DECOLONIZING SEXUALITY IN ISLAM: A DIALOGUE WITH BRAZILIAN MUSLIM WOMEN

Abstract

Gender and sexuality studies are prominent topics in current research regarding the Islamic field. There is an incentive to pleasure within the religion that contradicts the oppressed and repressed Muslim woman stereotype, as well as the problematic relationship between feminism and religion that many Muslim academics and militants have been trying to deconstruct. Reflections on sexuality in Islam from a decolonial perspective are derived from the ethnography conducted by the authors. The article seeks to highlight the practices and meanings that Brazilian Muslim women who reverted to Islam attribute to sexuality, within the following axes: (a) Islamic clothing and the fetishization of Muslim women; (b) licit/illicit and the capacity of agency and protagonism of these women; (c) religious knowledge and women’s empowerment. The research shows dimensions of the experiences of Muslim women that differ from the position of subalternity to which they are constantly submitted.