ABSTRACT
This book, the first full-length study of its kind, dares to probe the biggest taboo in contemporary Arab culture with scholarly intent and integrity - female homosexuality.
Habib argues that female homosexuality has a long history in Arabic literature and scholarship, beginning in the ninth century, and she traces the destruction of Medieval discourses on female homosexuality and the replacement of these with a new religious orthodoxy that is no longer permissive of a variety of sexual behaviours.
Habib also engages with recent "gay" historiography in the West and challenges institutionalized constructionist notions of sexuality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|44 pages
Introducing studies on female homosexuality and contemporary critical theory
part II|40 pages
The history and representation of female homosexuality in the Middle Ages
chapter 3|16 pages
An Overview of Medieval literature concerning female homosexuality
chapter 4|22 pages
A close reading of Aĥmad Ibn Yusuf Tifashi's Nuzhat al-Albab
part III|52 pages
The history and representation of female homosexuality in the contemporary Middle East
chapter 6|24 pages
Some Like it Luke-Warm
part IV|12 pages
Conclusion and references