Category: Featured

“Not a Crime” is a comic by Malaysian cartoonist, animator and illustrator Kazimir Lee, on the persecution and resistance of mak nyah in Malaysia.

The comic documents the arrest of 17 trans women at a wedding in June 2014, under Section 66 of the Sharia Criminal Enactment that declared ‘crossdressing’ an offence. In November 2014, a landmark ruling by the Malaysian Federal Court struck down Section 66 as unconstitutional, particularly in relation to violating freedom of expression.

Full comic available on Kazimir Lee’s website here.

(NEW YORK) – On Tuesday, July 14, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission (IGLHRC) releases a collection of eight articles that offer innovative and provocative approaches to advance acceptance and improve understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of Iran. With contributions from prominent international activists, lawyers and scholars from IGLHRC’s second conference held in Düsseldorf, Germany in 2014, the collection, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Iran: Analysis from Religious, Social, Legal and Cultural Perspectives,” examines human rights for LGBT Iranians from legal, religious and socio-political perspectives, analyses and interpretations.

The publication includes a selection of the proceedings from the 2014 conference and is available in both English and Persian.

“This publication demonstrates the incredibly dynamic and layered approach of LGBT rights defenders in Iran,” said Jessica Stern, IGLHRC’s executive director. “We believe the wealth of information provided will raise new possibilities for Iranian LGBT activists and allies and provide a better understanding of the ongoing struggles of the community for those working in international solidarity.”

Among those who contributed to the publication are attorneys Mehrangiz Kar, Hossein Raeesi, and Mehri Jafari, who wrote legal papers about LGBT rights in Iran. Drs. Arash Naraghi and Mehrdad Alipour, both scholars, provided in-depth analyses of Islam and homosexuality. Rights activist Zeynab Alsadat Peyghambarzadeh and attorney Mani Mostofi presented papers that address the socio-political conditions for the Iranian LGBT community.

Mehrangiz Kar, a prominent Iranian lawyer and a human rights activist who attended the conference, said: “In the Dusseldorf gathering, we explored different aspects of sexual non-conformity. Through exchanging ideas from philosophical, religious, cultural, and human rights perspectives, we demonstrated that same-sex relationships existed as long as history can remember, although in recent years this subject has entered into policy-making and the theoretical sphere.”

Since 2012, IGLHRC’s Iran program has developed resources in Persian to help the LGBT community in Iran and their allies to advocate for basic rights and to promote greater understanding about sexual orientation and gender identity.

“IGLHRC’s latest publication is a great addition to the growing number of Iran-related resources that we have developed over the past few years both in Persian and English,” said Hossein Alizadeh, IGLHRC’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, “IGLHRC’s publications in Persian are meant to counter the widespread censorship by the Iranian government on sexual orientation and same-sex relations. Our resources in Persian cover a wide variety of issues, from media training on LGBT rights for Iranian broadcasters to legal analysis for lawyers defending clients charged with same-sex activities.”

IGLHRC’s conference in Germany was hailed by participants as a significant opportunity to advance rights in Iran. “It has been a wonderful and very beneficial conference for me,” said Mehri Jafari, an Iranian-British lawyer and a long-time advocate for LGBT rights in Iran. “The chance to expose different ideas and research directions among experts was unique and highly valuable.”

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Download the publication in English here

Download the publication in Farsi here.

Thirteenth-century Sufi poet, mystic, and legal scholar Muhyi al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi gave deep and sustained attention to gender as integral to questions of human existence and moral personhood.

Reading his works through a critical feminist lens, Sa’diyya Shaikh opens fertile spaces in which new and creative encounters with gender justice in Islam can take place. Grounding her work in Islamic epistemology, Shaikh attends to the ways in which Sufi metaphysics and theology might allow for fundamental shifts in Islamic gender ethics and legal formulations, addressing wide-ranging contemporary challenges including questions of women’s rights in marriage and divorce, the politics of veiling, and women’s leadership of ritual prayer.

Shaikh deftly deconstructs traditional binaries between the spiritual and the political, private conceptions of spiritual development and public notions of social justice, and the realms of inner refinement and those of communal virtue. Drawing on the treasured works of Sufism, Shaikh raises a number of critical questions about the nature of selfhood, subjectivity, spirituality, and society to contribute richly to the prospects of Islamic feminism as well as feminist ethics more broadly.

About the Author: Sa’diyya Shaikh is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Cape Town.

Available from:  University of North Carolina Press

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on 12 June 2015, the book was awarded the 2015 University of Capetown Book Award. Below is the press release from UTC.

Assoc Prof Sa’diyya Shaikh has won the 2015 UCT Book Award for her exploration of the ideas of a 13th century Sufi mystic, poet and scholar in Sufi Narratives of Intimacy.

Her book combines feminism and Sufism in such a unique way that critics have labelled it “ground-breaking” and “pioneering”.

It represents a dialogue between the social and spiritual concerns of 21st century Muslims on the one hand and the rich legacy of a compelling Muslim thinker – Muhyi al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi – on the other.

Ibn ‘Arabi was a 13th century Sufi scholar and mystic from Andalusia in southern Spain who, according to Shaikh, held revolutionary ideas about gender. “In the thirteenth century, he holds the position that women can lead mixed (congregational) prayers not because they are equal (to men) and it’s the right thing to do, but because men and women have the same access to the fundamental condition of being human. So, everything that emerges from this condition of being fully human in terms of rights and responsibilities applies to both men and women. For many contemporary Muslims, this might seem like a radical position, but it comes from a deeply grounded understanding of Islam,” explains Shaikh.

The book had been years in the making. She began her study on Ibn ‘Arabi during her doctoral dissertation, and decided that she needed to make some of his dense esoteric ideas more accessible. “I hoped that if I could successfully write the book in a style that invited and drew in the reader, they might be enticed into staying with a set of sophisticated Sufi ideas long enough to see the value for contemporary societies,” she says.

Shaikh describes the book as reflecting a feminist voice within Islam. “I map how Sufism resides at the heart of Muslim spirituality and has fundamental implications for thinking about gender in terms of law, virtue and ethics. My book is about reading critically and constructively against the grain, and claiming a particular space within the Muslim tradition to talk back to patriarchy. It is about claiming an authority within the tradition not for me, but for a certain voice of radical human equality which resides within the tradition.”

A moment of awe

Shaikh first encountered the writings of Ibn ‘Arabi whilst participating in a graduate course on Sufism during her time as a Fulbright scholar in America.

“I was sitting with another graduate student reading (Ibn ‘Arabi) texts in Arabic and English, and it was one of those moments that time seemed to have condensed: the sun had set, hours had passed and the two of us didn’t notice the entire world go by. It was a moment of genuine, absolute awe. I came out of it marvelling at the vastness and possibilities of being human. The questions of what it means to be human within the Muslim tradition, and how gender influences one’s understandings of a person’s humanity remained with me.”

Her interest in existential questions like these underpins her interest in religion – more specifically Islam. “Religion has always provided a complex, ambivalent framing narrative for me to grapple with those questions. I don’t think there is one religious narrative at all. There are multiple narratives within religious traditions and I have struggled, grappled, challenged, worked with, been nourished by, found solace in, fought with, argued with, pulled apart and put together these narratives because in all its ambiguity and messiness, religion has informed my framing of reality,” she added.

Shaikh also grew up with interesting stories about Sufi teachers and saints, which her father simply referred to as “good Muslim people. He never called them Sufis”. The stories left a deep impression on her and the central characters caught her attention because of their honesty, integrity, courage and “some supernatural stuff, which as a kid you really like”. These stories of “good Muslims” also inextricably linked spiritual awareness – a God-consciousness – with that it meant to be an ethical and virtuous human being.

No contest between Islam and feminism

While Sufism demands adherence to rigorous spiritual discipline (like additional fasting or late-night prayers), Shaikh argues that Sufi spiritual practice extends to the individual’s engagement with his or her community. “Sufism is about embodying virtue. That virtue should extend from within oneself to society, an integral part of the spiritual life. Importantly justice is one of the central virtues in this tradition. The challenge to contemporary Muslims is to formulate dynamic and relevant understandings of justice for our times.”

Religion is also not the only vehicle for transformation of the self and society. “Feminism gives me a language with which I can speak to my comrades and sisters in other (religious) traditions or those in no traditions who are struggling with injustice because as human beings we share, confront and resist these realities collectively and as part of diverse communities of belonging.”

Policing Sexuality takes a look at the question of why and how states impose restrictions on the sexual and gender expressions and identities of their citizens. Author Julien C. H. Lee was first drawn to these questions through his participation in CSBR’s international comparative research on the causes of rising conservatism and moral policing of sexuality in Muslim societies.

The author presents both theoretical and ethnographic literature, distilling common themes and causes and presenting factors that contribute towards a state’s desire to control both the sexual behavior and sexual identity of its citizens, such as the influence of colonialism, class, religion, and national identity. This book features five crucial case studies from India, Britain, the USA, Malaysia, and Turkey. Policing Sexuality illuminates this fascinating study with comparative accounts.

Written in an accessible style, the book seeks “to give activists seeking to advance sexuality-related rights–but who may not be familiar with the academic literature related to it–an introduction to the field of sexuality studies, insights into how and why States seek to police sexuality, and reflections on ways and contexts surrounding attempts to advance those rights.” (Introduction, p. 2).

Order copies from Zed Books, and preview the Introduction from Zed Books here.

Reviews

‘Policing the body politic always entails sequestering the body sexual; the questions are only how and why, exactly where and when. This trans-regional examination of the different, and always self-contradictory, modalities of sexual state control and self-control is a treasure chest. Authors from Michel Foucault to Judith Butler would pawn one of their books to read this one: a combination of socio-cultural anatomies with humanist thinking. The anthropological wealth and comparative sociological imagination of this painstaking, yet amazingly easy-to-read book are scholarship at its best: accessible but never simplifying, liberating but never patronizing.’

– Gerd Baumann, University of Amsterdam, author of Contesting Culture (1996), The Multicultural Riddle (1999) and Grammars of Identity / Alterity: A Structural Approach (2005)

‘In a moment when state policies seeking to regulate sexual expression have emerged under many cultural and religious banners, affecting a wide range of sexual subjects, Julian Lee gives us an invaluable map to understand this moral policing more clearly and comprehensively.

Policing Sexuality is exceptional among recent works on sexuality, gender and public policy in providing a rich comparative analysis across five major country contexts encompassing both South and North. Lee’s eye for complexity along with his gift for lucid, straightforward prose illuminates “the evolutionary nature of sexuality rights and empowerment” and shows why we must never view culture as static or given nor human rights as sufficient without political struggle.’

– Rosalind P. Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; author, Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights (2003); Sexuality, Health and Human Rights (with Sonia Corrêa and Richard Parker, 2008)