Liberation of Muslim queers by Xiangwen Li

Liberation of Muslim queers - by Xiangwen Li

I am a Muslim queer living with a dilemma,

Seeking a gap to breathe between gender identity and religion,

I pray to the merciful Allah,

Wishing to be healed and normal, just like what Quran said.

Carrying a secret that represents sin,

Looking for a land where I belong,

Thus I decide to leave,

Seeking to live as who I truly am.

But still,

I am facing a world of hate,

People treat me as terrorism,

Regardless of where I go and what I do.

But still,

I want to be myself,

Freely dressing whatever I like,

And living with dignity.

The predecessors are fighting for liberation,

I am not alone in this path,

Let us stand together with our Muslim queer kin,

The future is still bright which we will win this combate.

I visited the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and was inspired by a documentary video “A Jihad for Love" by Parvez Sharma and an oral interview "Interview with Nasreen Mohamed" by Andrea Jenkins from Digital Transgender Archive. While the first video shows the concerns of an individual who is homosexual and a Muslim as he was living in an Islamic region where considered homosexuality as illegal violation, the second interview demonstrates a Muslim homosexual's experience of struggle after immigrating to the United States. By comparing the life experiences of two different homosexual Muslims in different countries, I wrote this poem "Liberation of Muslim queers" to depict the oppression and the struggle of Muslim homosexuals. Regardless of where they were, they both went through misunderstanding, unacceptance, and lack of sense of belonging in the community they were in. 

For many Muslim homosexuals, since the majority branches of Islam do not support the gender identity that is different from the biological sex assignment, I found that they are living a life they do not want for many reasons such as evading the penalty by Islamic rules. Just like the father character who is a Muslim homosexual in "A Jihad for Love" decided to get married at first because he thought he could change after marriage. Yet, he didn't and worried that if he got caught and was sentenced who should take care of his children. Having such a life that do not own many human rights and bears the burden of being looked down, many of them consider moving to a different country as a solution to increase recognition and being understood. However, from the oral interview, after successfully immigrating to a westernized country, because of their religion choice, they experience more struggles other than their gender identity, which are the stereotype Western people have by associating terrorism with Islam, and the anti-immigration attitude after the terrorism attack incidents. Both of the videos reveal a different type of survival issue to feel disconnected and unaccepted by the mainstream society. As a result, the poem calls for attention to this minority population and unity among Muslim kin to express their needs. While it is hard to be resonated with other kinds of people, they can stay together to form their own community.

Reference

Jenkins, A. (2016, June 14). Umedia. University of Minnesota. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll97:158?facets%5Bcollection_name_s%5D%5B%5D=Transgender%2BOral%2BHistory%2BProject&page=5&q=transgender

Sharma, P. (2007). University of Toronto Libraries. my.access - University of Toronto Libraries. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://media3-criterionpic-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/htbin/wwform/006?T=MON1561&ALIAS=MON1561_EN.KF&M=1_absegzme&DSTYLE=0