Sexuality and eroticism in Islam
All topics-
Film review: "Aligarh"
Sensitive portrait of a tragic story
A film about the fate of a gay professor at India's renowned Aligarh University highlights the country's difficult relationship with homosexuality. Marian Brehmer watched the drama
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Homoerotic poetry in Islam
Reeling with desire
What role did homoeroticism play in Islamic poetry written between the 13th and 15th centuries? We need look no further than Rumi and Babur. By Melanie Christina Mohr
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Lesbians in Iran
Between desire and taboo
When one speaks of homosexuals in Iran, it is usually men who are meant. The existence of Iranian lesbians is simply not mentioned, even as the subject of homophobic jokes. But Cupid's arrows also inflame passions among Iranian women – wherever and however they strike. By Shirin Soltani
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Ramita Navai: ″City of lies. Love, sex, death and the search for truth in Tehran″
Where nothing is allowed, yet anything is possible
Survival in Tehran is a matter of lying and bending the rules. In the Iranian theocracy, real life is conducted in secret. Nadja Schluter reports on what else we can learn from the wonderful book on Iran, "City of Lies"
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Marital traditions in the Islamic world
Marriage first, love later?
The number of arranged marriages in the Middle East and North Africa is decreasing. Matrimony between cousins is still widespread, but matches of this kind now account for at most a quarter of all weddings. A growing number of young people find their partners without mediation; marriage for love is their ideal. By Martina Sabra
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The masked women of southern Iran
Along Iran′s coastline and on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, women have been wearing masks for centuries. The styles vary according to region, ethnicity, but most noticeably according to religious affiliation. Shia women wear red rectangular masks, while those of Sunni women are black or indigo with gold, shaped to give the impression of eyebrows and moustache – once a ruse to fool invaders into thinking that the women they spied from a distance were in fact men. By Eric Lafforgue
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Kurdish film-maker Ali Kemal Cinar
The power of tenacity
The Kurdish filmmaker Ali Kemal Cinar from Diyarbakir caused a small sensation when his zero-budget production "Vesarti (Hidden)" won him the 2016 Most Inspiring Director of the Year award at the !f Independent Film Festival in Istanbul. With his experimental, absurdly comic films, Cinar represents a new way of thinking in Kurdish filmmaking. By Sonja Galler
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Interview with the Egyptian author Youssef Rakha
"Taken together, these things would make up home..."
The Egyptian poet, essayist, novelist and journalist Youssef Rakha moves between two worlds. He aims to show his Western readers an eclectic Cairo beyond common cliches. Interview by Susanne Schanda
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The poems of Ibn Arabi
Interpreting desire
The famous mystic Ibn Arabi’s 61 poems have been translated into German for the first time by Stefan Weidner. But are the poems really all that easy to understand? By Marian Brehmer
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Romantic comedy Middle Eastern-style
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Islam and eroticism
Let′s talk about sex, Ali
Religion is often regarded as prudish and anti-pleasure. Ali Ghandour (32), an academic at the University of Munster, sees it differently – and has written a book about sex and the erotic from the perspective of Muslim scholars. Interview by Lukas Wiesenhutter
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Photography Biennale of the Contemporary Arab World
A feast for the eyes
With media reports on the Arab world focused on the political conflicts and current discussions dominated by dealing with migration from the region, the photo biennale in Paris shines as a beacon of diversity and pluralism. Felix Koltermann visited the exhibition for Qantara