Homosexualities, Muslim Cultures and Modernity

Abstract

Series Editors: Varun Uberoi, Brunel University, UK; Nasar Meer, University of Northumbria, UK and Tariq Modood, University of Bristol, UK The politics of identity and citizenship has assumed increasing importance as our polities have become significantly more culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse. Different types of scholars, including philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and historians make contributions to this field and this series showcases a variety of innovative contributions to it. Focusing on a range of different countries, and utilizing the insights of different disciplines, the series helps to illuminate an increasingly controversial area of research and titles in it will be of interest to a number of audiences including scholars, students and other interested individuals.

Sexing the disabled veteran: the homoerotic aesthetics of militarism

“…Puar developed her concept of homonationalism in the context of the racialized sexual politics that surrounds the war on terror and the demonization of the Arab world. Discourses of sexual liberation in the war on terror have been manipulated to mark white western civilizational superiority vis-à-vis the failed oppressive and oppressed sexuality of brown Arabs and Muslim people (see also Rahman 2014). In this context, brown homosexuals are to be rescued from brown heterosexists by white sexually liberal and liberated people.…”

Desire recast: the production of gay identity in Iran

“…The more positive Western frame is a relative term. We do not mean to suggest that Western creation and treatment of gays are exemplary, optimal or coincidental with modernity itself (Rahman 2014). We suggest instead that the language of identity and rights has entered Iran and provided a way of referring to self that seem more positive than what was hereto provided by the Iranian state.…”

“…We do not pursue this because we believe that any theocratic regime based on an Abrahamic religion, whether Judaism or Christianity or Islam, will find ample justification for the persecution of queers in its holy texts. 8 Most importantly, although we are fully cognizant that 'Western' and 'Iranian' (or 'Oriental') categories are mutually constitutive (Said 1979, Rahman 2014, and that the Iranian state constitutes itself in the context of international structures and discourses, we bracket off the effect of the mutual constitution on the West for analytical clarity. What we do emphasize are the similarities of the aims and strategies found in the liberal West and the Islamic republic, even as they are justified through 'secularism' in the West and Islam and 'tradition' in Iran.…”

LGBTQ politics and International Relations: Here? Queer? Used to it?

“…Despite the marked critical and relativizing influence of the latter, most contributors to these publications seem to share a basic liberal paradigm that presupposes equality, sexual and social justice and rights for all independent of sexual orientation, gender expression or belief, but that exists in an often precarious coexistence with anti-gay sociopolitical forces and institutions. This constantly evolving scholarly field increasingly pays attention to the presumed success of international LGBT advocacy politics, as more critical examinations surrounding the construction of modernity (Rahman, 2014) or of Eurocentric liberalism (Ayoub and Paternotte, 2014) remind us of the pitfalls of progressive assumptions and ideologies.…”