Feminist and queer Muslims in America: The struggle to reconstruct religious identity and practice

In their effort to strengthen community solidarity as religious minorities in the post-9/11 U.S., Muslims define, maintain, and reconstruct the bounds of Muslim identity. One salient expression of this identity work is the heightened regulation of distinct gender and sexual roles for believers, which poses problems for feminist and gay Muslims. This research begins by asking: How are queer and feminist Muslims in America negotiating traditional religious beliefs with their gender and sexual identities and practices at the individual, congregational, and institutional level? Drawing upon fifty-five interviews, participant observation, and secondary data, I argue that some Muslim families and religious leaders in mosques and organizations use religious and cultural rhetoric to legitimate the need for modest dress, gender-segregated social interactions, relegating women to subordinate physical spaces and spiritual roles, and condemning homosexuality. The emphasis placed by family members and community leaders on the importance of the institution of heterosexual marriage, family honor, narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity, and heterosexism all contribute to the emotional distress, exclusion, and humiliation experienced by those who do not conform to prevailing social norms, which lead to the suppression of alternative sexualities. Thus, respondents confront multiple intersecting oppressions based on their religion, race, gender, and sexuality and, in many cases, lead refracted lives. Nevertheless, access to secular civil and human rights groups and discourse in the context of the religious and cultural pluralism of the U.S., a growing number of progressive American Muslim academics, and the Internet enable a few respondents to form collectives online, reconcile their gay and/or feminist identities with their faith, reject gender binaries, and transcend limitations on worship posed by gender. Intra-faith schisms and conflict are growing along with the growing diversity in gender and sexual ideologies and practices within Muslims communities. Furthermore, alliances between Muslims and other religious or secular groups along progressive/conservative lines may become more commonplace. More importantly, the religious leadership advances for women and the formation of queer Muslim identities and communities are reshaping understandings and practices of traditional Islam in unprecedented and unconventional ways.