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Sex, Sex, Sex, and More Sex: The “Forbidden”, “Offensive” Word

February 7th, 2008Drima (Sudan)

So Esra’a told a story and asked “since when is it “offensive” to talk about sex and homosexuality?”

I get the same type of reactions and comments from Sudanese and Muslim conservatives about how I shouldn’t mention topics related to it on my blog.

Well, here’s the thing. It’s not like we’re talking about it 24/7 or promoting it. Blogs are a great means for public discussion (the only real ones in our “free” countries) and hence we use them to talk about the issue.

Ever heard of AIDS or HIV? No? How about prostitution? Don’t these issues involve bringing up the topic of sss… erm… ssee… Gosh, I’m so scared to say it. Okay, read the following backwards, xes. Yes, that word… we’re so afraid of hearing it because God forbid we naughty boys might end up with irreversible erections, right?

Excuse me, but most people don’t even realize the extent of how much room there was for sex to be discussed within the Islamic tradition a long time ago (before the lovely rise of Wahhabism and Taliban-mentality, or before many aspects of true Islam got buried under a pile of man-made cultural crap).

Check out what the guys at SunniPath, a traditionalist Islamic online resource, have to say for example:

The origins of Islamic erotic literature probably lie in early Abbasid Baghdad, where a fusion took place in educated circles between ancient Arab poetic traditions of amatory verse which described female beauty and the act of love with considerable frankness, and the translation of Indian texts.

… The genre is, when maintained within the fiqh boundaries, a legitimate branch of the Islamic sciences

… There are several works on the subject by Imam al-Suyuti, but apparently the most influential such text by an alim was the Ruju’ al-shaykh ila sibah fi’l-quwwa ala al-bah, by the great Shaykh al-Islam Kemal Pasha-zade, the leading scholar of the Ottoman state in the time of Selim I.

There is certainly a case for producing an advanced manual in English drawing on Islam’s rich legacy in this field.

OMG! A MANUAL? A SEX MANUAL so we can have better, ehm, “boom boom”? These perverted Muslims must be beheaded! How evil!

Here’s a suggestion. Let’s flush down the toilet the oppressive patriarchal aspects of our cultures and revive the lost, beautiful spirituality and openness of our faith.

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26 Responses to “Sex, Sex, Sex, and More Sex: The “Forbidden”, “Offensive” Word”

  1. #1 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 1:38 am

    Of course this beautiful literature has long been replaced by bullshit modern novels and oppressive guides to Islam. Didn’t religious institutions like Al Azhar burn pre-Islamic literature because it was too offensive?

    In 1926, Taha Hussein’s book ‘On Pre-Islamic Poetry’ was banned and he too was later expelled from the university for his rationalist interpretation of pre-Islamic literature and the Qur’an. In 1959 Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘Children of the Alley’ was condemned by Al-Azhar as blasphemous. In 1975 Al-Azhar censored books, including previously published works, by Tawfik Al Hakim and Youssef Idris. In 1981, ‘History of the Arabic Language’ by Fikri Al Aqad was also banned for claiming that certain words in the Qur’an are of Egyptian origin. Four years later in 1985, three thousand copies of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ were destroyed and the publisher was sentenced to jail for corrupting the morals of the younger generation. In 1990, Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid proposed a reformist approach on reading and interpreting the Qur’an and later received death threats and was declared an apostate. He felt he had to flee the country and settled down in the Netherlands. In that same year Farag Foda’s book “To Be or Not to Be” was banned and he was prosecuted for offending religion.

    More (It’s worth noting that the above was researched and written by a devout Muslim and good friend, Yasmin, so the argument of “omg the West is making this up to make us look bad!” won’t work here.)

    And then to continue on what you were saying:

    The subject of sex was frequently investigated in Arabic literature. The ghazal or love poem had a long history being at times tender and chaste and at other times rather explicit. In the Sufi tradition the love poem would take on a wider, mystical and religious importance. Sex manuals were also written such as The Perfumed Garden, Tawq al-hamamah or The Dove’s Neckring by ibn Hazm and Nuzhat al-albab fi-ma la yujad fi kitab or Delight of Hearts Concerning What will Never Be Found in a Book by Ahmad al-Tifashi.

    More

    What now? Do we burn these books on the basis that it’s too offensive?

    What about this stuff:

    There has been a tendency within the scholarly community to sweep the topic of homoeroticism in Arabic literary expression under a rug of both obscurity and ambiguity. This volume confronts such transcultural misunderstandings by addressing the homoerotic theme and its imagery in a direct fashion. Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature is a powerful and pioneering investigation that will serve to expand our broader understanding of gender roles and the multifarious expressions of human desire.

    More

    Taboos!

    Sigh. There’s so much we don’t know about our own history, thanks to our censorship-ridden over-paranoid societies.

  2. #2 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 2:05 am

    Here’s a slap in the face to those who stupidly argued here that homosexuality is a “Western-invented plague:”

    The expression of male homoerotic sentiment is one of the dominant themes in classical Arabic literature from the ninth century to the nineteenth.

    In poetry, traditionally considered the supreme art among the Arabs, love lyrics by male poets about males were almost as popular as those about females, and in certain times and places even more popular. But in prose literature as well, including such varied genres as anecdotal collections, vignettes in rhymed prose known as maqamat, shadowplays, and explicit erotica, homoerotic themes, mostly male but also female, are anything but rare.

    Source

    Despite current conventional wisdom to the contrary, same-sex sexual expression has been a more or less recognized aspect of Muslim societies for many centuries, as can be seen through literature, history, and law. Medieval Arabic literature, including both belles-lettres works (in the genre of adab) and copious amounts of erotica, discusses same-sex sexual activity frequently and explicitly. Most often, it is sexual activity between men that is discussed, but these literary works also include discussion of sexual acts between women. Generally, lesbian sexual behavior is referred to as sihaq, “rubbing” or “pounding”. (The term is also sometimes used for female masturbation.) Sihaq, or musahaqa, translates approximately as “tribadism.” Recently, some have begun to study these literary sources to understand female same-sex sexual activity in the medieval Muslim world. A few articles provide a starting point for understanding tribadism in Muslim contexts historically. There is also an extensive literature on male homoeroticism in Islamic literature and Muslim societies.

    Source

  3. #3 Murad - February 7th, 2008 at 2:27 am

    I’m using a proxy to access this page. Both this entry and the one before it are blocked because of the words “sex” and “homosexuality.” Woo!

  4. #4 Simon Columbus - February 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am

    yeah, there will certainly be no more sex if they ban this word from the internet! – not so good?

    As Esra’a shows, for a long time the Muslim world was much more tolerant against homosexuals than the Christian Europe – but at some time in the 19th century they must have changed roles…

  5. #5 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    yeah, there will certainly be no more sex if they ban this word from the internet!

    Who needs sex on the internet when you can rape a child or an animal? (I’m generalizing in a satirical manner here, but these things do happen much more often than it is reported.)

    but at some time in the 19th century they must have changed roles…

    The Muslim world was a leader in political tolerance and science, but thanks to many years of war, tyranny and poor leadership this changed entirely.

  6. #6 PeacefulVanguard - February 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    The Muslim world was a leader in political tolerance and science

    And economics:

    The earliest origins of venture capital can be traced back to the medieval Islamic mudaraba partnership. In terms of protecting the entrepreneur, sharing the risks, losses and profits the two systems of finance are remarkably similar.

  7. #7 Spanky - February 7th, 2008 at 9:41 am

    i don’t think the problem is about discussing sex but HOW you discuss sex.

    and before i process any further i ‘d love confess that i am sex-crazed.

    there is some Islamic term called “hayaa” or shyness. you know what i mean, having hayaa while discussing ANYTHING will make it acceptable.

    it’s a true the Muslim world was a leader in political tolerance and science, but i don’t understand what that has to do with you.

    for example when Ibn Taimmyah for example led the prisons reform campaign in Egypt(before that prisoners were locked like animals in deep holes) he wasn’t doing it for a tap on the shoulder from his European friends or to feel good about the serving the universal declaration of human rights. his motifs were derived from his Islamic identity.

    you guys need to understand that making the east a copycat of the west won’t work, get over your identity crisis.

  8. #8 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am

    Spanky,

    it’s a true the Muslim world was a leader in political tolerance and science, but i don’t understand what that has to do with you.

    It doesn’t. It has to do with our societies.

    And concerning the rest of your silly comment, we discussed already how we address the topic of sex, and there is nothing wrong about spreading awareness on sex-education or sex crimes.

    Finally, stop being an imbecile regarding “copycats of the West.” Being open is not the equivalent of being “Western,” you sex-crazed fool.

  9. #9 Murad - February 7th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    I love how our little Spanky narrows everything down to an “identity crisis.”

    This is, as I recall, the same Spanky who argued that defending homosexual rights is a Western paradigm.

    i’d love confess that i am sex-crazed.

    Then by your own definition, I assume you too are Westernized, even if it has been proven above that Arabs have been writing about sex and homosexuality long before our people could obsess about this immoral other “West,” constantly yet shamelessly.

    And should you then wonder…

    it’s a true the Muslim world was a leader in political tolerance and science, but i don’€™t understand what that has to do with you.

    Why this is ‘no more’?

  10. #10 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Why this is ‘no more’?

    4 things contributed to this, things that many Arabs have justified over the years:

    1 – Censorship, imposed both by government and by society in general (this goes way beyond politics and religious discussions, this concerns taboos like sex and homosexuality as well)
    2 – Oppression of religious and ethnic minorities
    3 – The systematic and widespread abuse of human rights
    4 – Islamic absolutism

    It is stupid and baseless to dismiss fighting the above issues as being “Westernized.” These things have been discussed and fought for centuries, before the “war on the West” which our retarded generation is so obsessed about, even started.

  11. #11 Simon Columbus - February 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    I just read an article about the UAE’s prime minister’s visit to Berlin. There’s a picture of him shaking hands with the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit – and al Maktoum is surely not the first Muslim leader to meet with him. When it comes to money, it doesn’t matter that Mr. Wowereit is homosexual…

  12. #12 Spanky - February 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    you guys need to chill

    try singing this

    This is, as I recall, the same Spanky who argued that defending homosexual rights is a Western paradigm.

    yes, this is me…and i am still waiting for anyone to tell me where the pioneer LGBT activism started.

    Then by your own definition, I assume you too are Westernized, even if it has been proven above that Arabs have been writing about sex and homosexuality long before our people could obsess about this immoral other “West,” constantly yet shamelessly.

    hmmmm….excuse me but how being sex-crazed make anyone westernized?

    you guys are a big box of contradictions and confusions.

    Why this is ‘no more’?

    because the conditions were this great achievements were made is no more, people like you on the who are trying to strip the Islamic world of its identity and make it a blind follower of the west, Salafis (who are a normal response to the secular extreme) and the Arab rulers (who are far more secular than Ataturk in his hell hole).

  13. #13 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Hi Spanky, apologies for my hot-headed reply, but let’s continue:

    yes, this is me…and i am still waiting for anyone to tell me where the pioneer LGBT activism started.

    In my room. :P

    Human rights are human rights – it’s universal and has no origin. If homosexuality is also universal and has no real origin, why is gay rights activism somehow Western? Gay marriage and all, yes that is Western. But not gay rights in and of itself.

    people like you on the who are trying to strip the Islamic world of its identity and make it a blind follower of the west,

    Elaborate! How is talking about sex and homosexuality blindly following the West?

    How are we stripping the Islamic world of its identity, if homosexuality and sex were discussed very often throughout history in Arabic literature?

  14. #14 Elinor (Iran) - February 7th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    Esra’a :)
    The funny thing is I couldn’t reach the page you posted about homosecuals, but this one wasn’t filtered, I guess the filters are frustrated as well :)

  15. #15 Esra'a - February 7th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    This one doesn’t have homosexuality in the URL (just like “there are no homosexuals in Iran” according to your president,) I guess that’s why.

    We should come up with codes or something, like “s3x” in the URLs and “hummos” (like the food) instead of “homosexuals.” More than 5 people wrote me complaining that we should change the URL structures since it includes a lot of taboo words and they keep having to use proxies to access them.

  16. #16 Elinor (Iran) - February 7th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Very good idea Esra’a, I go for Hummus :)
    Yes our so called president claimed many things, including what you mentioned. They try to solve what they call a problem by erasing the quetion. Very smart!

  17. #17 Simon Columbus - February 7th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    @ Esra’a:

    You can use plugins for wordpress which allow you to define the url for every single post, so you could change the url’s in case you are expecting problems with them.

  18. #18 SudaneseDrima - February 7th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    Great articles and sources in your first comments Esra’a. Thanks

    Simon, got a link to that picture of them shaking hands? :)

  19. #19 Jerigole - February 8th, 2008 at 2:17 am

    You guys might like this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNq_9vwfSis
    (from “Saturday Night Live”)

  20. #20 Jerigole - February 8th, 2008 at 3:20 am

    sorry, looks like the video was removed from youtube. if you get a chance to watch “iran so far away” from saturday night life (SNL), do so, it’s really funny. I will post the link if i find it.

  21. #21 Simon Columbus - February 8th, 2008 at 7:24 am

    @ Drima:

    Here’s a photo, unfortunately they are not shaking hands:

    http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1089951,00.jpg

  22. #22 eric/canada - February 10th, 2008 at 10:05 am

    Ummm…there’s a book on Muslim Erotica coming out? Any idea where I can send for one?

  23. #23 Halalhippie /Denmark - February 11th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    Drima feared that “we naughty boys might end up with irreversible erections”

    LOL! imagine galabiya-clad males with…oh no!

    And gay marriage a Western thing..?.. well, In Denmark gays can marry legally, and even (if the priest agrees) in a church. This is a rather new fad, and not everyone is happy about it. But, if we stop killing homus’es and later stop imprisoning them, then sooner or later, we have to give them full rights.

  24. #24 Esra'a - February 11th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    And gay marriage a Western thing..?

    There’s no such thing, not even consideration or tolerance for the concept of gay marriage in the Arab world. This goes without saying.

    It’s not much to ask if we just give “homuses” their right to life, not necessarily the right to marriage or gay bars or all the little things that most “homuses” in our region don’t even care about. This is really the least of their worries.

    But we can’t even begin to talk about “homusuality” without the “secks” taboo being tackled and discussed first.

  25. #25 Esra'a - February 11th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    And damn you all, now I want some hummos.

  26. #26 Halalhippie /Denmark - February 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    yes, it’s a slippery slope. If you accept the premise that being gay is no more “sinful” than being – say – left-handed, then ultimately you must grant them full human rights. But you need to go thru the“secks” taboo first. Take your time… no matter what the mullahs and Catholic priest say, the“secks” thingy isn’t gonna go away anytime soon.

    And I want some hummos too :-) Fortunately there’s a Jordanian pizza man down the road that makes the most delicious hummos. Yay for globalism!

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