The Last, Great Taboo: Sexual Identities in the Middle East
July 6, 2009 2 Comments
I’m currently in the painstaking throes of compiling a proposal for a forthcoming conference on gender-based violence, with a focus on sexual identity in the Middle East, and have been struck by a number of research issues that have arisen.
Primarily, I am staggered by the relatively low count of publications – or recent publications – on sexual identity in the region.
This of course is fabulous news for a researcher, but after reading the following conclusion by As’ad AbuKhalil, aka the formidable Angry Arab, in his 1997 paper ‘Gender Boundaries and Sexual Categories in the Arab World’ [Feminist Issues], I have become slightly disconcerted and deeply indignant:
Homosexuals remain outside of the scope of academic studies. The study of homosexuality in Middle East studies will almost guarantee a future of academic unemployment. Moreover, many heterosexuals avoid the study of homosexuality for fear of the homosexual stigma, the fear of which still afflicts Western and Eastern societies. This has enabled homophobes and journalists in the East and West to study to [sic.] subject for pure ideological reasons. [p. 103]
Bearing in mind that this paper is 12-years-old, I wonder if the notion that studying “homosexuality in Middle East studies will almost guarantee a future of academic unemployment” is still the case?
If so, why?
Why is it even still taboo for any researcher, specifically Western?
The notion of a fear of a ‘homosexual stigma’ is befuddling, too – have we not advanced enough as a human race to not be concerned – at least in academic circles – that one might be thought of as a lesbian, purely because one writes on the matter?
If I write about goats, does it mean I am one? It is a silly analogy, but no less so than that of the above.
Perhaps this fear is a reality – but if so, it is an embarrassing reality and one that we should hang our heads in shame at.
Foremost, there should be no fear of such a stigma, for there is no shame in being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Secondly, we should focus more on the research findings – in my case, finding ways to eliminate violence based on sexual identity – and less on the personal choices of the writer.
There is a general shying away from the topic to this day and shameful the reasons that you mentioned are the least of the peoples worries in reality.
Some of the more extreme consequences are imprisonment for breaking public indecency laws and the publications laws when tackling such an issue as “voilence based on sexual identity”. The posibility of blackmail or even imprisonment beacuse of anti-homosexual laws in certain countries guarantee the distancing of any academic from those studies and they barely allude to them because of that. The more sinister explanation is that to most arabs they prefer it if those communities remain hidden and are thought of as outsiders and foreign and hence any enlightenment on the issue is frowned upon because it will challenge that mentality… simply if they see the topic “violence based on sexual identity” the first thing that will pop in their head is “serves them well, they deserve it for going against our culture”.
so lets start with getting sexual identity into the Arabic lexicon first. although things have been improving slowly and work has been done to better understand the issue at hand in the MENA region. especially in the area of health awareness.
out of curiosity how are you going to tackle the topic ? are there others you are thinking off ?
Yes, I absolutely agree in the context of writers in the region, but in terms of Western academics, I wonder how far this is truly the case. That is the most interesting aspect of AbuKhalil’s conclusion.
On the blackmail front you are entirely correct: not only are academics anxious, but also in the political context such laws have been deployed to intimidate political activists, actors, and opponents. In many ways such legislation has developed a new purpose: that of control.
At the moment the topic resembles a sprawling spaghetti monster of issues: health, awareness, legal, cultural… The crux of the conference is violence, so I shall look at the measures adopted by regional organizations such as Helem, Bekhsoos and Meem (amongst others) that utilize the web as a means to not only dispel misconceptions, but articulate the needs of the LGBT community and provide legal and health advice and resources.