This paper focuses on Germany's assessment of refugee claims made by LGBTQI+ Muslims. Based on the analysis of several asylum decisions, it seeks to render insight into the ways in which credibility is assessed at the intersection of sexuality and Islam. Drawing on Jasbir Puar's theory of homonationalism, this paper first argues that Germany is more likely to grant protection in cases where the asylum seeker successfully adopts German/Western standards of moral on gay/queer sexualities. Secondly, this paper discusses the manner in which "acceptance" and "tolerance" for gay and queer Muslim asylum seekers is inextricably linked to constructions of Muslim sexualities and masculinities in current asylum and immigration debate in Germany. In closing, this paper offers some suggestion on how to work towards a more inclusive asylum system in Germany and Europe more generally.
This paper focuses on Germany's assessment of refugee claims made by lesbians racialized as Black. Drawing on gender and queer migration scholarship's critique of the asylum system as hetero-and homonormative, the goal of this paper is to illustrate how lesbian asylum seekers' uneven biographies are assessed at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and race. I will first examine the 'double discrimination' lesbian asylum seekers face within Germany's asylum system because they are women and lesbians. I will second, assess the extent to which such double discrimination intersects with de-racialized idealizations of female victimhood and how that contributes to the exclusion of Black lesbians from refugee protection. I will use the example of two lesbian asylum cases from Uganda-both of which I have closely followed over the course of 10 months-so as to outline some of the main effects of such asylum practices as they relate to the question of who deserves Germany's legal protection and how this relates to normative conceptualizations of female victimhood and humanitarianism. I contextualize such in-depth analysis with data collected through semi-structured interview and case analysis as well as an examination of everyday practices of Black lesbian asylum seekers (and refugees).
This paper delineates the growing women’s spaces within the legally pluralistic landscape of postcolonial India. Based on empirical data gathered in the city of Lucknow, Northern India, it explores the ways in which (i) Muslim women’s activists seek to carve out space for the creation of gender-just laws within a religious framework, and (ii) how within these women’s legal spaces, orthodox demarcations between secular and religious practice and legal authority become blurred. At the centre of my analysis are two women-friendly versions of the nikahnama (marriage contract), which stipulate conjugal rights and duties as well as conditions of divorce and financial support. This paper will contextualise and analyse these counter-hegemonic voices that address matrimonial rights - brought forth by two ideologically different Muslim women’s organisations in Lucknow. In so doing, this paper challenges simplified modernist accounts that depict secular conceptions of state law as incompatible with non-state religious law and norms. Conversely, this paper will demonstrate that current attempts by Muslim women’s rights activists to formulate gender-justice within the domestic sphere in fact, contribute to an emerging legal landscape of interlegality (Santos 1987/2002) - a field characterised by legal entanglements rather than parallel systems of law and morals.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.