’s domestic and international legislation in-depth, specifically criminalization of homosexuality with regard to Article 534 in the Penal Code. Moreover, it addresses political and social consequences for both the individual and the community of experiencing nonconformity in contrast to a mainly heteronormative society.
Last, the thesis offers positive alternatives for laws, stigmatization and marginalization of sexual minorities. By framing this, it also focuses on local and cross-regional organizations that advocate LGBT+ rights. Additionally, it discusses positive and negative effects of civil society organizations and LGBT+ organizations on the level of the individual and the community.

Altogether, with its emic perspective, the book provides an extensive reference source on the inner-Islamic discussion for gay and lesbian Muslims and can be used as a strong base for an argumentation that situates same-sex unions within Islamic law tradition. For scholars of gender, sexuality and religion the book is an interesting source for studying a queer-religious argumentative strategy developing a progressive-positive Islamic understanding of homosexuality and same-sex unions.

Interviu/ Alina Isac Alak, islamolog: " Interzicerea niqabului în școli pedepsește direct nu musulmanii reali, ci, paradoxal, mai delicat și dificil de controlat, musulmanul imaginar " Alina Isac Alak este doctor în filosofie, islamolog şi a publicat cărți, precum și numeroase articole și studii academice atât în volume colective, cât și în prestigioase reviste de specialitate din țară și din străinătate. Ea ne oferă o imagine complexă despre interzicerea niqabului în şcoli, pornind de la ultima Propunere legislativa pentru modificarea şi completarea Legii educaţiei naţionale nr.1/2011, în interviul acordat lui Vladimir Adrian Costea, pentru Europunkt. Vladimir-Adrian Costea: Pentru început, vă rog să ne spuneți care este miza interzicerii niqabului în școli. În ce măsură reprezintă o prioritate? Alina Isac Alak: Putem identifica fără mare efort faptele reale, concrete, verificabile. Avem o lege care vizează prevenirea unui fenomen declarat oficial, în același text al proiectului de lege, drept inexistent, anume pericolul terorist în România. Cum ne protejăm de amenințarea ipotetică a terorismului? Interzicând acoperirea feței prin orice fel de material, în spațiile destinate educației și formării profesionale, unei categorii inexistente de oameni: femeile musulmane purtătoare de niqab. Niqab-ul reprezintă vălul care nu acoperă doar părul, ci și chipul femeii musulmane, lăsând cel mult expuși vederii doar ochii acesteia. Purtarea niqab-ului este o practică rar întâlnită și în țările cu populație musulmană, fiind destul de controversată, multe școli islamice de jurisprudență încadrând vestimentația respectivă mai degrabă în categoria practicilor culturale locale și nu în a celor normative islamice. În România, în prezent, nu se cunoaște nici un caz al unei femei musulmane purtătoare de niqab care să frecventeze cursurile unui liceu sau ale unei universități. La poliție nu este înregistrat nici un caz al unei musulmane purtătoare de niqab care să fi cerut eliberarea actelor românești de identitate. Există, rarisim, persoane care vin în vizită pe teritoriul țării noastre și care poartă niqab. Au existat trei, patru românce musulmane convertite care au adoptat temporar practica niqab-ului, însă, din câte știu eu, nici una nu a participat, nici măcar ocazional, îmbrăcată la cursuri astfel. Două dintre aceste persoane nici nu mai sunt musulmane astăzi. A emite o lege, preventiv, care evident nu răspunde nici unei nevoi sociale sau politice reale, pentru un grup de oameni care nu există, îmi pare a fi o strategie legislativă futilă, ridicolă, dar nu mai puțin gravă și îngrijorătoare. În ce măsură aceste propuneri generează forme de discriminare? Din nefericire, și aici rezidă întreaga problemă, legea referitoare la interzicerea niqab-ului nu lucrează cu obiective practice, ci mai degrabă cu strategii simbolice și retorice. Pare a nu afecta direct musulmanii reali, deși, paradoxal, mai delicat și dificil de controlat, atacă un musulman imaginar, purtător al unei vini colective în aceste circumstanțe socio-politice turbulente. Între a

There is a series of contemporary Islamic issues which cannot be solved by invoking the pre-modern exegeses or the classical Islamic jurisprudence, otherwise than, at most, by resorting to a strategic artifice of identifying minority and isolated perspectives from the tradition or through selective and forced reformulations of some canonical opinions. Verse four of Surah Al Nisaʼ | the Women chapter of the Quran is probably the most unsettling Quranic verse, at least from a gender perspective, its exegesis being an infallible criterion for the tracking of egalitarian or hierarchical visions promoted by various pre-colonial Islamic schools of thought or by contemporary Islamic orientations. The interpretations attached to this verse concretely and very decisively affect the Muslim women’s life, their right to self-determination and autonomy, creating the juridical framework according to which all the other rights and duties of women have been traditionally distributed. Although Muslim authors have argued the validity of certain egalitarian interpretations, relying even on pre-modern juridical and hermeneutic procedures, progressive Muslims have also highlighted the need to reconstruct the bases of the traditional exegesis and jurisprudence by including the non-Islamic knowledge, through the contextualization and a holistic-thematic approach to the sacred text, in keeping with the universal Quranic ethical principles and, simultaneously, the contemporary realities, suppositions and necessities, with a view to an efficient and productive reshuffling of the classical, and gender-discriminating juridical verdicts.

From the early 1970s until 2011, the Syrian shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab flourished as a minor centre of Shiʿi learning. It predominantly served Iraqi Shiʿi refugees, but also temporary visitors from Iran and the Gulf countries. The seminaries viewed it as their responsibility to draw in transient Shiʿa and turn them into students and loyal followers of important marājiʿ al-taqlīd or Shiʿi legal scholars who mainly reside in major centres of Shiʿi learning, such as Najaf, Karbala and Qom. While the seminaries in Sayyida Zaynab aimed at strengthening institutional affiliation among lay Shiʿa, they concurrently aided the questioning of authoritative religious edicts and opinions emanating from Iranian and Iraqi centres of learning and produced local religious authorities. This article examines two spheres in which central authority was challenged in the shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab. First, it was contested in seminaries where students and teachers debated legal rulings, and second, in contested public Muharram practices such as self-flagellation processions and the showing and selling of recorded laṭmiyyāt, which are chants performed during ritual mourning gatherings.

A paper first delivered at the Gurukul Summer Institute on Feminist Perspectives and Praxis, 26 April - 7 May 1998; subsequently published in Feminist Theology: Perspectives and Praxis, ed. Prasanna Kumari, Chennai: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute,1999, pp. 167-184.

In his 2006 article in the Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (JIMA), Dr. Ahmed qualified the predominant psychiatric view on " homosexuality " by recourse to opinions prevalent within reparative therapy circles. Conservative Muslim thinkers, online counselors and other professionals continue to hold opinions similar to those delineated by Dr. Ahmed in his journal article. We use his paper as a focal point to critique the general opinions upheld by conservative Muslim thinkers by alluding to the harms associated with reparative therapy and by rejecting the unreasonable prescription of permanent celibacy. We critique Dr. Ahmed's association of " homosexuality " with mental health issues, fatal diseases, alcoholism and illicit sexual intercourse. Investigating the Muslim tradition, we encourage conservative Muslim leaders to facilitate Muslim gays and lesbians in their legitimate human need for intimacy, affection and companionship.

As one of the first studies on Afghan Masculinities and Gender inequality, the overall purpose of this research is to achieve an in-depth understanding of different notions of being a man in Afghanistan and how they contribute to gender inequality. A multi-method approach employed both quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess four different provinces (Nangarhar, Takhar, Bamyan, and Kabul) that manifested degrees of both conservatism and openness regarding gender issues.

Results affirmed that being a man refers to social roles, behaviours, and meanings prescribed in a particular context. This perception is clearly shown in the shared opinion among all groups in the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), for older men and women as well as for younger men and women. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) in all provinces described that men should be considered the head of the household. A man has the responsibility to procreate, support, and protect the family and country. Afghan men are perceived to possess the qualities of being brave and honourable.

The majority of the respondents agreed that gender-based violence, although not right, is justifiable when women resist men's decisions. Most of the religious male key informants believed that Islamic rules permit beating a wife in case she is a "Nashiza" (rebellious/disobedient woman). The participants and informants in all provinces stated that women's responsibility is to manage their homes. Older respondents were more inclined to accept this norm compared to their younger counterparts. Moreover, data showed that female respondents with higher educational attainment had a lower inclination to agree with the norm that women should take care of domestic tasks. Higher educational attainment had little effect on Afghan men's responses.

O Mankind, keep your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate (of same kind) and from them twain has spread a multitude of men and women...He (God) it is who did create you from a single soul and therefrom did create his mate, that he might dwell with her (in love).... Chapter (4) sūrat l-nisāa (The Women)

The culture wars over homosexuality in the Middle East are studied here in the context of the theoretical debate on culture in International Relations and, more specifically, through a critical examination of postcolonial international theory. The paper argues that, although postcolonialism can offer a useful framework, it also has, in its poststructuralist variants, significant limitations in addressing the controversial issues surrounding homosexuality as cultural battleground in the Middle East. These limitations derive from an unconvincing interpretation of the relationship between the Middle East and modernity; and a problematic approach towards moral agency. The paper serves a dual purpose. Through the use of the empirical material, it furthers the debate within postcolonial international theory by bringing evidence to bear in support of its humanist or materialist strands. The theoretical discussion, in turn, by highlighting the intertwining of culture and power in the debates on homosexuality, strengthens the case for respecting homosexual rights in the Middle East region.

The expression boya (plural boya¯t) is derived from the English word boy, to which the Arabic ta¯’ marbu¯ta has been added, and it seems to have originated in the language of the youth and to have spread into the media as the phenomenon became more visible. With regard to the word boya, Nabı¯l al-‘Iwa _ d
ı insinuates in the Sa¯‘a¯ t _ sara¯ ha TV program hat the word—an English word with an Arabic female nding—was ‘perverted,’ ‘deviant’ and ‘aberrant’ in itself; ‘absolutely wrong’ and  thus fitting the phenomenon: ‘Perverted’
people coined a ‘perverted’ word, which in turn reflects their ‘perversion.’

"The first theoretical part of the paper will be devoted to a critical reflection on what analytical categories we could use when dealing with “homosexuality” in the Middle East. In the second part of the article will look at the contemporary discourses on homosexuality, looking both at the dominant perspective, where the “classical” approach seems to prevail, and at the competitive perspective, where the “new” approach is appearing.
"

The ‘case’ I investigate is of Sayyid-Sally, an Egyptian transsexual medical student at Al-Azhar University, a pre-eminent institution for Islamic religious studies, who was expelled in 1982 because of her gendered identity. In this article I examine Al-Azhar’s position, judicial edict, or Fatwa, regarding Sayyid-Sally. For even after the revelation of Sayyid-Sally’s identity, her sex change operation and even after Al-Azhar admitted the existence of the category of the “Hermaphrodite” in certain Islamic legal interpretations, heteronormative gender orientations were still re-established and re-worked by Al-Azhar. I make the case that Al-Azhar’s position corresponds to a binary logical order which makes distinction between Natural Hermaphrodite and Un-natural Hermaphrodite. Sayyid-Sally was tolerated at best, even when 9 years later the Administrative Court of Cairo repealed Al-Azhar’s decision of expelling Sayyid-Sally. I argue that Anarchism as a political and philosophical orientation, can uniquely inform Islam, and move the debate beyond a practice or mere tolerance to help develop a doctrine of acceptance. I do this to help open-minded (non-essentialist/non-dogmatic) Muslims and anarchists better understand each other, and therefore to more effectively collaborate in the context of what Richard J.F. Day has called the ‘newest’ social movements.