[Reader-list] Follwing Irshad Manji's Book

[Shohini Ghosh]

Dear Vikhar: Thanks for your reply. The broad discussion of  
homosexuality and Islam is a different debate and much has been  
written on it already. You may already have read the following but  
I'd still like to recommend  Same Sex Love in India by Ruth Vanita  
and Salim Kidwai, 2000 published by Palgrave in India and St.  
Matrtin's Press in the US. The feminist literature from Arab  
countries is very instructive because it challenges the idea of a  
homogenous Islamic society. An excellent collection of essays,  
stories and cartoons is  Women and Sexualtity in Muslim Societies, A  
Publication of Women for Human Rights, New York.edited by Pinkar  
Ikkaracan. It shows how diiverse women's sexualities in Muslim  
countries are and its total import is far more radical then anything  
that Irshad Manji has written even though queer sexuality is not the  
only concern of the book. These women are not asking for reform-they  
are the reform.    Since you are interested in suicide bombers and  
Muslim afterlife - there's the brilliantly funny Women in Muslim  
Paradise by Fatima Mernissi published by Kali for Women, 1986 (second  
edition 1988). The new English translation of  Chocolate and Other  
Stories of Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma Ugra (OUP 2006)  
with an absolutely wonderful introduction by Ruth Vanita (also the  
translator).  She talks about how Hindu nationalist writer Ugra,  
while ostensibly condemning homosexualty in Chocolate, actually makes  
a case for it. Written in 1927, Chocolate had created a public furore  
in which even Gandhi and Premchand had joined in. The book shows how  
complex and clever the negotiation between religion and non- 
conformist ideas can be.   Wishing You all the Best Warmly Shohini 
  
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