Women, perfumes and prayers: a symbolic approach to sexuality in Islam

Abstract

Islam is the second largest religion in the world and has been growing remarkably in Brazil. Various misrepresentations, propagated mainly by the media, lead to misconceptions about the Islamic precepts and especially about Muslim women. Such "Eastern" women always populated the "Western" imaginary in ambiguously ways: seen as seductive dancers or under the cliché of oppression and repression under the veil. Reference to the study of sexuality in Islam is Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, who detailed the Qur'anic view of sexuality bringing out its sacred character. This conception is analogous to that of Carl Gustav Jung, who gave primacy to the symbolic study of the religious phenomenon and the woman figure in psychology and can greatly contribute to this issue. Whereas both sexuality and religion make up and structure subjectivities, this research aims to understand how sexuality is experienced by Muslim women in Brazil, in terms of practices and meanings assigned. To achieve this understanding, five born Muslim women and five Brazilian reverts will be interviewed, all married and selected by convenience in Muslim communities in the state of São Paulo. The data will be analyzed based on the theoretical framework of Analytical Psychology, as well as from anthropology studies. By focusing on the desires of Muslim women and listening to those voices so often regarded as subaltern, it is expected to foster discussion of broader feminisms, far beyond the hegemonic tendency.