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REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN LITERATURE OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD by Arpita Mandal A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English Education with Distinction Spring 2014 © 2014 Arpita Mandal All Rights Reserved REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN LITERATURE OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD by Arpita Mandal Approved: __________________________________________________________ Michael Cotsell, PhD Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ Emily Davis, PhD Committee member from the Department of English Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Montano, PhD Committee member from the Board of Senior Thesis Readers Approved: __________________________________________________________ Michelle Provost-Craig, Ph.D. Chair of the University Committee on Student and Faculty Honors ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My heartfelt thank you goes to my Abba Father in Heaven, primarily, for innumerable blessings in the form of an incredibly supportive family and a wonderful thesis committee. I would also like to thank my mentors Dr. Ware (you got me started with researching!) and Dr. Michael Cotsell (for introducing me to the delightful and challenging world of literatures from the Islamic world and for being incredibly supportive in my endeavors. I will always treasure all that I have learned from you). A special thanks to Dr. Emily Davis for providing not only constructive criticism and insight in my project but also an immense amount of support. Your dedication inspired me to write better and think critically. Another thanks to Dr. John Montano for his positive attitude and understanding throughout my project. I would also like to thank the UD Summer Scholars Program and the Ronald E. McNair program staff (Dr. Kimberly Saunders and Mrs. Tiffany Scott) for helping me develop and expand my project into the thesis it is today. On a personal note, many thanks goes to my mother (for the scare you gave me when I failed my first grade English exam. Your threat made we work harder than ever), to my father (for good naturedly laughing at the unintended humor in the aforementioned exam resulting from extremely poor grammar on my part) and to my brother (for believing that I could do great things when I myself did not dare to dream so. You were one of my memorable teachers). Last but not the least, I wish to thank every person who has in small and large ways helped me dream this big and come this far through their prayers and positive thoughts. I would specially like to remember all iii those who endured my incessant complaints about this never ending thesis over the course of two long years. Thank You for listening! This one is for all of you! iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. vii 1 INTRODUCTION TO ARABIC/ISLAMIC LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION ................................................................................................ 1 Works Cited .................................................................................................. 8 2 GENDER DYNAMICS IN THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS .............. 9 Introduction of The Thousand and One Nights .................................................. 9 The Arabian Nights in the context of Islamic literature ............................. 11 Portrayals of gender and sexuality in the tale of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad NB ............................................................................................. 11 The themes in other stories ......................................................................... 15 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 24 3 FEMINSM IN CONTEMPORARY ARABIC LITERATURE ....................... 25 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 25 Defining the term .............................................................................................. 27 Various forms of FGC ...................................................................................... 29 Medical risks and complications ...................................................................... 30 Islam and FGC .................................................................................................. 32 FGC in cultural contexts ................................................................................... 34 FGC in literature ............................................................................................... 37 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 47 4 VARIANT MASCULINITIES IN ISLAMIC LITERATURE ........................ 49 Introduction to masculinities ............................................................................ 49 Deconstructing the spheres of masculinities in Palace Walk ........................... 50 Subjected masculinities in The Swallows of Kabul .......................................... 60 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 67 5 HONOR KILLING IN LITERATURE ............................................................ 69 v Defining Honor Killing .................................................................................... 69 Honor killing and Islam .................................................................................... 70 Understanding Honor Killing Today ................................................................ 72 Honor in Women .............................................................................................. 73 Honor in Men ................................................................................................... 75 Honor in Modern Islamic Literature ................................................................. 76 Resentment and Remorse in Elif Shafak’s Honor: A Novel ............................. 77 Murder Without Remorse in Souad’s Burned Alive ......................................... 86 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 90 6 WHAT THE EYE SEES, IT BELIEVES: DEFINING GENDER BENDER SEXUALITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ISLAMIC SOCIETY ............. 91 Works Cited .............................................................................................. 101 7 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 102 REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 105 vi ABSTRACT My thesis seeks to uncover issues in sexuality of the Islamic world through literature. The questions I asked sought to understand how gender and sexuality was and is viewed in the Arabo-Islamic. I wanted to compare the factors that regulate sexual order in these societies. Some of the issues under investigation were genital cutting in women, honor killing, hegemonic and complicit masculinity, and gender bender sexuality. My methodology in studying this literature included the use of literature reviews, medical accounts and data, journalistic accounts, and sociological writings. I chose to use an interdisciplinary approach to help me see the issues in gender and sexuality on multiple levels of cultural and religious beliefs as well as social hierarchies. In the end of my study, I found that many issues under investigation had powerful and complex forces regulating ideas and practices. These forces were present as political, social, and cultural ideas systems that subjected both men and women. In conclusion, sexual order seems to be tense in these societies and is often on the verge of violence. vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO ARABIC/ISLAMIC LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION Arabic/Islamic literature and culture in the West have made themselves known since the Arabian Nights. However, recent images of the Middle East in the Western consciousness have come to represent stereotyped images of Muslims as fanatics and Islam as an oppressive religion that subjugates women’s rights. In a way, the Western mind has once again constructed an “Occidental” perspective towards the Middle East, thus rendering the diverse civilization into a controllable notion that here can be equated with the “Orient”1. As Edward Said mentions in his book Orientalism “For orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, West, us) and the strange (the Orient, the East, “them”). Page 43 While Said spoke of the West as Europe primarily, I equate the West here as the United States to differentiate between Said’s “Occidental” and my Occidental. Said spoke of the Orientalist reality as antihuman and persistent, something that persists in the Western cognizance even today in the form of Islam as an oppressive and violent religion1. Though this thought was first published in 1978 in his book, Orientalism, his idea about the persistent and antihuman reality remains true to this 1Idea of Occidental and Orient borrowed from Edward Said’s Orientalism 1 day. In order to break this “Western reality”, the Western reader must be willing to give voice to the peoples of the Islamic world, not to the media or

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