Queer Nations: Marginal Sexualities in the Maghreb

Mithliyy, mithlak

“…No nationalist discourses decry the colonial imposition of heterosexuality. (Jarrod Hayes, 2000) "Xenophobic Queerphobia": The Unified "Nation" and the "Other", Queered…”

“…Bacchetta (2005Bacchetta ( -2006 has named this recurring narrative ‗Queerphobie xénophobe' 7 , by which she signifies the notion of queer sexualities or subjects as originating from outside of one's society or community (197). Many authors have revealed this recurrent discourse through their analysis in multiple locations: Atluri (2001) covers the representation of queerness as a British import in numerous Caribbean countries; Bacchetta (2005Bacchetta ( -2006 discusses the tagging of lesbianism as a Western import by Nationalist Hindus (197); Gopinath (2005) informs us of the use of propaganda to portray Muslim Indians as sexually deviant during the foundation of the Indian nation (17, 135); Whitaker (2008) speaks of the representation of ‗queerness as a foreign disease' after the Queen Boat controversy in Egypt (66-67); Stein (2010) notes that Israel was founded on a strong link between ‗nationalism and heterosexuality' in ‗Israel's demographic war with its Arab neighbors' (518); Corriveau (2006) speaks of the Western queer subject in Canada being tagged as Communist during the Cold War; and finally, Hayes (2000) reveals the use of this narrative in the Maghrebian context (79). Conjointly, in the opinion of Gopinath (2005) and Whitaker (2008), these discourses must continually be reaffirmed since the strengthening of the nation becomes dependent of such a narrative, the heterosexual regime being at its basis.…”

“…Even more so, they have ‗queered' 1 The first time queer is used, it is meant as an umbrella term comprised of all womyn who 'deviate' from heterosexuality (Gopinath, 2005: 11). Further in the question, 'queer' is used once more, this time employed as a verb which refers to the subversion of dominant national and (neo)colonial narratives mentioned above (Hayes, 2000). The second use of the term will be explained more thoroughly in the theoretical chapter.…”