Since the beginning of the conference, sexuality has been mentioned regularly in panels and in floor discussions. Sometimes it came out in passing, more subtly such as a portrayal of eroticism in Daniel Arbid’s film “Sa7at Al Ma3raka.” And at other times it came as a direct political demand such as in Zeina Zaatari’s speech for the inclusion of sexual rights in our feminist discourse. The issue was also raised by members of the Feminist Collective who asked about queer issues in relation to feminist art, politics, colonialism, and strategy.
This morning, and finally, the split was vocalized clearly and homophobia was brought out into the open. Kaltham Al Ghanim form Qatar University confused gender identity with sexual orientation reprimanding women who want to act like men (by wanting to sleep with other women). In her opinion, by doing so, they are glorifying men. She asserted that she did not see lesbian issues as feminist and thought the conference should respect her opinion. A few people clapped. She also went on to call feminist revolutionary talk as childish and unrealistic, asking her fellow academics to be practical in their proposals and thoughts. She also accused them as being distant and ignorant of the real feelings and lives of the real average Arab woman (assuming of course that she was in close proximity of the lives of these women). “Why defy our culture?” she asked.
I was happy it came out of her. I was happy the ridiculous ideas of a good part of these conference participants were vocalized so clearly because then it allowed for a comeback. And, indeed, Professor Amal Amireh (biography, books, blog), one of the accused revolutionary feminists, took on the responsibility of responding critically to these ideas by stating that Dr. Ghanim’s view on feminism and culture could only be defined as backwards. “We have to acknowledge that sexuality must be an indispensable part of our feminism and that lesbians are women, they are Arab women, they are among us, they are us.” Amireh went on to state that “our feminist ethical responsibility will be measured by how supportive we are to our lesbians.” And the room went silent. Then some people laughed.
Et voila. Fantastic stuff.
Written by Nadine Moawad
#1 by Feminist on October 7, 2009 - 4:12 am
The presence of the Feminist Collective and its allies among the participants is the reason why a bunch of old, Arab and non-feminist ladies are discussing sexuality and Lesbian women.
My heart skipped a beat when Amahl Amireh spoke.. She made the announcement that Lesbians exist among Arab women and she used the pronoun “we” in order not to distant herself from this cause… It was big and very emotional to me, she said: “We (the arab lesbians) exist and we are not going anywhere”
#2 by Maya on October 7, 2009 - 6:14 am
مؤتمر «النسوية العربية»: الحركة المطلبية تجاور أسئلة عن الفكر بصفته مشروعاً تغييرياً »
you guys ROCK
The title of the conference was enough to portray a message, about change. But once, the lesbian issue was tackled, everybody ignored this subject, and then it was approached with some negative attitudes, and as if lesbians are not women! and as if they donnot exist in the arab world.
This fight between feminists and lesbians, should’ve been ancient history, since it was already istablished that lesbians are women first. Professor Amal Amireh’s response and Zeina Zaatari’s speech were a huge boost for me as a person and gave me a bit of hope that one day, this argument would be talked about openly and being taken into consideration.
Moreover, how come in a feminist conference, the word cunt or vagina has never been mentioned, neither the domestic workers, or body image, arn’t they women too? but then agian, i’ll never give up on this cause as long as there are feminists like Zeina Zaatari, Amal Amireh and Nadine Moawad
#3 by uhu on October 7, 2009 - 6:24 am
Just as a personal side note, i am not a professor, not that i won’t be 1 day, and there 16 years old girls that are still in school that have the knowledge enough to differentiate between lesbianism and gender bending. Maybe our problems would be solved, if some of the professors attending these conferences can do some reading and educate themselves a bit like for example “Kaltham Al Ghanim form Qatar University” so they would avoid embarrassing themselves, and as some other conference attendee that demeaned literature in a very public way. And defined Art, which is something that is an undefined communication way.
#4 by lau shu shi on October 25, 2009 - 7:10 am
i think the title a bit misleading, should be feminists split over sexual orientation. correct me if i’m wrong.