Homosexuality in the Middle East: an analysis of dominant and competitive discourses

Abstract

The applicability of the category “homosexuality” in the Middle East has recently been widely questioned: some scholars (e.g. Kugle and Habib) do not hesitate to talk of “homosexuality in the Middle East”, or “homosexuality in Islam”. Others, like el-Rouayheb, Schmitt, Dunne, Najmabadi and Massad, are more careful in applying this category to non-European contexts. Indeed, when we speak of homosexuality, but also of heterosexuality, we are commonly referring to two categories which are the results of social and historical developments and which refer to what Foucault has defined as the “psychiatrization of perverse pleasure”, which contributed to the definition and the creation of the category of the homosexual. A theoretical part of this article is devoted to a critical reflection on what analytical categories we could use when dealing with “homosexuality” in the Middle East. In the second part of the article I will look at the contemporary discourses on homosexuality, looking both at the dominant perspective, where the “classical” approach seems to prevail, and at the competitive perspective, where the “new” approach is appearing.

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