Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sexually Diverse Muslim Women Converts: Where Do They Stand?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Toward a Positive Psychology of Islam and Muslims

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 15))

  • 866 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter discusses the standpoint perspectives of three convert sexually diverse Muslim women in Canada and the US. The chapter examines their journey to Islam and the current Muslim practices in their communities of belonging. The ways in which the women create a positive understanding of their faith is discussed through the development of personalized relationships with the Creator, the Qur’an and Islamic practices, as well as the rejection of Arabicization of Islamic discourse in favour of pluralistic approaches and practices of the faith tradition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    These verses and more have been discussed in detail in Hendricks (2010), Jahangir and Abdullatif (2016), and Kugle (2010).

References

  • Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. (2011). Problematic proximities: Or why critiques of gay imperialism matter. Feminist Legal Studies, 19, 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-011-9180-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alcoff, L., & Potter, E. (1992). Introduction: When feminisms intersect epistemology. In L. Alcoff & E. Potter (Eds.), Feminist epistemologies (pp. 1–14). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Sayyad, A. A. (2010). “You’re What?”: Engaging narratives from diasporic Muslim women on identity and gay liberation. In S. Habib (Ed.), Islam and homosexuality (Vol. 2, pp. 373–394). Greenwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. (2007). Feminist standpoint epistemology. In S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. L. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist research practice: A primer (pp. 53–82). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2009). Black feminist thought. Routledge Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Tayeb, F. (2012). ‘Gays who cannot properly be gay’: Queer Muslims in the neoliberal European city. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 19(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506811426388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, I. (2005). Transnational America: Feminisms, diasporas, neoliberalisms. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habib, S. (2007). Female homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and representations. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habib, S. (2009). Arabo-Islamic texts on female homosexuality, 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (2005). New ethnicities. In D. Morley & K. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 442–451). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. J. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature. Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (1987a). Introduction: Is there a feminist method? In S. Harding (Ed.), Feminism and methodology (pp. 1–14). University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (1987b). Conclusion: Epistemological questions. In S. Harding (Ed.), Feminism and methodology (pp. 181–190). University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haritaworn, J. (2015). Queer lovers and hateful others: Regenerating violent times and places. Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartsock, N. C. M. (1983). The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism. In S. Harding & M. B. Hintikka (Eds.), Discovering reality: Feminist perspectives on epistemology, metaphysics, methodology, and philosophy of science (pp. 283–310). Reidel/Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartsock, N. C. M. (1998). The feminist standpoint revisited and other essays. Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heck, P. L. (2009). The politics of Sufism: Is there one? In C. Raudvere & L. Stenberg (Eds.), Sufism today: Heritage and tradition in the global community (pp. 13–47). I. B. Tauris Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendricks, M. (2010). Islamic texts: A source for acceptance of queer individuals into mainstream Muslim society. The Equal Rights Review, 5, 31–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jahangir, J., & Abdullatif, H. (2016). Islamic law and Muslim same-sex unions. Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamal, A. (2013). Jamaat-e-Islami women in Pakistan: Vanguard of a new modernity. Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamal, A. (2015). Piety, transgression, and the feminist debate on Muslim women: Resituating the victim-subject of honor-related violence from a transnational lens. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 41(1), 55–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M. (2019). A social work perspective on Indigenous knowledges, anticolonial thought and contemplative pedagogy: Thoughts on decolonization and resistance. Journal of Critical Anti-Oppressive Social Inquiry, 2, 18–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M., & Mulé, N. J. (2021). Voices of resistance and agency: LBTQ Muslim women living out intersectional lives in North America. Journal of Homosexuality, 68(7), 1144–1168. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1888583.

  • Klinkhammer, G. (2009). Sufism contexualised: The Mevlevi tradition in Germany. In C. Raudvere & L. Stenberg (Eds.), Sufism today: Heritage and tradition in the global community (pp. 209–228). I. B. Tauris Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kugle, S. S. (2010). Homosexuality in Islam: Critical reflection on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims. In Oneworld.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kugle, S. S. (2014). Living out Islam: Voices of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims. New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClintock, A. (1995). Imperial leather: Race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicol, N., Jjuuko, A., Lusimbo, R., Mulé, N. J., Ursell, S., Wahab, A., & Waugh, P. (Eds.). (2018). Envisioning global LGBT human rights: (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, resistance and hope. Institute of Commonwealth Studies/Human Rights Consortium.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puar, J. (2007). Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, M. (2014a). Queer rights and the triangulation of Western exceptionalism. Journal of Human Rights, 13(3), 274–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, M. (2014b). Homosexualities, Muslim cultures and modernity. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramazanoglu, C., & Holland, J. (2002). Feminist methodology: Challenges and choices. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raudvere, C., & Stenberg, L. (Eds.). (2009a). Sufism today: Heritage and tradition in the global community. I. B. Tauris Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raudvere, C., & Stenberg, L. (2009b). Translocal mobility and traditional authority. In C. Raudvere & L. Stenberg (Eds.), Sufism today: Heritage and tradition in the global community (pp. 1–12). I. B. Tauris Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Razack, S. H. (1998). Looking white people in the eye: Gender, race, and culture in courtrooms and classrooms. University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Safi, O. (Ed.). (2003). Progressive Muslims: On justice, gender, and pluralism. Oneworld.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Vintage Books Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schönbeck, O. (2009). Sufism in the USA: Creolisation, hybridisation, syncretisation? In C. Raudvere & L. Stenberg (Eds.), Sufism today: Heritage and tradition in the global community (pp. 177–188). I. B. Tauris Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siraj, A. (2009). The construction of the homosexual ‘other’ by British Muslim heterosexuals. Contemporary Islam, 3(1), 41–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siraj, A. (2011). Isolated, invisible, and in the closet: The life story of a Scottish Muslim lesbian. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 15(1), 99–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Y., & Snowdon, R. (Eds.). (2014). Queering religion, religious queers. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, M. M. (2006). Outlaws or in-laws? Queer theory, LGBTQ studies, and religious studies. Journal of Homosexuality, 52(1–2), 73–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Women Living Under Muslim Laws. (n.d.). About WLUML. http://www.wluml.org/node/5408

  • Zine, J. (2008). Lost in Translation: Writing back from the margins. A roundtable response to Miriam Cooke’s “The Muslimwoman”. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 24(1), 110–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener, ON, Canada

    Maryam Khan

Authors
  1. Maryam Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryam Khan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Houston Community College and University of Houston Downtown, Houston, Texas, USA

    Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Khan, M. (2021). Sexually Diverse Muslim Women Converts: Where Do They Stand?. In: Pasha-Zaidi, N. (eds) Toward a Positive Psychology of Islam and Muslims. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72606-5_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation