Lesbian Women & Islamic Culture In The U.S.

Opening Reflection

When the attacks of 9/11 took place in 2001 I was only eight months old. The events of 9/11 marked a tragic shift in the average Americans’ view of Muslim people from otherwise indifferent to negative or even violently hostile. Growing up in a post 9/11 world, in a progressive area of the United States, Islam was often portrayed by the media as a violent and archaic religion full of terrorists and radicalist. I can remember family and friends expressing disapproval of women who wore hijab in public, citing how “backwards” and “oppressive” it was to women. Growing up in a liberal, predominantly white community,  going to a private Catholic elementary and middle school my only exposure to Islam was via the media and the opinions of friends, teachers, and family. I had never actually met a single Muslim person. 

It wasn’t until I moved to a different neighborhood and went to public High School that I actually met a Muslim person. A girl in my neighborhood used the same bus stop as I did to get to and from school each day. My grandmother used to pick me up every day and drive me home from the bus stop. This girl’s house was on the way so my grandmother would always offer her a ride. This sparked up conversations about her culture and experiences as a Muslim American. It gave my grandmother and I insight into Muslim American life from a first person perspective. My grandmother and I came to love this girl. So much so that my grandmother and I became inspired to visit the local Mosque and Hala market to experience Islamic culture for ourselves. 

The girl’s parents were not entirely enthusiastic about the fact that an old Puerto Rican Catholic woman and her gay Episcopalian grandson were driving their daughter home everyday. They expressed concerns about their daughter being influenced by our “lifestyle” and were perturbed by the thought that their daughter and I might be coming into physical contact with each other sitting so close in the back of my grandmother’s tiny Ford Taurus. My bus stop friend identified as heterosexual. And, for my grandmother and I, her parents' concerns about our gender expression and sexual orientation came as no surprise. 

Even before I came out publicly, to friends and family, I was an active researcher into LGBTQIA+ issues and queer theology. The narrative of most LGBTQIA+ news sources and theological research websites was that Islam is largely hostile to queerness. I have read many articles of queer Muslims being put to death in middle eastern countries and Islam itself having virtually no tolerance for LGBTQIA+ peoples. Despite our disagreements with her parents' perspective on gender roles and cultural values, we did our best to respect them. Because, for a change, this wasn't just some story on the news, this was a Muslim we knew and loved, this was our neighbor. 

Research 

Islamic Queer History.  Today’s Islam is widely fundamentalist with rigid views regarding sexual expression outside of heterosexual marriage. Most Muslims tend to view homosexuality as a choice, not as an identity, citing the Qur’an to back these views.  (Yeck & Anderson, 2018) A study of 246 Muslim individuals living in the United States found that Muslim women are more likely to express discriminatory bias towards lesbian women and gay men. The study measured the intersection between religiosity and bias towards lesbian women and gay men that would come up in interactions the 246 Muslim individuals had with family, friends and members of their community, “Religiosity was a significant predictor for both women’s and men’s sexual prejudice, although the association was stronger for women than for men. In addition, contact with gay men and lesbians, particularly friends and/or family members, demonstrated stronger associations with sexual prejudice for women than for men.” (Yeck & Anderson, 2018, p. 200) The study notes that lesbians women especially suffer from prejudiced attitudes, particularly from muslim women.   

Yet within premodern Islam, which had a far more mystical and poetic interpretation of Islam than that of a fundamentalist view, there is a rich tradition of homoeroticism in poetry and Islamic culture. Female intellectuals of the Islamic world were known to remain unmarried or take female lovers in order to remain financially independent and free from the constraints a husband might put on them. A number of Islamic women poets have also written love poems about other women. And even as Islam slowly grew more intolerant of homosexuality, laws against lesbianism were among the last to be enforced. (Martin, 1997)

Islamic Mysticism & Queerness. The Oxford English Dictionary defines mysticism as the “belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect, may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender.” (Stevenson, 2010) Mysticism is often characterized by an openness to the “other” and a nonconformist attitude towards social norms. Mysticism tends to hold space for contradictions, not seeking an intellectual answer but rather an experience of something greater than the self, mysticism has often been a refuge for the misunderstood. 

Since its advent, Islamic mysticism has held space for the voices of women and other marginalized groups in the Muslim world. (Safi, 2018) The mystic and saint Rabia al-Adwiayya is one such example. Born between 714 and 718 CE, Rabia defied gender norms and became one of the greatest Islamic masters of her time, a position and title that only men were allowed to hold. Yet, exemplifying the Islamic mystical principle of God’s Unity, which leaves no room for distinctions of gender or status, Rabia’s radical love, deep sincerity, and poetic brilliance lead to her being accredited by the men of her time. (Vandestra, 2018)

Rabia spent her entire life without male companionship as she refused to marry. While Islamic culture typically considers heterosexual marriage an ideal way of life, when Rabia was asked about marriage she replied “when I have such objects to preoccupy my mind (i.e. God and eternity), should I think of a husband?” (Vandestra, 2018, p. 18) Her defiance of the status quo regarding gender norms and marriage has also led some to view her as a queer icon. Lesbian Muslim women are able to see in Rabia an understanding companion of their own desire not to marry a man. Whether the saint was herself lesbian or not is something we may never know, yet for many queer Muslim women it does not necessarily matter, many still find comfort in her as a model they can follow.  

Lesbian Muslims & Mental Health. In nearly half of the Muslim majority countries of the world female same-sex acts are illegal and even punishable by death. In 2007, the Pew Research Center reported that 61% of American Muslims believed that homosexuality should be discouraged. Many even view homosexuality as a “western disease” that Muslims should steer clear of. What effect does this have on the mental well being of lesbian Muslim women in the United States? The average Muslim lesbian is navigating multiple intersecting identities that are often in conflict with one another, often leaving Muslim lesbians with no safe spaces and without a sense of belonging. This leaves them at a high risk for depression and suicidal ideation. (Etengoff & Rodríguez, 2021)

A study of eighteen lesbian identifying Muslims found that 50% of participants suffered some form of depression and 44% of participants experienced suicidal ideation. Interestingly, of the eighteen lesbian identifying Muslims served, more had revealed their sexual orientation to their mothers than to their fathers. 41% of participants were not out to their mothers about their sexual orientation while 61% were not out to their fathers. In contrast, among their friend groups at universities, participants expressed feeling free to be themselves and a sense of joy when among accepting friends and peers. (Etengoff & Rodríguez, 2021)

Closing Reflection

In my research of the intersection between Lesbianism and Islam in the United States. I have come to confront my own biases regarding my preconceived notions of Islamic culture. In my future social work practice and queer advocacy work I will strive to see each individual as a plethora of intersectionalities as demonstrated by so many of the Muslim women referenced in this paper. I look forward to collaborating with queer Muslims in my Monthly Magic project and further exploring the intersection between Islam and queerness hands on. 

I would like to learn more about women’s role in Islam in the U.S. as a whole. How are Muslim women treated within feminist circles? What is life like working as Muslim woman social worker? Muslim social worker Amilah Baksh MSW and CT Rep. Maryam Khan have explored the intersection between Feminism and Islam in their advocacy and social justice work in the United States. Baksh and Khan have found that the notion of Islamic feminism has created much conflict for many secular feminist, since Islam is often constructed as the cause of the oppression of muslim women, so that it cannot be viewed  as something that is giving agency or resistance. (Baksh & Khan, 2023) Yet as we have seen, Islam has a rich history of feminism going all the way back to Rabia al-Adwiayya in the 700’s CE. 

Another factor faced by Muslim feminist, notes Baksh and Khan, is how Islamic feminism challenges the notions of social work as liberatory. It calls into question the image of social workers as rescuers and people’s engrossment with the white savior complex. They also note that as brown hijabi Muslim women, their work is often criticized and analyzed as if under a microscope, highlighting the implicit and explicit bias towards Muslim women and Islamic feminism in the field of social work and social justice.  (Baksh & Khan, 2023)

Islam and its relationship to queer women has been on an ever shifting scale. At times, Islamic culture has lifted up for us icons such as Rabia al-Adwiayya while at other times it has been the very source of the patriarchal violence and oppression of both women and queerness. Yet the same can be said of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. all religions that have on one hand lifted up the marginalized, while, on another hand put down the same. In light of this, American Islamophobia has no excuse. 

References 

Baksh, A., & Khan, M. (2023). Too Muslim to be a feminist and too feminist to be a Muslim? Locating lived experiences of feminism and Muslimness in Social Work academe. Affilia, 38(4), 673–686. https://doi.org/10.1177/08861099231188732 

Etengoff, C., & Rodríguez, E. M. (2021). “I feel as if I’m lying to them”: Exploring Lesbian Muslims’ experiences of rejection, support, and depression. Journal of Homosexuality, 68(7), 1169–1195. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1888586 

Martin, S. L. (1997).  The Role of Homosexuality in Classical Islam. Chancellor’s                   

                  Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/231 

Safi, O. (2018). Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. Yale University Press.

Stevenson, A. (2010). Oxford Dictionary of English. Oxford University Press, USA.

Vandestra, M. (2018). Tales of Rabia Al-Adawiyya the Great Female Muslim Sufi Saint from Basra. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Yeck, A. T., & Anderson, V. N. (2018). Homosexuality as Haram: Relations among Gender, Contact, Religiosity, and Sexual Prejudice in Muslim Individuals. Sex Roles, 81(3–4), 192–207. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2135410243?accountid=13743&parentSessionId=jyThGlKiVBdTaFP1Ja5LDeygw%2F4%2BdEJmORH%2FIB119wA%3D&pq-origsite=primo&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals