1 of 1 Two lovers, by Reza Abbasi, 1630. — Photo: Wikimedia Commons Two lovers, by Reza Abbasi, 1630. — Photo: Wikimedia Commons
“When I want to impress someone I’m interested in, I usually send classic poems that celebrate male beauty,” Fouad, a 26yearold gay man, told DW in a phone call. “It’s infallible,” he adds, laughing.
Fouad comes from Lebanon, one of the few Arab countries where homosexuality is not explicitly illegal. But given the government’s recent crackdown on the local LGBTQ community, he’s keeping a low profile and not revealing his full name.
Fouad is often inspired by classic poems by the 8thcentury poet Abu Nawas, famous for his homoerotic verses.
Like Abu Nawas, many other classical Arabic, Persian, and Turkish poets, centuries ago, dealt with samesex desire. But in today’s Middle East, where homosexuality is treated as a crime in most countries, that legacy has been forgotten.
The argument that samesex love and sexual relations were not part of the original Middle Eastern culture resonates with many authorities and religious leaders. One example is Ahmed alTayeb, the grand imam of AlAzhar University, an ancient Sunni institution in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. For AlTayeb, homosexuality is nothing more than a cultural import from the West.
However, many LGBTQ activists disagree, blaming colonialism for spreading homophobia in the region.
Blair Imani, an AfricanAmerican queer Muslim, criticizes the notion that Muslim societies have always maintained a rigid attitude towards sexuality.
“When Muslims and Christians came into contact with each other, Muslims were known to be more sexually permissive [do que os cristãos]’ she said during a talk from the TED conference series.
However, the history of samesex love in the Middle East is complex and multifaceted.
How the Middle East Dealt With Gay Desire
Historical research shows that kings, commanders, judges, and ordinary people have shown relative openness to nonheterosexual desires.
For example, Muslim travelers visiting Europe in the mid19th century found it remarkable that European men did not court younger men. On the other hand, European travelers visiting precolonial Arab communities were shocked to see men openly expressing their attraction to boys.
Historical records also suggest recognition of transgender people, with some medieval Arabic dictionaries and encyclopedias describing five or more categories of gender. In a 2020 text, Shireen Hamza, a researcher at Harvard University, categorized them as “female, masculine female, khuntha, female male, or male.”
Khuntha refers to a category between the sexes. Hamza also writes about a court case that took place in Damascus in the 16th century when a Muslim judge allowed a transgender woman to marry a man who was in love with her.
Acceptance of LGBTQ people?
Still, historians have reservations about describing the precolonial Middle East as tolerant of LGBTQ people.
First, in Muslim societies, sexual orientation was not even considered central to an individual’s identity. The medieval Arab world viewed sexual attraction in contradictory ways, writes Khaled elRouayheb, a historian at Harvard University. In his 2007 book Before Homosexuality, he relates that expressions of samesex attraction were met with varying degrees of acceptance, ranging from tolerance to intolerance.
For example, Islamic scholars distinguished between sexual intercourse between two men and the less physical expression of love for another man. The first was considered a sin, the second a sign of refined sensitivity; the ability to appreciate human beauty.
How homophobia spread
Samesex attraction is viewed very differently in today’s Middle East, possibly under the influence of Western colonialism.
France and the United Kingdom, which controlled much of the Arab world, introduced the region’s first criminal laws against homosexuality. In Algeria, for example, the French colonial powers imposed severe penalties for samesex relationships, including imprisonment and forced labor.
The influence of the colonizers continued long after their departure. Nationalist projects adhered to the colonial notion that viewed samesex attraction as decadent or a form of insanity. Islamist movements followed suit and criminalized samesex relationships. This has led to poets like Abu Nawas, who have long been celebrated for their literary talent, being controversial and their works being censored.
For Samar Habib, a USbased writer and independent researcher, the Arab world has yet to shed light on this debate. However, she points out that the Arab LGBTQ community has used historical records to build an argument against discrimination. “This is how a resistance corps is created,” Habib remarked in a DW interview.
Evidence that homophobia is not ubiquitous in Arabic and Persian history and culture can be found in the scholar’s own literature, according to the researcher.
Mashrou Leila, a popular Lebanese indie rock band, has produced dozens of songs about queer love, drawing on historical and traditional references and mentioning figures like Abu Nawas. The musicians’ outspoken support for the LGBTQ cause sparked backlash from some governments in the region, leading to their ban in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, ultimately leading to their dissolution in 2022.
Likewise, the heritage of the LGBTQ community in the Middle East is increasingly serving as inspiration for painting and other visual arts. A famous example is Habibi, les Revolutions de l’amour, an art exhibition at the Paris Institute for the Arab World that explores queer culture in the Middle East, blending traditional elements and historical references from Arab and Persian cultures.
Social media has also seen an increase in posts highlighting samesex love in the literature and history of Muslimmajority societies, with some users pointing out that Islamic law leaves plenty of room for interpretations that could accommodate LGBTQ rights .
Need for a historical review
For Aya Labanieh, a researcher at Columbia University in New York, the Middle East’s LGBTQ community faces a double challenge.
“On the one hand there is domestic political repression that characterizes such an identity as imported and alien to Islamic society and culture. On the other hand, there are antiIslamic narratives that stigmatize them and use their resentments to paint a dark picture of Muslim societies.”
As a result, he notes, queer activists have increasingly emphasized the primal aspects of their identity.
However, Labanieh warns that the past should not be glorified either. “A critical review that also takes into account modern values such as equality and rights is necessary,” he estimates.
From the beginning of this account, Fouad began reading classical Arabic poetry at an early age, with the help of his father. Later it served as a sanctuary from trauma.
“I know a lot of gays and lesbians who grew up hating themselves because they were told there was something wrong with them,” he says. “I didn’t go through that because as a teenager I could see that geniuses like Abu Nawas had the same desires as I did.”
At the end of the interview, Fouad recites his favorite lines from Abu Nawas, which he believes convey a universal message: “Abandon customs and ethics that have been destroyed by time, left at the mercy of wind and rain and left to inevitable decay Be among those who live a life of joy and risk.”