The Sexual History of the Global South by Sivori Horacio Wieringa Saskia

Author:Sivori, Horacio, Wieringa, Saskia
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780324050
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2013-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

8 | The ‘lesbian’ existence in Arab cultures: historical and sociological perspectives

IMAN AL-GHAFARI

Introduction

This chapter examines the possibility of ‘lesbian’ existence in Arab cultures from a lesbian perspective that analyzes the varying degrees and types of socio-political control exercised over the female body in Arab history. Most Arab writers and historians treat Arab history as a sacred realm, repeating the same stories in a manner that either sustains heteronormativity or defends the Arab culture against its Western critics. With the help of gender analysis, I re-examine both essentialist identity formations and constructed sexual politics, outlining the ambiguous position of the lesbian as an innate orientation and as a female body in Arab cultures. I use various sources, ranging from medieval Arabic texts to modern writings, Arab-Islamic writings, biographies, novels, orientalist views and contemporary views. I rely on a Western lesbian and feminist discourse because it provides me with the needed tools, terminology, and methodology to examine the perplexing position of lesbian subjectivity, and the perils of ‘coming out’ of Arab closets. I find Rich’s (1972) approach of ‘revision’ useful. With reference to Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic (2007 [1963]), I examine the paradoxical position of the lesbian in the biological approach adopted by some male writers who view the lesbian as a pathological case, transforming the lesbian body from a dangerous clitoral body into a vulnerable vaginal body, or even an anal one. Sedgwick (1990) reveals that the ‘lesbian’ is not ‘a recent invention,’ but is incorporated in a long history marked by certain homosocial practices that conceal homo/heterosexual identities in private and in public. Drawing on Butler’s (1993, 2004) theories, I expose how ‘gender performativity’ in Arab cultures obscures the already invisible lesbian identity instead of making it visible.

The dilemma between naturalizing the lesbian essence as a mere bodily desire and politicizing it as an identity is a major issue; both attitudes suppress any ethical proposition for a recognized lesbian truth within the moral norms of Arab cultures. I show how the essentialist and constructivist approaches have their limitations that forbid the coming out of any subjective truth that does not comply with the ‘Truth’ promoted by Arab history. Meanwhile, I discuss the problematic position of the lesbian as a female body and as a socio-sexual construct in contemporary Arab cultures in which ‘one can discern a shift from an essentialist to a constructionist perspective’ (Khalaf 2006: 192).

My main concern is not the material practice of ‘lesbian sex,’ but ‘the inclination, even if it is not translated into action’ (Foucault 1980: I, 43). I use the term ‘lesbian’ as an expression of an inherent self-awareness of an integrated lesbian identity, whether the practice of ‘lesbian sex’ is involved at the moment of self-identification, or not. What is at stake here is not the temporary practice, the momentary attraction, or the chosen relationship, but what I see as the tenacious lesbian soul that steadily defends its lesbian specificity throughout her entire life. I perceive the lesbian as an infinite sensual,

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