title: Naming to empower: lesbianism in the Arab Islamicate world today.
abstract: After a brief review of the proliferation of newly coined Arabic words to speak about LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and ally) identities, this article interrogates the facile imitation of Western labels and questions their usefulness in the context of Arab societies and cultures. It demonstrates that the assumptions that underlie the creation of new wordlists overlook and ultimately erase the very rich tradition on alternative sexual practices that has been prominent in the Islamicate world at least since the ninth century. Salvaging this tradition and its accompanying terminology on homosexuality challenges the claim that homosexuality is a Western importation, and renders the recourse to English categories superfluous. Moreover, uncovering the forgotten Arabic cultural material on alternative sexualities offers contemporary Arab gays and lesbians a rich and empowering indigenous heritage, as well as home-grown modes of resistance that are poised to challenge homophobic attitudes and policies in the Arab world, and the hegemony of Western sexual and cultural imperialism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3267, USA. samer@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amer
mesh_terms: D018643:Arab World; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007514:Islam; D012071:Religion and Sex; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values / Q000208:ethnology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology*