Gender expression is inherently political, whether taboo or upholding a norm. How that expression fits into frameworks of modernity is generally a rather uncomfortable topic; it assumes a liberal and “extreme” perspective. Therefore, it gets a certain reputation in terms of the people who tend to be involved within those parameters of discussion. It’s important to keep in mind that “modernity can… be looked at as an experience… which is full of contradictions” (Kumar, 242). In other words, how any single person encounters their existence within any framework of modernity is very individualized and reflects their authority in choosing to disregard standard social values. Modernity is a means of socialization that generates the traditional standards by which we live. In our current political climate, this especially affects those within communities having to do with sexuality and religion. As a result, young people today are taking a stand for their personal expression as individuals in order to push back against the normativity of gender and sexual norms. However, that doesn’t mean it has to result as the be-all, end-all. My research focuses on memoirs written by queer Muslims in order to explore real-life examples of the effects that modernity has on contemporary youth.
How people maneuver through an ever-growing framework of modernity is influenced by the availability of past experience. Existing as someone who identifies within two of the more objectionable qualifiers among our society is not a simple task. Judith Butler suggests that gender is a performative act, a phenomenon that is being produced over and over again throughout time. Whether or not we realize it, it’s clearly portrayed through things as simple as individual fashion choices. First-hand experience is the best way to truly understand what that feels like for any one person. Therefore, we are obligated to give these individuals and their peers the audience that they deserve in order to cultivate a better environment for future generations.
Humans use fashion as a means of transmission; being able to “construct identities, communicate status, and challenge aesthetic preferences” is incredibly powerful, however, can also be rather excluding (Bucar, 2). Why, then, is it worthwhile to focus on fashion of all things? It is so inherently gendered; anyone is susceptible to being identified through the clothing that they choose to wear- queer folk included. Thus, fashion plays a large role in how certain individuals exist in this modernity. In a community that cultivates a general sense of piety both through external expression and internal devotion, there is a fine line between fashion statements that are either seen as acceptable and honorable or completely irrational and offensive among Muslims. There are expectations and standards that they are held to in terms of their clothing and, as queer-identifying Muslims, these individuals face a much more difficult strain of criticism within their religious community. In his memoir, Tan France, a now-out gay man who is well known for his career made in the fashion industry, discusses how he chose to navigate the world via expression through his fashion choices. He describes it as the only way he really knew how to express himself (France, 21). In his experience, as well as many others’, France suppressed his sexuality because a majority of his energy already went towards deterring any attention from his ethnicity. Two of the most important identities that he possessed were in need of being hushed because, as he claimed, “[he] didn’t need a fucking double whammy in [his] life” (France, 9). Quite frankly, who can blame him?
In accordance with Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory, “multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and… create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking” (Crenshaw, 2018). This theory very closely parallels with what France seems to be describing here, in that his integrity was dependent upon the levels of discrimination that he faced due to the multiplicity of his existence.
Oftentimes, themes of modernity inherently assume definite gender and normality among straight-identifying sexuality. This applies to means of dress, speech, bodily gestures, etc. So, naturally, if you participate in things that are outside of those parameters, you’re opting outside of the norm. Current global turmoil only adds to the challenge queer Muslims face in their daily lives. For queer artist and activist Samra Habib, it took years of experience for her to accept that being queer is more than just a sexual preference. It is rather who you choose to be, even if that means existing beyond traditional standards of gender and heteronormative ways of life (Habib, 155). While bodies that conform to modern expectations may feel comfortable in doing so, Habib alludes to the idea that acting as if you feel like you belong is a powerful performance act (Habib, 115). Many don’t necessarily understand this phenomenon due to the basic fact that they don’t exist within communities that are oftentimes shunned or invalidated like LGBTQ+ and Muslim groups are. Habib expresses the difficulties she faced while navigating her sexual identity and how that translated into her relationships with both friends and, more notably, family. It’s bittersweet to follow her character develop so much so that she eventually found power in showing off her curved feminine body through her clothing choices, while still abiding by the pious parameters she made for herself (Habib, 146). That is to say that, after having been claimed by a variety of standards of beauty and identity as a Muslim woman, she reached a point of individuality that allowed her the ability to reclaim her outward performance and overall identity.
While it is hard for an entire population to sympathize with a collective that has a drastically different experience than another group, it’s hard to discredit the fact that gender dysphoria is both immensely complex and terrifying. As Amrou al-Kahdi, a queer Muslim drag queen, explains in their memoir, it’s often described as feeling like “your own body is at odds with how you perceive your own gender,” something that is very hard to imagine unless you’ve experienced it yourself (al-Kahdi, 102). Not to mention, al-Kahdi experienced this while balancing the weight of their religiosity and finding where they belonged among that crowd. al-Kahdi mentions being aware of how different they were compared to the people around them, even from a very young age. As they grew and came to understand the world a bit better, they recognized “the importance of sartorial signifiers of success,” meaning that they could identify people who were successful and accepted in society based on what one did and did not wear (al-Kahdi, 136). They found comfort particularly in more feminine fashions which thus introduced them into the world of drag, where they eventually found a home in their identity as Glamrou. Considering Butler’s theory, Glamrou’s experience aligns quite nicely in that their most comfortable identity exists in the gender that they perform. It shouldn’t be assumed that navigating the nuances of their identity became necessarily easier, but instead presented itself as a means of hope.
So what does this imply for queer Muslims in this understanding of modernity? The power and consequence of contemporaneity varies greatly between gender and sexuality norms and Islamic tradition. This divergence can lead to a great number of outliers, leaving these people who have found their niche within these two very separate communities struggling to blend them into one cohesive identity. All in all, the struggle within these practitioners lies in the fact that these communities are rarely seamlessly synonymous. Instead, their sharply contrasting traditions, as well as inevitably varied contemporary practices, pose many issues for those who try to perform both of these dual identities at once. This much is reflected in modern media, with Muslim authors penning memoirs about their inner strife, giving perspective and voice to a group of people whose identities falter and often fall silent under stringent standards. It is work like this, though, that helps lessen the strength of such silence. Thanks to creators like Amrou al-Kahdi, Samra Habib, and Tan France, ground is being laid for a new territory wherein queer Muslims feel empowered to speak and to be heard. If this pattern continues, we can hope that we will no longer see such a divide in selfhood. What is a dichotomy now could be a single, unified identity in the future.
Works Cited
Al-Kadhi, Amrou. Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen. S.l.: FOURTH ESTATE, 2020.
Bucar, Elizabeth M. Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
France, Tan. Naturally Tan: A Memoir. S.l.: Virgin Books, 2020.
Habib, Samra. We Have Always Been Here: a Queer Muslim Memoir. Toronto: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Canada, 2019.
Kumar, D. V. “Engaging with Modernity: Need for a Critical Negotiation.” Sociological Bulletin 57, no. 2 (August 2008): 240–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920080205.
YouTube. National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), June 22, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc.
Bibliography
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Al-Kadhi, Amrou. Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen. S.l.: FOURTH ESTATE, 2020.
Bosia, Michael J., and Meredith L. Weiss. Global Homophobia: States, Movements, and the Politics of Oppression. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
Bucar, Elizabeth M. Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “sex.” New York, NY: Routledge, 1993.
Cocozza, Paula. “Muslim Drag Queen Amrou Al-Kadhi: ‘Whenever the Drag Came off, I’d Have a Nervous Breakdown’.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, October 9, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/oct/09/muslim-drag-queen-amrou-al-kadhi-whenever-the-drag-came-off-id-have-a-nervous-breakdown.
France, Tan. Naturally Tan: A Memoir. S.l.: Virgin Books, 2020.
Falconer, Holly. Glamrou. The Times. 2016. Accessed November 19, 2019. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fa7f4bbbc-e056-11e9-b45c-5f9a8625c8c9.jpg?crop=1600%2C900%2C0%2C0&resize=2400.
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Habib, Samra. “Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project.” Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project, 2014. https://queermuslimproject.tumblr.com/.
Habib, Samra. We Have Always Been Here: a Queer Muslim Memoir. Toronto: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Canada, 2019.
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Kelleher, Patrick, Nick Duffy, Vic Parsons, and Lily Wakefield. “Muslim Drag Queen Glamrou Says the Quran Has ‘Pockets of Queerness’.” PinkNews, October 3, 2019. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/10/03/muslim-non-binary-drag-queen-glamrou-quran-queerness-lgbt-islam/.
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Kumar, D. V. “Engaging with Modernity: Need for a Critical Negotiation.” Sociological Bulletin 57, no. 2 (August 2008): 240–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920080205.
“Muslim Drag Queens.” UK Channel 4, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRAVJ4n4y64.
“Muslim Trans Drag Queen: ‘It Was Empowering Coming out’.” In Short. BBC Radio, April 26, 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p077k877.
Muslim Woman and Drag Queen Sitting next to Each Other on New York City Subway. Observer. 2017. Accessed October 16, 2019. https://observer.com/2017/03/twitter-subway-photo-conservatives-liberals/.
Puar, Jasbir K. Terrorist Assemblages – Homonationalism in Queer Times. Duke University Press, 2017.
YouTube. National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), June 22, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc.