10 Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts
-
Shanon Shah
Abstract
There is a growing body of work, including by queer Muslims, that challenges the simplistic notion that Islam inherently condemns sexual diversity. Some of these works also question Eurocentric conceptions of gender, sexuality and LGBTQ rights. Yet there is a paucity of analysis from the perspective of sexual intimacy in older life (or other generational dynamics) within this scholarly terrain. This chapter contributes to this body of scholarship by applying the combined lens of sex, intimacy and age to a survey of some key Islamic narratives, including a close reading of two pre-modern Islamic sex manuals – The Delight of Hearts (from the 13th century CE) and The Perfumed Garden (from the 15th century CE). This approach can expand and enhance our understanding of how gendered and sexual relationships were expressed and regulated in Muslim societies, and the implications of this for contemporary studies of Islam, gender and sexuality.
Abstract
There is a growing body of work, including by queer Muslims, that challenges the simplistic notion that Islam inherently condemns sexual diversity. Some of these works also question Eurocentric conceptions of gender, sexuality and LGBTQ rights. Yet there is a paucity of analysis from the perspective of sexual intimacy in older life (or other generational dynamics) within this scholarly terrain. This chapter contributes to this body of scholarship by applying the combined lens of sex, intimacy and age to a survey of some key Islamic narratives, including a close reading of two pre-modern Islamic sex manuals – The Delight of Hearts (from the 13th century CE) and The Perfumed Garden (from the 15th century CE). This approach can expand and enhance our understanding of how gendered and sexual relationships were expressed and regulated in Muslim societies, and the implications of this for contemporary studies of Islam, gender and sexuality.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
