Islam between Margins: Reassessing Gender and Sexuality in Islam

Abstract

This article aims to explicate the tensions on issues of gender and sexuality that arise at the intersection of lived reality and the inherited Islamic tradition, primarily regarding but not limited to Islamic law. We do three things in this paper: we first explore the notion of an in-between space that serves as a conduit between an inherited religious tradition and the plethora of lived realities of being Muslim. Second, we provide examples of how Islam as a religious identity and faith and the prescriptions set out in Islamic law operate through this in-between space. Third, based on the above, we conclude that the pedagogy of Islam, gender, and sexuality stands to be enriched if this in-between experiential space is acknowledged as an epistemological portal to Islam.