Queer Muslim Expression and Anxiety Under Modernity
Conference Year
January 2021
Abstract
Gender, sexuality, and religion are inextricably linked. When navigating queer expression and presentation, colonialism motivates a great deal of anxiety. The evolution of Muslim queerness and gender expression has a dense history that is closely tied to modernity and westernization. Both Muslims and colonizing powers are emotionally influenced in both directions in ways that impact gender expression and affirmation (Najmabadi, 2005). Queer expression and gender ambiguity existed for centuries in Islamic history. A helpful way to examine this is through art and understandings of beauty. Through modernity, beauty becomes feminized and masculinity departs from being a beautiful feature of art (Najmabadi, 2005). Through this process, queer Muslims become inherently non-hegemonic and disrupt heteronormative patriarchy and colonialism (Muneeruddin, 2020). This is both powerful and exhausting work for queer Muslims to perform and challenge by merely existing. This acts on the global history of queer Muslims as they simultaneously absorb and resist the boundaries that modernity attempts to constrain queerness within (Carbajal, 2019). We must understand that colonialism has real consequences on the bodies, communities, and internal wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Muslims.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Professor Morgenstein Fuerst
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Second Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Religion
Second Program/Major
Global Studies
Primary Research Category
Arts & Humanities
Queer Muslim Expression and Anxiety Under Modernity
Gender, sexuality, and religion are inextricably linked. When navigating queer expression and presentation, colonialism motivates a great deal of anxiety. The evolution of Muslim queerness and gender expression has a dense history that is closely tied to modernity and westernization. Both Muslims and colonizing powers are emotionally influenced in both directions in ways that impact gender expression and affirmation (Najmabadi, 2005). Queer expression and gender ambiguity existed for centuries in Islamic history. A helpful way to examine this is through art and understandings of beauty. Through modernity, beauty becomes feminized and masculinity departs from being a beautiful feature of art (Najmabadi, 2005). Through this process, queer Muslims become inherently non-hegemonic and disrupt heteronormative patriarchy and colonialism (Muneeruddin, 2020). This is both powerful and exhausting work for queer Muslims to perform and challenge by merely existing. This acts on the global history of queer Muslims as they simultaneously absorb and resist the boundaries that modernity attempts to constrain queerness within (Carbajal, 2019). We must understand that colonialism has real consequences on the bodies, communities, and internal wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Muslims.