A transsexual Muslim woman named Armana Khan claimed that participating in the Ramadan hard with other gay Muslims brought her nearer to her faith and personality.
* During Ramadan, Muslims gather to tear quickly and honor group practices.
* Queer and cis Muslims celebrated their own holidays this year, rethinking the rules and feeling connected.
* This article is included in a line that highlights events affecting Asian and Pacific Islanders.
The LGBT Community Center in New York City was brimming with the heat of belonging on a cold evening in late March. More than 100 Muslims gathered in traditional outfits and clothes in lively purple, rich brown, and shiny dark as they waited for the official visit to Maghrib prayer, which was scheduled for.
Juicy times, a symbol of presence, were scattered on each table, as they would be at any Muslim iftar, a meeting where Muslims observing Ramadan eat and break a period of fasting. There were affirmations to encourage guests to accept the intersection of queerness and Muslim faith, among other things.
These uplifting information, according to many visitors, might be uncommon. ” I’ve never been somewhere like this,” Armana Khan said.
Muslim communities that practiced fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The party was full of vivid dress, nutritious food, and neighborhood prayer.
Muslims from around the world gathered for acts of unity from March 11 to April 9, the Islamic holy quarter of. They prayed late into the night in mosques, prayed in filled wooden tents, and iftars in nearby fun centers.
However, for gay and trans Muslims, this practice of ummah, or the closeness Muslims feel when they practice their faith up, has frequently caused them to feel disqualified from standard Ramadan celebrations.
For Khan, a 30-year-old trans Pakistani Muslim living in Queens, New York, youth visits to the dome were tinged with pain and anxiety because of gender-based divorces.
” It was always really uneasy being on the men’s side, and all I wanted to do was go to the women’s side and be with my daughters and friends,” Khan said. ” Specifically during Ramadan when we went more often, it became a place where I felt isolated. ”
Khan ca n’t recall the last time she participated with other Muslims in public, despite the fact that she has a spiritual connection to Islam in her daily life. While attending The Center’s gay iftar, Khan said she suddenly felt welcomed, not guilty, in both her Muslim and her trans names.
Diverse events help gay Muslims who have felt isolated due to historically stereotyped Islamic practices find inviting communities.
One of the many ways gay and trans Muslims supported community this Ramadan was the iftar, which included pleasant drag-queen performances, prayers led by a gay Muslim community member named Shiffa, and other forms of community support.
Reimagining community and faith during the Ramadan
Some queer and trans Muslims said they felt distain from traditions that promote unity, such as the practice of the Ramadan fast and Muslim trip known as the Hajj.
While majority-Muslim nations in some capability, some Islamic scholars disagree about whether Islam accepts gay and trans people. Each researcher, establishment, and authorities leads with their own understanding of and viewpoint on Islam.
At the LGBT Community Center in New York City, comedian Kahani entertains visitors as they observe Ramadan.
Sophie Uppal, a 28-year-old who’s genderfluid, described their relationship with Islam as complicated. Uppal’s favorite childhood memories include getting up early to their mother making sehri or the food Muslims eat before sunrise to plan for the day’s quickly.
However, they claimed that because of the expectation of living a heterosexual and cisgender life, they had also felt disconnected from Islam for thus much. My mother would cover me in hijab and wear clothes that did n’t feel right at all, Uppal said. When I see forced sexist Islam on me, it can sometimes cause a strong reaction. ”
Uppal and Khan recall having felt pressured to adhere to centuries of history and having to interpret religious texts in their own way of thinking about their Muslim upbringings. Uppal and Khan initially felt excluded from their communities due to these teachings, such as the idea that if a person was queer or transgender they could n’t be Muslim. However, Uppal and Khan’s work has been aided by infusing gay and transgender experiences into Islamic custom.
At the iftar, Khan reflected on how she reconciled her gay and Arab names during Hajj, one of Islam’s five columns.
I continued to have very Gay ideas in my mind when I went on the Muslim journey of Hajj, Khan said. ” I wondered,’ If God definitely hated me, why did he retain these ideas in my mind and at his holiest area, anyway? I realized finally that it was because God had given me the right to live in his home. Otherwise, he would n’t have invited me to Mecca or even to Islam. ”
Dena Igusti and other queer Islamists observed this Ramadan, saying it helped them regain their trust.
For Dena Igusti, a 27-year-old Indonesian Muslim, gathering with other gay people every day during Ramadan made it possible for them to rekindle their love of growing up.
This is my first Ramadan where I’ve only had ifts with other gay Islam, and it’s reminiscent of the little group meetings I had growing up, Igusti said. We gather not in an optical manner, but rather with a genuine sense of compassion for one another. It has really strengthened my marriage with Islam and continued to demonstrate the purity of my devotion. ”
Promoting a more diverse Muslim group all over the world
While there are very few instances of gay Muslim spiritual leaders, Imam Daayiee Abdullah, 70, the executive director of the Mecca Institute, and his philosophy—” We do n’t tell everyone they are a Muslim; They claim that gay Muslims around the world who are attempting to build community have been a guiding force.
In response to the common rejection of queer Islamists from Islamic-identified areas, the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity started hosting diverse digital and in-person activities for all kinds of Muslims.
As the executive director of MASGD, Mx Yaffa, an indigenous Arab, said,” We’re not going to ask you to show us your entire story about your religiousness to Islam or how you came into the trust.” We wo n’t ask you about your queerness or where you fall on the spectrum, either. ”
Participating in Islamist practices while in queer-centered areas feels “radically revolutionary,” Khan told BI.
MASGD aims to foster diverse areas, especially during Ramadan. This year, the corporation launched a timeline to archive the numerous queer-Muslim-focused Ramadan activities hosted around the world, like gay Taraweeh and Jummah prayer, iftar events, and Chaand Raat celebrations. Hosting organizations included Queer Crescent, Queer Shia Collective, Masjid al-Rabia, the Halal and Queer Collective, and others.
MASGD was one of the few organizations in the world at its founding in 2013 that put a focus on queer and transgender Muslims, but it is now one of dozens.
Queer-centered Ramadan celebrations highlight the beauty of layered identities
At The Center’s iftar, when Shiffa delivered the adhan, or call to prayer, the crowd went silent.
After the attendees, they gathered to sing and dance and watch queer and transgender
Muslims from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds perform drag.
To be in a place where I was n’t required to wonder if I was Muslim enough or if others supported my trans identity, Khan said, “was radically transformative.”
Queer Muslims in New York City performed at the LGBT Community Center’s iftar to honor their multiple identities.
Igusti said it was obvious that their queerness is naturally in line with their Islamic practice because I was surrounded by other queer Muslims this Ramadan. Igusti added that their identities continued to reveal unique but inseparable elements of each other.
Similar to Yaffa, Yafka argued that these inclusive community gatherings served as reminders of how each person’s identity strengthened another.
Islam has never been something that contradicts everything else I am. My each other,” Yaffa said. ” I’m a better queer and trans person because I’m Muslim, and I’m a better Muslim because I’m a queer and trans person. “
