Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies STUDIES FROM PALESTINE, TURKEY, MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies Studies from Palestine, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia Edited by: Pinar Ilkkaracan Rima Athar With the introduction Sexuality as Difference? by Dina M. Siddiqi Yayasan GAYa NUSANTARA Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies Studies from Palestine, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia Edited by: Pinar Ilkkaracan & Rima Athar Published by: GAYa NUSANTARA (First Edition, 2017) Website: http://gayanusantara.or.id Contact: [email protected] ISBN: [Print] 978-602-50945-0-7 [E-Book] 978-602-50945-1-4 Suggested Citation: Pinar Ilkkaracan & Rima Athar (Eds.) 2017. Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies. Surabaya: GAYa NUSANTARA & CSBR. Cover Design: Ezrena Marwan Typesetting: Rima Athar About CSBR: Website: http://csbronline.org Contact: [email protected] The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) is an award-winning international solidarity network that works to integrate a holistic and affirmative approach to sexual and bodily rights as human rights across Muslim societies. Founded in 2001, CSBR now connects over 30 member organizations across 16 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and South East Asia. CSBR’s work is facilitated by our Coordinating Office, which from 2015–2017 has been with Yayasan GAYa NUSANTARA in Indonesia. CSBR publications aim to provide accessible content and scholarship to a wide array of audiences & stakeholders invested in gender justice and human rights. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily represent the views and positions of the publishers, or of CSBR, unless explicitly stated. ! ! Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This publication may be redistributed non-commercially in any media, unchanged and in whole, with credit given to the publishers and the authors. Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies | 1 Contents Acknowledgements 2 Acronyms 3 Introduction Sexuality as Difference? Tensions, Contradictions, and Strategies for Moving Ahead 5 Dina M. Siddiqi 1 Femicide and Racism: Between the Politics of Exclusion and the Culture of Control 19 Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian & Suhad Daher-Nashif 2 An Analysis of the ‘Conservative Democracy’ of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey 62 Pinar Ilkkaracan 3 Moral Policing in Malaysia: Causes, Contexts and Civil Society Responses 88 Julian C. H. Lee & tan beng hui 4 Women’s Sexuality and the Debate on the Anti-Pornography Bill in Democratizing Indonesia 130 Andy Yentriyani & Neng Dara Affiah Notes on Contributors 172 Notes on CSBR 174 2 | Acknowledgments CSBR would like to thank everyone who contributed to this collective project. Especially, Pinar Ilkkaracan, who initiated, coordinated and led the four-year research program on which this volume is based, providing core support and guidance to the research teams. This volume would not have been possible without the energy, commitment and dedication of each of the country partners and their vantage points embedded within national women’s rights, human rights and sexual rights movements. Credit is due to l’Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates (ATFD), Helem, KOMNAS Perempuan, Mada Al-Carmel, Sisters in Islam (SIS), and Women for Women’s Human Rights—New Ways (WWHR). While logistical reasons prevented us from including the Tunisia and Lebanon studies in this volume, the work by those teams was integral to informing the analysis and synthesis of the overall project. The guidance and insightful comments from our expert reviewers, including Rosalind Petchesky, strengthened the rigor of our analysis. The translation and editorial work by Marlene Caplan on numerous drafts of the studies was of indispensable value, as was the copy-editing of Caryn Lim. We thank the coordinating teams who worked on this project at various stages: Liz Ercevik Amado and WWHR-New Ways for the initial research program; Lynn Darwich and Nasawiya for carrying it forward; and Rima S. Athar and GAYa NUSANTARA for seeing this project through to its completion. CSBR would like to acknowledge the generous support from Ford Foundation for this project in its early beginnings, which enabled the six research teams to undertake this original research. We thank Monash University School of Arts & Social Sciences for supporting editorial work, and Sigrid Rausing Trust for supporting this publication. This volume is dedicated to Zaitun Kasim, whose political vision and unwavering commitment to human rights has guided so many in our network. Toni was an integral part of this project from its inception, and she continues to inspire us in our movements for rights and justice. Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies | 3 Acronyms ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nations ADVAW: Against Domestic Violence Against Women [Palestinian NGO] CSBR: Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies CSW: UN Commission on the Status of Women DSM IV: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, version IV. DPR: Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat | Indonesian National Parliament EHRC: European Human Rights Convention ECHR: European Court on Human Rights ICCPR: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights JAG: Joint Action Group for Gender Equality [Malaysia] JAWI: Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan | Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur Religious Department [Malaysia] JAKIM: Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia | Department of Islamic Development Malaysia JDP: Justice and Development Party [Turkey—Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi] KAOS-GL: KAOS Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association [Turkish NGO] Komnas Perempuan: Komisi Nasional Anti Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan | National Commission on Violence Against Women [Indonesia] KOWANI: Kongres Wanita Indonesia | Indonesian Women’s Congress LGBTI: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex MAMP: Malaysians Against Moral Policing MPR: Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat | People’s Consultative Assembly [Indonesia] MUI: Majelis Ulama Indonesia | Indonesian Clerics Council NU: Nahdlatul Ulama [Indonesian Islamic NGO] NGO: Non-governmental organization OIC: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation 4 | PAN: National Mandate Party [Indonesia] PAS: Parti Islam Se Malaysia | Islamic Party of Malaysia PDI: Indonesian Democratic Party PKS: Prosperous Justice Party [Indonesia] PNA: Palestinian National Authority PPP: People’s Development Party [Indonesia] SCOA: Syariah Criminal Offences Act [Malaysia] SIS: Sisters in Islam [Malaysian NGO] SOGI: Sexual orientation and gender identity UMNO: United Malays National Organisation [Malaysia] UN: United Nations VAW: Violence against women WAVO: Women Against Violence [Palestinian NGO] Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies Sexuality as Difference? | 5 Introduction: Sexuality as Difference? Tensions, Contradictions, and Strategies for Moving Ahead Dina M. Siddiqi Sexuality as Difference Sexuality, rights and Islam—individually each of these words has a rich history, unstable and contested, but profoundly productive. Taken together, however, they signal an extraordinarily charged dynamic in the world today. Whether it is Daesh circulating footage of its executions of gay men in the name of purifying their “caliphate”, Israel promoting itself as a gay haven as part of its pink-washing campaign, European governments considering the equivalent of a homosexuality acceptance test as a condition of citizenship,1 the Turkish government lifting a long-standing ban on headscarves in official spaces,2 or reports of forced marriages in Syrian refugee camps—the world seems transfixed by questions of gender, and sexuality in Muslim societies.3 Arguably, such attention should not surprise—after all, sexuality itself is a dense transfer point of power, as Michel Foucault once put it, and its management remains an integral aspect of governance in modern nation states. Nonetheless, the current moment stands out for the peculiar prominence granted to Muslim sexual subjectivity in discourses of global governance and as well as the striking emotional charge such discourses carry. Most obviously, the war on terror and subsequent securitization discourses drive much of contemporary interest in Muslims. Such attention is bolstered by “common sense” imaginations of sexuality and Islam that are a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Deanne Corbett, “Testing the Limits of Tolerance.” Deutsche Welle, March 3, 2006. See: http://www.dw.com/en/testing-the-limits-of-tolerance/a-1935900 2 AFP, “Turkey Lifts Decades Old Ban on Headscarves.” Al Jazeera, October 8, 2013. See: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/10/turkey-lifts-decades-old-ban-headscarves- 201310814177943704.html 3 By juxtaposing these actions, my intention is not to equate them in severity or impact. I am interested in uncovering their shared ideological underpinnings. 6 | Dina M. Siddiqi colonial legacy.4 As a result, sexuality is increasingly central to the production of an idea of Islamic difference—cultural, religious and civilizational. As we will see, the concept of an absolute Islamic difference complicates scholarship, activism and advocacy on sexuality, both in Muslim majority spaces as well as in locations where Muslims are a minority. It produces the contradictions and dilemmas that form a major backdrop for the issues raised in the chapters in this volume. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, if not