Download Experiences of queer social workers

Disruption of Desire by Religion
Understanding the social dynamics of intersecting identities
in order to optimize the socio-psychological assistance to
queer Muslim adolescents in the Netherlands
D.C.W. Bisschops
Universiteit Utrecht
Master Thesis August 2012
Master thesis
Comparative Women’s Studies in Culture and Politics
(MCMV04010 Vro-End Paper/Thesis / MA CWS)
Daniëlle Bisschops
Supervised by:
Dr. B. Papenburg (Universiteit Utrecht)
Dr. E. Midden (Universiteit Utrecht)
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1.
4
The Muslim Personhood as a Cultural Product
10
1.1
Qur’anic Representations of Same-Sex Relationships
10
1.2
The Power of Religious Voices
12
1.3
The Taste of Sexual Freedom: Globalization Contesting Islamic
Family Bonds and Traditions
15
The Minority Stress Model: Explanations for socio-psychological
stress caused by a double minority position
19
The Queer Muslim Body Within the Field of Social Work
21
2.1
Implications of the existing social assistance
21
2.2
On ‘Passing’: Changeableness Within Social Encountering
25
Chapter 3.
Methodology
31
Chapter 4.
Analysis
37
1.4
Chapter 2.
Conclusion
60
Acknowledgements
65
Bibliography
66
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Introduction
Queer Muslims? Really?
Always I have and will
Scatter god and gold to the four winds.
When we meet, I delight in what the Book forbids.
And flee what is allowed.
(Diwan Abu Nuwas, 62, after Kennedy, p. 220)
In discussions about homosexuality in the Dutch multicultural society, the relation between
homosexuality and Islam is a recurrent issue. In the past years the attention for this topic has
been growing, for more and more queer Muslim youngsters who are living in the gay-friendly
society of the Netherlands, are facing troubles in the process of a coming out. Religion is
inclined to be viewed as a source of stress for gay and lesbian individuals who may
experience prejudice from conservative Muslim communities. A double minority position,
which they face for being both gay and Muslim, can cause severe psychological and social
problems. Scholars, who have been working on this so called intersection of identities claim
that they often feel estranged from their religious organizations (Hunzberger, 1996) or may
struggle with negotiating their sexual orientation with their religious identity (Schnoor, 2006).
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These troubles are a result of a twofold problem. First, queer Muslim adolescents face
an internal conflict between their homosexual feelings and the loyalty they have towards their
family and religion. These two often cannot go hand in hand. This conflict implies that they
are not able to shape their sexual desires, which could cause a range of psychological
problems. However, if they choose to do a coming out, this could have major implications for
the functioning within their social group. In finding a solution, most of them choose a partial
coming out, in which they do have same-sex contacts in secret. One of the known coping
strategies in this double binding life is role-taking, which I will later refer to as ‘the act of
passing’ s introduced by Judith Butler (1993). This act of passing enables someone to view
the self from the imagined view of others, which results in living a double sided life, in which
the gay identity is kept secret and a heterosexual identity is carried out towards others (Thoits,
1985, pp.22). This behavior could, however, lead to social isolation, para-suicide, drop-out,
unsafe sex and unwanted pregnancies (Moviesie, 2008). Second, these youngsters face a
difficult entrance into ‘white’ social welfare institutions, for these institutions often do not
have the expertise concerning the specific problem area of this group. The specialized
expertise that is needed for this group should be a combination of gay-friendliness and transcultural social assistance which is supportive and has attention for the ‘collective mindedness’
of queer Muslim youngsters (Movisie, 2009).
Social welfare institutions such as Movisie and Pharos have been researching this
issue, to come up with a fitting specified socio-psychological help for this target group. The
field of social work increasingly has been aiming to provide this. It has been focusing on a
manner of applying a hybrid form of aid to queer Muslim people who are struggling with their
sexual identity. New strategies have been developed in the field of social work to give voice
to this vulnerable group of adolescents in need of specific and delicate help and care. As a
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result, the Vierstedenproject, was carried out by Movisie in order to investigate the options
and requirements for a customized form of social care for queer adolescent Muslims to give
them a greater sense of self-reliance. One of the main strategies of the Vierstedenproject was
the idea of help from a counselor who also has been facing the troubles of the same kind.
However, ideas on how to meet the needs of this target group do not seem to be aligned. In
imitation of the findings of this project, the organizations that serve queer people to empower
them, to create communities and help them with possible psychological issues, has increased.
In particular these communities have been formed in the larger cities of the Netherlands like
Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam.
However, this is not the case for other parts of the country, like e.g. Nijmegen. In these
parts, the Muslim gay scene has not developed yet as it has in the larger cities. Queer Muslim
youngsters overall remain invisible. Still, we should not assume that in these areas they ‘just
don’t exist’ and that these facilities do not have to exist.
One of the initiatives that provides for queer non-Western youth is Project Veilige Haven,
where I first picked up on this issue. Founded in Amsterdam, this project recently started a
subsidiary in Nijmegen to cover the entire Eastern region of the Netherlands. The
organization of NIM Maatschappelijk Werk recently took up on project Veilige Haven Oost,
founded by the municipality of Nijmegen, in service of the Eastern region of the Netherlands.
The aim of this project is to create a safe space for queer Muslim adolescents to talk and to
jointly seek for options to deal with the problems they are facing due to their sexual identity
within the Muslim community. Project Veilige Haven Oost focuses mainly on empowering
and creating a greater sense of self-reliance to those who are facing seriously threatening
situations at home or in their peer groups because of their sexual activities or the suspicion of
them having queer feelings. Within the organization of NIM Maatschappelijk Werk, although
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very ‘white’, the focus on experience and expertise of the social workers are at the basis of the
answer to question on how to provide specific social care for queer Muslims youngsters. In
imitation of this idea, NIM offers special trainings to inform their, mainly white Dutch and
heterosexual, social workers about the non-Western values on sexual diversity in order to
prevent them from pasting an exclusively Dutch take on how their client should try to find a
way to cope with the complexity of her/his queer feelings and practices. As it shows this
organization invests in training their social workers on trans-cultural social assistance.
However, during my internship the question arose whether this is really enough to provide for
the complex and specific problems regarding to their socio-cultural situatedness. Is transcultural social assistance, with Dutch social workers who have been trained to get more
insight in the complexity of the position of queer Muslim youngster enough to give them
accurate help?
In conversations between the two coordinators of Veilige Haven Amsterdam and
Veilig Haven Oost, I sensed incongruence on what they both think of what serves this target
group best. The coordinator of Veilige Haven Amsterdam believes that ‘expertise by
experiencing’, is the most accurate option. This means that queer Muslim youngsters with
socio-psychological problems are being supported by people who also have experienced this
double minority position of being queer and being a cultural minority in the Netherlands.
However, the coordinator of Veilige Haven Oost believes that Dutch social workers, with
training are also able to give good social assistance. The discussion revolves around the
question whether these white, Dutch social workers are able to entirely relate to the do’s and
don’ts in supporting people with another cultural background. Rather, opinions from the field
of social work whose view is to work from shared experiences claim that it isn’t just the
knowledge and training which makes the support integrant to the target group. They claim
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that knowledge of someone who does surely have affection with the target group, but has not
experienced the same things is not enough. Expertise by experience on what it is like to
‘othered’ and to be a minority like queer Muslims within the Dutch society could be
favorable. Very little research has included how the process of ‘outing’ is experienced by
Muslim queer adolescents, specifically when entering the Western field of social work which
is mainly based on working towards a coming out. Therefore, particular gaps still need to be
filled when it comes to gaining knowledge about the impact of religious identity on the well
being of queer Muslims in the process of exploring the possibilities for a coming out and how
the field of social work should interact with this process.
I propose to take up on this problem from experiences gained while working at NIM
Maatschappelijk Werk on the project Veilige Haven. It is arguable in which way the social
assistance for queer Muslim adolescents who suffer from socio-psychological problems
should be organized and facilitated. In this research I will explore the social dynamics and
how these are experienced by the queer Muslim adolescents and the social workers. In doing
so, it hopefully will provide a better understanding of where pitfalls occur, and where the
existing facilities of both establishments of Veilige Haven (Amsterdam/Oost) could focus on
in order to optimize the social assistance for queer Muslim youth. By performing in-depth
interviews I would like to explore how various social work practitioners, with their own ideas
about the disjunction of sexual identity and cultural identity work with the concept of ‘coming
out’. Furthermore I offer to look at their own socio-cultural positions with specific knowledge
and minority experience and how this interacts with the target group.
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The research questions which emerged from this discussion within the field are:
Research Questions
1. What are the lived experiences of the social dynamics between social workers and
the target group of queer Muslim adolescents who face socio-psychological
problems concerning their sexual identity?
2. To what extend do social workers use the concept of ‘passing’ as a strategy to
cross borders of cultural and sexual identity in order to make the counseling
towards queer Muslim adolescents more effective?
The next chapter will provide for an overview of the cultural identity of queer Muslim
adolescents living in the Netherlands, with regard to religious voices and the context of
globalization. Second, the problem of their double minority will be discussed. The second
chapter will give better insight in the process of coming out for queer Muslim youth, ‘passing’
as a strategy to alter the gender- and sexual identity discourse, and interactions between the
queer Muslim body and the field of social work. Subsequently, the methodology will be
discussed, which is broadly based on the use of in-depth interviews and sensitizing concepts
which emanated from the interviews. These will be used in the analysis chapter, which will
result in the conclusion which will provide for an answer to the research questions and a
proposal for implementation of the data results in the field of social work.
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Chapter 1
The Muslim personhood as a cultural production
Qur’anic Representations of Same-Sex Relationships
In this first chapter I will illustrate the cultural context which queer Muslim youngsters
inhabit to show how their identity and the identity problems they face are culturally specific
productions. Scholars who have been doing research on the topic Qur’anic perception on
same-sex relationships have addressed that the Qur’an is often considered to be resentful to
people who perform same-sex acts. Homosexuality is often seen as unnatural in terms of
human procreation and it sets off the natural order of things in terms of procreation. This
resentment is based on interpretations of writings which are located in the Qur’an. The story
of Lot, which is being repeated several times within the Qur’an, is one of the contexts in
which homosexuality is manifested. It is in this narrative, which takes place in the city of
Sodom, Qur’an refers to a people who indulge in sexual libertinage. The prophet Lut was sent
to this place to set them ‘straight’:
‘We also sent Lut. He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in
creation ever committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in prefer to women: ye
are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds”. And his people gave no answer but this:
they said, “drive them out of your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!”
But we saved him and his family, except his wife: she was one of those who lagged behind.
And we rained down on them a shower of brimstone: Then see what was the end of those who
indulged in sin and crime!
(Qur’an 7:80-84).
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Despite of the warning of Lut, who was sent by Allah to keep the people in Sodom
from having same-sex relationships, the people did not answer to him. Therefore they were
punished and killed by a shower of stone. Other passages in the Qur’an involve the prophet
Muhammed, referring to this incident. Except for statements (14 times in the Qur’an) of this
nature of the prophet Lot, there are no clear passages within the Qur’an which explicitly speak
for the prohibition of homosexuality. It probably is the number of repetition of this message
that is interpreted as a warning for the act of same-sex relations. In terms of penalty- from
severe punishment, including death (hanabalites) to no punishment warranted (hanafite)different schools of thought within the Islam diverge, although this ascribes to a explicit
rejection of same-sex acts within the Muslim community (Jamal, 2001).
All identities are social constructs produced in the process of acculturation, which
implies that a ‘personal identity can never be seen as inseparable from a network of kinship,
relations and social obligations’ (Barker, 2008, pp. 216). Thereby, Muslim communities are
characteristic for their strong community bonds. Personal identities are strongly tied to the
communal identity (El-Hadi, 1992). For Muslims who live according to the truths and values
of Qur’an, these representations which depict homosexuality as deviating and unnatural could
have consequences. In the context of this research this story of Lut addresses the Qur’anic
opinions on same-sex relationships, which emphasizes the difficulties a gay person, deviating
from the communal opinion on sexuality, could experience. This communal identity and the
power of religious voices in shaping the sexual lives of Muslims will be elaborated on more in
the next part.
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Power of Religious Voices
The El Moumni-Affaire
“Homosexuality isn’t restricted to only the people who have this disease, but it can spread.
The Dutch society is multicultural. If this disease spreads, everybody could get contained”
(Imam El Moumni on Nova, 2001)
Imams function as the fatherly figures of the Muslim society in which religion plays an
undeniable key role in the behavior of the followers’ everyday life. In preserving the Islamic
tradition within a country such as the Netherlands, imams attempt to keep Muslim community
together by warning them for the noxious influences of the host-country. These religious
voices often connect same-sex acts and relationships with a Westernized lifestyle. Ruud
Peters and Sjoerd Vellenga, who have done research on religion and health care, claim that
their strong resentment of homosexuality is said to be a reaction to the Westernization of
Muslim people in a multicultural societal context (Peters & Vellenga, 2007).
Partly as a result of the large group of Muslim immigrants to parts of Europe, people
with different religious and cultural roots are living together. Values are blended and second
and third generation Muslims are being brought up within a Western society. From within the
Muslim community there is a strong requirement and a feeling of necessity to preserve the
Muslim identity within a liberal country such as the Netherlands. Religious leaders respond to
the requirement to preserve the Muslim identity. In doing so they often express themselves
more rigorously and rigidly as is being done by religious leaders within their countries of
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origin (Huntington, 1996). The portrayal of same-sex relationships as sinful obviously
influence people from within their community.
Imam El Moumni is one of the religious leaders who came into disrepute after having
spoken with great aversion of the accepting climate towards homosexuality in the
Netherlands. In the news program Nova (03/05/’01) he acclaimed e.g. that homosexuality is
harmful due to the risk of decreasing the birthrate which would lead to increasing the aging of
the Dutch population. After having said this, El Moumni was verbally attacked by Dutch
politicians, such as the then governing Prime Minister Kok. El Moumni was prosecuted,
however not found guilty, because his exclamations were said to be in line with the Qur’an
and as such were said within the framework of freedom of religion.
Other than imams, the family honor is determinative in regulating the sexual behavior
of Muslims. Within Muslim communities the family should be imperative to stability.
Appearing as a stable and therefore respectable family is of great importance to maintain the
family honour (izzat) (El-Hadi, 2000). There is a range of scholars who have done research on
sexuality and religion. They assert that one can show her/his religious faith by properly
managing and regulating this part of social life, which involves strong sense of kinship and
ties with family. Within this social life one of the most important social obligations which
represent stability is the institute of marriage. Green and Numrich (2001) assert that Islam
consists of a worldview that is based on dual relations, which uphold the position of
contraries. In terms of sexuality it emphasizes the complementary and unity of the sexes
(zawj), which is creative and procreative. Outside this framework, all sexual activities (e.g.
zina and homosexuality) are considered not only sexual deviation, but also revolt against God.
Thus the Islamic worldview of sexuality accords hegemonic status to heterosexuality within
marriage (Green & Numrich, 2001). In this manner, generally, homosexuality is seen as an act
against nature and a deviation from what is considered the primary purpose of sexuality,
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which is procreation. Homosexuality does not compel to the maintaining of the family name,
and therefore it is an undutiful act which is not allowed. However, for people who due to their
‘deviating’ sexual preferences do not want to commit to a heterosexual relationship, it implies
obligations and duties that sometimes make it hard to live up to (Khan, 2000). Certainly since
most queer Muslim youngsters living in the Netherlands have been brought up within a Dutch
gay-friendly environment.
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The Taste of Sexual Freedom
Globalization Contesting Islamic Family Bonds and Traditions
In contemporary society there have been, and still are, changes going on regarding the socio
cultural framework we live in. This has its impact on how identity is constructed, and how
this process is assumed to take place. As some argue that the only way for sexual diversity in
the Muslim world is to approximate more and more to the secularized Western model, others
argue that non-Western sexual identities and practices will not disappear only because of the
experience of queer Muslims of globalization and Westernization. To them, globalization
does not necessarily imply the uncritically embracing of mainstream Western queer identities.
This change in rhetoric around the binding of Muslim queer people originates possibilities for
the emerging of new and more hybrid identities and relationships in a Westernized context.
Chris Barker, who has done research on hybrid identities within the field of cultural
studies, has argued that globalization provides the context for identity crises, since it has
increased the range of sources and resources available for identity construction (2008, pp.
255). He has asserted that introverted cultures such as the Muslim culture are receding into
the background as diverse trans-local cultures come to the fore. It might be of interest to take
into account the difference in identity constructing processes for people who have a nonWestern background from within close family lines, as well as those who at the same time are
constructing their sexual identity as a non-heterosexual person within an extremely gaytolerant Western society such as the Dutch.
The Bureau of Social Cultural Mapping (SCP) has indicated that the overall opinion
towards same-sex relations in the Netherlands is accepting (Keuzekamp, 2006). Between 90%
en 95% of all questioned people claims to recognize homosexuality as a way of living. This
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makes the Netherlands in one of the top three most tolerant countries towards homosexuality
in the world. Homo negativity, on the other hand, is especially high among religious groups
such as Islam and Christianity. Research of Rutgers WPF shows that Muslims living in the
Netherlands have relatively negative feelings towards homosexuality. It is often seen as a
disease or a sin (Rutgers, 2012). That this general negative opinion on same sex relations has
its consequences on the queer population, especially those in Muslim communities, is visible
in the numbers of gay and bisexual adolescents who themselves have negative opinions
towards their sexual orientation. More than 30% claims they wish they would never have had
these feelings and 22% says they are not happy having to live their queer life. However, the
group of queer Muslims seems to be growing in the Netherlands (Graaf, 2012). This
effectuates in a strong climate of resentment from within the personal community.
Also, other cultural contradictions in dealing with homosexuality are visible in the
discourse that surrounds this topic. This discourse is framing ‘how to be gay’ and how the
heteronormative opinion towards homosexuality should be. It does not take into account other
ways and experiences of being homosexual in a relatively homonegative environment such as
the Muslim community. Dutch government has developed a homo-emancipation policy which
highlights the ‘speakability’ of homosexuality. However this policy has reproduced a
paradigmatic ‘homonormative’ model of an ‘out’ and ‘visible’ way of representing oneself as
queer. This ‘Dutch’ manner of being queer, with this focus on visibility and being proud of
one’s sexuality has become one of the ‘key objects in the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim
discourses in the Netherlands’ (Jivraj & de Jong, 2011), as discussed earlier. In the ethical
discourse on this subject, people who feel the need to depict Muslim cultures it is easy to
believe and therefore often assumed that homophobia, opposed to the ‘gay-friendliness’ of the
West, is part of this restrictiveness that does not allow Muslim cultures to be considered free,
liberal, open, developed and all other values that make the West. This consequently turns
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Islamic countries into threatening nations the West should fear. In the discussion between
binaries of the West/East, us/them, democracy/totalitarianism after 9/11, it evidently pays to
depict Islam for being too orthodox and restrictive and therefore not as enlightened as
Western democracies (Jivrai & de Jong, 2011).
This doesn’t do justice to the nuances that have to be made in understanding queer
Muslims in the Netherlands. As pointed out before, the Muslim community is based on honor
codes. Breaking these codes could have major impact on the social life of the person involved.
This also includes the family, who have the responsibility, if the family member in question
openly turns out to be homosexual, to set them straight again. That is why nuances have to be
made in order to understand their way of coping with their sexual feelings, acts and desires.
An intersectional approach would provide a better insight in their complex lived experiences
and lived realities of being queer in this society.
Yip (2004) points out that for a Muslim, living in a host society with different social
standards this could cause a greater sense of being Othered and living up to this being
different and strengthening the bonds with the home society. ‘External conflict with the host
society only serves to heighten internal solidarity and integration, and concomitantly,
heightened expectation for conformity, leading towards a process of encapsulation,
underpinned by an ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ mentality. Still, older generations within their
community tend to hold on more rigidly to the internal Muslim culture. Among younger
generations of Muslims, however, this ‘us and them’ boundary is more blurred and contested,
as their identity draws upon a wider cultural repertoire that incorporates their own culture and
that of the host society’ (Yip, 2004). However, in choosing a hybrid life, by blurring cultural
boundaries, queer Muslim adolescents are forced to break with the parts of the one and to join
part of the other cultural heritage. Being brought up in between two cultures could lead to
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internal conflicts, due to external conflicts between the host society and the Muslim
community.
As a result, nowadays there are more progressive Muslim people living in the West
who wish to adapt to this modern society where homosexuality is getting more and more
visible and gay communities are rising. The clash that was once felt between queer Muslims
and the West seems to be dissolving. As they try to construct and perform a necessarily hybrid
identity, young queer Muslims provide a critique of the antagonist rhetoric from both poles.
This hybridity implies the impossibility of essentialism in cultural spheres, since it implies the
possibility of a change in the ideological and cultural network one is part of. It is a process of
critiquing, but also one of repeating in creating a distance from it. As Stuart Hall calls this the
weavering of cultural boundaries, a process in which he sees people as actors who have “the
capability to move across discursive and spatial sites of activity which address them in
different ways”. Muslim adolescents in a Western society have to overcome this willingness
of embracing the Muslim community and family as well as their queer life. Those who seek to
find space in between are in policy terms ‘double binders’, which refers to their struggle to
stay bound to what they are almost always perceived to be two seemingly incompatible
identities.
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Minority Stress Model
Explanations for socio psychological stress caused by a double minority position
Although Stuart Hall states that people are able to cross cultural boundaries, to move along
their lines, to weave them together, this process can also have its implications for the
psychological health. The process of acculturation is an important risk factor which causes
people in minority groups in the Netherlands to develop psychological disorders (Knipscheer,
2010). This research on the psychological health of migrant groups in the Netherlands shows
that Muslim people living in the Netherlands often feel rejected due to their religious beliefs.
Therefore they experience a sense of having no space to carry out their social identity.
Assuming the previous chapters as an indication of a non- accepting climate towards samesex relationships from within the Muslim community, this subchapter will highlight the
complexity of the situation for young queer Muslims who have been brought up in the
Netherlands, but according to the values of their Muslim communities. Due to the sociological
circumstances they are brought up in, young Queer Muslims in the Netherlands are likely to
face a double minority position. Within the Dutch cultural context they are part of a cultural
minority, while within their cultural community they are part of a sexual minority. Thus, they
are, from the perspective of being part of a culturally minor group, more vulnerable to
develop psychological complaints and diseases. At the same time they face problems due to
the lack of support on their queer feelings from within their cultural peer group.
The Minority Stress Model gives insight into the minority stress that young Muslim
queers are likely to experience. It focuses on the effects of the social environment as a factor
that can cause chronicle stress that is related to the stigmatization of homosexual people from
within their peer group. We speak of minority stress when an individual from within a
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minority group is experiencing conflicts with the values of the dominant social environment.
A sense of alienation and an incongruity between individual needs and social structures are at
the basis of this problem. Meyer, a scholar in health and social behavior who has developed
the minority stress model, explains that a possible negative perception of the homosexual Self
develops in socialization processes, in which people internalize societal anti-homosexual
attitudes (Meyer, 1995). The negative label of homosexuality was long there before an
individual recognizes her or his own same-sex attraction. Their own (negative) self perception
is brought into being because of this already existing and determining discourse/label. The
label was there before the self. Without the label there would be no negative self-perception.
The recognition of a deviant sexual identity threatens the psychological well being of many
homosexually orientated people (Hetrick and Martin, 1984).
The consequence of this social stress discourse is that they are likely to form
psychological health problems (Meyer, 1995). Hence, the sense of being judged negatively by
others, according to the minority stress model, leads to a negative self perception. In this case,
particularly internalized homophobia refers to this societal negative attitude towards the self.
Living in a Muslim community makes it two times as hard to show their queerness and to get
accepted as a queer person. As is earlier pointed out acceptance from within the cultural
community is hard to find. This has as an effect that queer Muslims especially, due to their
double minority positions, face internal conflicts. (Vanwesenbeeck & Weijenborg, 2004).
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Chapter 2
The Queer Muslim Body Within the Field of Social Work
Implications of the existing social assistance
In this part, which raise attention to a phenomenological view on the process of coming out as
a Westernized phenomenon and its implications for the queer Muslim body, I will draw upon
queer phenomenology as presented by Sarah Ahmed. In doing so, I hope to provide for an
understanding of the interactions of the queer Muslim body and that of the social worker in
their trans-cultural communication. In explaining the situation with regard to ´coming out´ I
address the possible implications queer Muslim youngsters come across in their experiences
with the field of social work as it is occupied by Muslim social workers or Dutch queer social
workers. In the next section I will first set out the lines of this phenomenological approach for
the construction and experiencing of Muslim queerness. In this part the mode of thinking will
be explained that functioned as a bridge between theory and methodology. Present research
conducted on the topic of intersections of queer and religious identities have been emerging
within the field of cultural sciences and health science. However, few have addressed this
topic from a phenomenological point of view. Omar Minwalla, who did research on
community health, has asserted that the little phenomenological research that has been done
on integrating queer identity and religious identity, mainly addressed Jewish and Christian
traditions (Minwalla, 2006).
In following the lines that were drawn by Sarah Ahmed in Queer Phenomenology
(2006), I attempt to illustrate how the theoretical framework of this research came into being.
The queer Muslim body is, other than most queer bodies that have always been orientating
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within a Westernized context, not always aiming to have a linear coming out process. Due to
the problems sketched above, to do a publically coming out is not always what the queer
Muslim body is aiming for. As Gloria Wekker stated in her work about the ‘habitus’ of queer
Muslims, migrant sexualities can be understood through modes of ‘doing’ instead of modes of
‘speaking’. She draws upon the idea that the mode of speak ability within the Netherlands has
the tendency to silence queer Muslim people (Jivrai, 2011). This idea gives a broader view on
how this queer sexuality of Muslims is formed outside the discourse of the homonormative as
it is seen in the Netherlands. The overall aim of this research is to find out how the queer
Muslim identity is perceived within the sphere of social work spaces and contact between the
sexual/cultural identity of the social worker and that of the queer Muslim adolescent. Since it
is in line with phenomenological thoughts as pointed out, it the topic will be approached
starting from human situations and experiences. The focus will not only be on the perception
of the queer Muslim adolescents but evenly as important on the perception of social workers
and how they see themselves in relation to the queer Muslim body and what effects this has
on the mode of working together.
Queer phenomenology as explained by Sarah Ahmed will serve as a starting point to
give more insight in the lived and embodied experiences of the queer body in contemporary
Westernized society. She argued: “Phenomenology helps us to explore how bodies are shaped
by histories which they perform” (Ahmed, 2006, pp. 56). In Queer Phenomenology Ahmed
explains carefully and encompassing the point of view of the queer subject and as its
processes of orientating and experiencing the queer body within a heteronormatively shaped
world. She focuses on directionality, re-orientation and familiarity of the queer body in
relation to the world in which it has to find its place. Furthermore the book provides for an
explanatory view of how the queer body could be perceived from the perspective of other’s
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who feel the need to work with this group of people but do not share the same sexual or
religious identity.
Due to their socio-cultural situations, the considerations and decisions queer Muslim
adolescents have to make in order to live up to their sexual identity (and do a coming out)
without fear and threat are presumably more complicated than they are for people who do not
face a double minority. For example, in the early stage of a coming out (acceptance of one’s
sexual orientation by the Self and by others) rejection of religious tradition is common; but in
later stages, when identity acceptance and pride are reached, the need to integrate one’s
homosexual and religious identities can become paramount (Rosser, 1992).
Ahmed states that ‘it is not just that bodies are moved by the orientations they have, but
rather, the orientations we have towards others shape the contours of space by affecting
relations of proximity and distance between bodies’. For queer Muslim adolescents, being
queer in a Westernized context within The Netherlands and at the same time feeling affiliation
with the Muslim acquires finding a new shape, a new body, a different way of orientating.
They have to give meaning to their sexual identity by following paths that have not been
taken by many before.
In orientating the sexual body towards others, one always has to have a starting point.
A home. And feeling at home includes a history of arrival. But can the queer body ever arrive
if the home is always in the act of being lost? Although Ahmed states that feeling lost, still
takes us somewhere and that this feeling can come familiar. She states that by registering
what is not familiar can in its turn become a familiar feeling. Without the sense of a home,
where the body arrives, in a continuous process of reorientation in various situations, in
feeling rejected by both their families and the world outside and feeling the threat of not
fitting in anywhere. Ahmed argues that emotions of fear involve affective forms of
reorientation and that the orientations we have towards others shape the contours of space by
23
affecting relations of proximity and distance between bodies (Ahmed, 2006). In relation with
Judith Butler’s idea of ‘passing’ as a discursive act, Ahmed argues that we only become a
subject in answering to the call of someone else. In turning around whenever called, we hear
ourselves as the subject of an address. Turning this way or turning that way. Answering to this
group or answering to the other group. The topic of the functionality of speech comes to the
fore. Discourse is what creates us. It is what creates the sexual being. It is what creates us,
what orientates us and also what forces us to re-orientate and to find new ways to feel at
home.
It is important to think of the social interaction between the client and the social
worker. In that moment they share a space and to make their social contact ‘work’ they need
to be orientated towards each other. Is this possible with the intersection of cultural and/or
sexually oriented lines that differ? Who they have to turn to is decided by their own
orientation and they orientation towards the other (the social worker).
24
On Passing
The Changeableness Within Social Encountering and the Performative power of Language
One of the known coping strategies to deal with internalized homo negativity is roletaking, in order to answer to this feeling of self-negativity. This enables someone to view
themself from the imagined view of others (Thoits, 1985). As elaborated on in the subchapter
on the Minority Stress Model, this results in living a double sided life, in which the queer
identity is kept secret and a heterosexual identity is carried out towards others. In this
subchapter the act of passing of queer Muslim youth will be explored, as well as how they
experience the need to carry out their sexual identity in different manners in different
situations. I propose to explore how queer Muslim youth, in various situations choose to ‘pass
as’, to perform, different sexual identities in order to be safe from ‘killing judgments’.
Within the field of psychoanalysis it has often been addressed how social agents
constitute their own social reality through language, gestures and other social signs. This idea
of ‘constituting acts’ has been explored by (post)structuralists such as e.g. Butler, Husserl,
DeBeauvoir and Merleau-Ponty. In the following part the act of ‘passing’ of Judith Butler will
be described. A close reading of Butlers interpretation of the text Passing written by Nella
Larsen in her book Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (1993), has provided
for an insight in the cross-identification of sexuality and race. The text Passing revolves
around questions on what can and cannot be spoken, what can and cannot be publically
exposed. As Butler argues, these questions are continuously linked with desire and ones
cultural background and can be used when one of these is ‘muted’. In the context of this
research, the concept of ‘muted’ means that a person’s sexual identity is not visible. This
makes it possible, for queer Muslim adolescents to pass as heterosexual, by using the
25
heterosexual discourse. This interplay between ‘muted’ and ‘discourse’ gives a thoughtful
insight in the psychological complexity of the double binding identities of queer Muslims.
At the basis of thoughts about the process of creating a sexual identity lie thoughts
about gender constitution. Gender is a socio-cultural construction which tells us, in the
process of socialization, how to adapt to a certain gender identity, female or male. Together
with the discourse that is hidden in socialization processes, we internalize gender specific
behavior. These ‘rules’ tell us how to be a woman and how to be a man. By constructing a set
of internalized discursive scripts that a are repeated over and over again in certain situations,
the queer Muslim body creates an illusion of an identity that answers to different parts of the
queer Muslim identity without being punished for the ‘wrong’ behavior. In Muslim
communities the sexual act defines someone’s sexual identity, more than does the feelings
towards another body. In relation to this, same-gender sex and opinions about it consists in the
context concerning male dominancy. As Rusmir Musíc, a scholar within the field of
Humanities and Social thought has pointed out: ‘Societal disgust at the same-gender coitus
takes highly gendered tones, whereby queer people disregard the ‘natural’ order that man be
‘active’ and woman a ‘passive’ partner. Phallogocentrism establishes a clear binary between
taking pleasure and submitting to someone, commanding that a man does not play ‘the role of
the woman’ with another man, or use another man like a woman’(Musíc, 2003, pp. 29). As a
male, to be submissive to a man, treat a man like a woman or pronouncing to have same sex
acts automatically implies a queer-identity, by which they would be excluded from the
heterosexual discourse. Having feelings towards someone with the same sex, without this
being visible or put into action is seen as harmless (Musíc, 2003). In other words, the knowing
of others within the Muslim community and the act of being given a name is what is at stake.
Thus, the approach of ‘the act of passing’ as a discursive practice is applicable to the case of
queer Muslims. They perform different sexual identity behavior in different situations in order
26
to not be excluded from the hegemonic discourse on ‘the right Muslim body’. By passing as
heterosexual they are hidden and safe. Suspicions mean nothing, only clear acts and
vocabulary. The ‘naming’ of being heterosexual could be interpreted as a knowingness which
fixates identity and establishes the force of being given a name.
The way social actors use discourse is something that is often discussed. In a
Foucauldian sense, discourse constitutes everyday life and the experiences people have. We
become autonomous subjects by subjugating these dominant forces of discipline. We can use
discourse, but discourse also uses us. For every discursive act we practice, we give notion to
the deeper meaning of things, of the symbolic order. In this sense, language is a way of acting
by which we shape ourselves and the world around us (Shotter, 1993). Judith Butler has found
similarities between this Foucauldian (post)structuralist opinion on language and speech act
theory (Butler, 1993). According to Butler acts of language are paradigmatic for the way in
which individuals are subjected to language itself. Acts of language, such as addressing and
appointing, have an illocutionary power: in pronouncing the words, they come into being.
However, she also argues that there is always a division between acting and acting upon,
which refers to influencing. Indicating to what extend speech as a performative act actually
has consequences, is impossible without taking into account the context in which the speech
act has taken place. By emphasizing this gap between speaking and acting, between the
discursive practice and the discursive act, Butler parries the often critiqued Foucauldian
structialist vision, that it would leave no room for fighting, altering and shifting the discourse.
Butler sees ones gender identity as an accumulation of ‘performative acts’. She does this by
combining continental philosophy (Hegel, Freud, Foucault) with influences of feminist theory
and speech act theory. Two important aspects of this gender as a performance are first of all
that words create certain expectations which ultimately will produce that what is expected.
Secondly, gender as a performance is not a onetime decision. By the constant and ritual
27
repetition and the ability of repeating, the gender pattern gradually is perceived as natural
(Beatens, 2009). Over time a true gender identity is created to rely on, for both the individual
as for its social environment. People are made to believe that whenever a body does deviate
from these ‘acts’ there most definitely will be social sanctions. Essentially sexed bodies
therefore have to comply with these internalized gendered selves. In this sense it would seem
binding to distance one’s self from the gender roles one has always thought she or he had. For
queer Muslims this could be a double sided problem since they have to break with both their
culturally formed bodies as well as their heterosexually formed bodies. Two discourses to be
in line and out of line with in order to pass.
Within the field of gender studies, Judith Butlers’ theory on gender as a performance
is seen as a resistance against heterosexuality. By acting out certain gender roles, this
behavior is sometimes seen as to be criticizing the oppressing subject of power. In relation to
this Butler argues that cultural discourse defines, constructs and produces sexual bodies:
“Discourse is the means by which we understand what bodies are” (Barker, 2008). Sexual
identities are not fixed, but should be seen as evolving within social contexts and
achievements of a certain moment in time, interpreted according to its own being and stylized
repetition within entities. To illustrate this: “If gender is instituted through acts which are
internally discontinuous, then the appearance of substance is precisely that, a constructed
identity, a performative accomplishment which the mundane social audience, including the
actors themselves, come to believe and to perform in the mode of belief” (Butler, 1988).
Thus, in this case, I choose to perceive this performance as a strategy for queer Muslims
youngsters being able to pass as heterosexual. In their cultural environments homosexuality is
not acknowledged to be a possible sexual identity. Thus, if a Muslim does not identify with
the norm of heterosexuality, under the threat of punishment, they are able to create a fake
discursive identification with heterosexuality. They are compelled to ‘cite the norm in order to
28
still remain a viable subject’ (Barker, 2008, pp. 298). They are pronounced heterosexual, by
themselves in order to be ‘safely pronounced heterosexual by others. This is how social
dimensions are constituted. This is how hegemonic norms about social dimensions are
formed. If this power of speech is so comprehensive, are we, as social actors performing
through speech, able to pass as different sexual bodies in various situations? Are we able to
alter the way we experience our sexual body and make other experience our sexual body, our
sexual identity in the way that makes social situations as fluidly as possible? This may seem
unethical. However, according to the case of queer Muslim adolescents, admittedly these
considerations are in place.
Within the field of social work, social relations and social realities are formed in the
contact between the client and the social worker. Both have their own cultural and sexual
identities intersecting. Considering that both parties are able to make strategic considerations
according to their personal purpose within the context of the conversation, I propose to look at
how they both cope with the concept of passing and how this affects the nature of the consult.
Looking at the existing and general facilities within this field that are available to queer
Muslim adolescents seeking help in combining their cultural and sexual identity, it is arguable
whether the ‘languages’ that both parties speak match. According to reasons that were pointed
in the previous chapter finding someone who is able to relate fully to the case of queer
Muslim youngsters is hard to find. The mutual contact between the social workers and client
could be queer, for the Muslim social worker are likely to face internal boundaries in helping
them, whereas the Dutch queer social workers are not fully able to understand their cultural
context. This queering, in line with Butlers argument, is brought into being not only by the act
of passing by the queer Muslim youngster and the possible faltering of the social worker.
Also, it could be brought into being by the assumptions they possibly have towards each
other, by the supposed knowingness of what the ‘other’ aims at in the conversation. For
29
instance, stubbornness to talk about experiences and desires could arise whenever the client
experiences the Dutch social workers indicates a linear approach to do a coming out which is
not fitting to her/his situation. A gap in their language could disrupt the language of both
sexual identity and cultural identity.
30
Chapter 3
Methodology
Accessing subjugated voices
The overall aim of this research is to get a better insight in the lived social experiences that
take place within the realm of the field of social work. These experiences are fundamental in
the process of optimalizing the social assistance for queer Muslim youngsters. Therefore it is
necessary to get to the core of the social dynamics which provide insights in how the social
assistance towards queer Muslim adolescents is conducted. To get to the core of their
perspectives and stories it is important to explore this through the process of making meaning
partnership between the interviewer and the respondents to learn about social dynamics,
different perspectives and experiences of language and those living it (Hesse-Bieber, 2006).
Since the aim of this research is to gain rich personal data from the perspectives of individuals
on a topic that asks for an approach that is designed to get at ‘deep’ information and
understanding, the method that is chosen to work with is in-depth interviews. According to
Hesse-Bieber (2006) “In-depth interviews are very useful for accessing subjugated voices and
getting at subjugated knowledge. Those who have been marginalized in a society, such as
women, people of color, homosexuals, and the poor, may have hidden experiences and
knowledge that have been excluded from our understanding of social reality. “Interviewing is
a way to access some of this information”, (Hesse-Bieber, 2006, pp. 123).
Participants
Data have been collected from in-depth interviews with self-identified queer Muslim
adolescents and social workers who work with them. The participants all had connections
31
with project Veilige Haven, both the location in Amsterdam as in Nijmegen, and NIM
Maatschappelijk Werk. The segment of social workers all can be considered as having affinity
with the queer or the Muslim community or both. They considered themselves specialists on
these topics who are able to provide the appropriate approaches in working with (queer)
adolescent Muslims. The participants from the group of queer Muslims all had reached a
certain level of identity development to identify themselves a Muslim and queer and have
been interviewed on a voluntary basis.
Setting
The data collection has taken place in the time framework of the beginning of April
2012 until the end of June 2012. In total 11 in-depth interviews have been conducted. The
interviews with the social workers of NIM were constructed within several locations of NIM,
at their own offices. The interviews with the target group were conducted at home, in a bar, in
Amsterdam, Utrecht and Nijmegen, wherever they felt most comfortable and safe enough to
talk. The interviews were set up via email contact and snowball sampling from there on.
Email addresses were handed from the coordinator of project Veilige Haven Oost, Theo
Verlaan. After having interviewed several social workers, they, via snowball sampling gave
access to contact data of possibly willing participants. Due to the nature of the problem, often
kept in secrecy, this group was scarcely accessible. However, the social workers who
functioned as gatekeepers to the Muslim gay-scene, made it possible for the target group to
feel safe enough to participate in this research.
Selecting of Study Participants
The interested were approached via email addresses which my internship supervisor
Theo Verlaan gave access to. From there on by means of snowball sampling, the other
participants were approached. All participated voluntarily and didn’t object for the interviews
32
being taped. Due to time only 11 participants were interviewed. As for the social workers, all,
except for one, were working at NIM Maatschappelijk Werk or project Veilige Haven. They
all had experience in working with both Muslim and queer youth and were thought to be
experts on these topics by other colleagues. The participants of the target group, the queer
Muslim adolescents, were appointed by some of the social workers. The people they selected
for me to approach were selected based on how far they were in their identity forming
process. They only brought me in contact with those who to them seemed confident and ready
enough to talk about their problems with an ‘outsider’ researcher. The age of the social
workers varied from 28 to 43. The age of the target group participants varied from 18 to 28.
The interviews were conducted with two Muslim social workers, two queer social workers
(one woman, one man), three queer Muslim social workers and three queer Muslim
adolescents. The three queer Muslim social workers have had social psychological assistance
and, after having created a satisfying situation for themselves developed into a position from
where they themselves also in various ways provide help to peers who are facing the similar
problems. They are members participating and volunteering in gay-empowering organizations
knowable as resp. COC or project Veilige Haven.
In-depth interviews
In the interviews, by means of sensitizing concepts, a set of topics was addressed. However,
the course of these topics and the amount of time spent on a topic was defined by the
interviewee. In other words, the interviews that were conducted in this research were semistructured, in a sense that beforehand topics were listed and scenes were thought through in
order to being able to rely on a certain set of questions. However, the interviews were
completely open for direction to be given by the respondents which allowed the respondents
the freedom to talk about what to them seemed most important. The interviews were
conducted to generate narratives to discover behavioral patterns in the making of meaning of
33
sexual identity experience within one’s self and in relation to ones cultural identity and others.
A reflective method of ‘sensitizing concepts’ was used, to constantly extract important issues
from one interview and take this into the next. Sensitizing concepts are concepts which give
the researcher a general sense of what to look at and pay attention to in the analysis of the
research, but never imply the truth or the definitive answer, but are based on a general notion
on what is important to take into further account (Blumer, 1954). They function as starting
point for every further step within the research (Bowen, 2006). The idea is based on
repetition, on reflection the material that is already there and from there on work with how
they present themselves. The sensitizing concepts that flow out of an interview are used to
point the researcher into another direction that is doing more justice to the research material
and the participants. This method provides the researcher constantly with new ways of seeing
things and new directions.
The practice of making memos and ascribing codes to the research material is a
practice that can be ascribed to the method of sensitizing concepts. These practices have been
conducted in order to step by step create and adjust topics and the mode of interviewing, by
means of criteria that flow out of the already existing material. The memos have functioned as
a guiding line for ideas to be further explored or dismissed. Interview topics have been altered
with regard to these memos. In this research, the practice of ‘coding’ has been a prominent
way in which the materials have been explored and explained. This practice of coding is
based on looking from the problem into the materials and therefore looking from a certain
perspective. Codes are very useful to connect the materials to the analytical framework. They
represent very clearly what the relevant main topics of discussion have been in the interviews.
In this research an open form of coding has been used to stay as close as possible to the
research materials. This means no preliminary codes were set before the interviews took
place. While coding the research questions have functioned as guidance.
34
This method has been used from the idea that no researcher is a ‘tabula rasa’, but
rather has to try things and find a way to at best cope with what is at hand. In the process of
constantly reflecting and being in touch with the field of research, the researcher is able to
form a notion of what is important. In this manner, the research material becomes more
empirical. In this research this was done during an internship at project Veilige Haven which
provided the researcher the opportunity to spend a lot of time within the field. Note that only
after the rigorous evaluation of the collected data, the definite research questions have been
formed, since the concepts as chosen to be the definite ones define how the respondents
experience the field of social assistance.
The interviews were structured into several segments in order to touch upon
concerning the respondents perception on sexual diversity, being queer and being a Muslim,
experiences concerning a coming out and social work facilities concerning this topic. Two
separate interviewing guides were set up. Each with regard to the nature of the group: ‘Social
worker’ or ‘queer Muslim adolescent’. Because of the delicacy of the research topic it was
important to think of how to getting the respondents starting to talk. Therefore an explanation
of the research project, of my personal interest in the topic, my intentions and why I wanted to
talk to them, was given in order to create an interviewing space that was as safe as possible.
Also, all the interviews started off with general and easy questions. These involved questions
like: “How could you describe the cultural environment you grew up in?” In talking about
topics that were more delicate, such as ‘coming out’ or opinions on sexual diversity, the thing
that was mainly asked for was “How did you experience this the first time you..” or “Why do
you think this happened”, to focus on the person and her/his experience and their
perspectives. All in all, the focus was on how to make the interview, in asking, listening and
talking, a most collaborative process as possible.
In the interviews, also the concept of “strong objectivity” as it was proposed by Sandra
35
Harding (1993) was taken into account. Strong objectivity means the taking into account the
differences between the researcher and the participant. In doing so, the interviewing, for me as
a researcher, was a constant process of asking myself questions like: “How does my own
agenda shape what I ask and what I find?”, “How does my personality influence how I
interpret data?” and “How do my own beliefs and opinions enter the research field”. As a
researcher I constantly tried to reflect on these questions, while interviewing, but also in the
process of writing and interpreting my data.
For the first group in order of appearance in the data analysis, the Muslim social
workers and the homosexual social workers, questions were asked which touched upon basic
matters in the context of the respondents’ experiences within the field of social work. These
questions addressed working experiences, experiences with Muslim adolescents and
experiences with the topic of sexual diversity. Subsequently, this topic proceeded in more indepth questions about the opinion on sexual diversity in combination with an Islamic
background. This was done in order to find out the amount of present knowledge and opinions
of the social worker on this topic. Furthermore, questions have been asked about experiences
in working with queer Muslim adolescents, how this contact was perceived and how the social
worker could put her/his own sexual/cultural identity in relation to the one of the client.
As for the queer Muslim youth, the structure of the interviews was even more open, due to the
fact that in these conversations even more sensitive topics were addressed. These interviews
have been more open for personal input of the respondent in order to create a comfortable and
open conversation. The topics revolved around ‘coming out’, family life, dangers and
psychological issues. Moreover, we discussed acts of passing in various situations and this
behavior was perceived by the respondent.
36
Chapter 4
Analysis
In this chapter I will present my analysis of the data collected through the in-depth
interviews. By the method of sensitizing concepts, various important themes have come out
of these conversations which elucidated the most important topics within the lived
experiences of the social dynamics between the social workers and the queer Muslim
adolescents in the counseling. In relation to the research questions, the themes that have
emanated from the interviews are: ‘Ambiguity’, claiming to be open towards the topic of
homosexuality, but at the same feeling aversion. ‘Shifting’: the discursive and behavioral
practices that indicate a shifting between the collective Muslim identity and a personal
Western identity. ‘Politics of trans-cultural communication’: thoughts and decisions in the
process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries.
In this research I propose the politics of this trans-cultural communication as a discursive
practice to cross cultural boundaries in order to facilitate and open up communication lines
between the social worker and the client who have two different cultural backgrounds.
‘Linearity’: the phenomenological notion on the process of coming out with which Dutch
social workers, in line with their own experiences, tend to work. And ‘Trust’, which by all
respondents, social workers and target group, is seen as the key factor to opening up the
conversation. This trust mainly consists of sharing the double minority position of being both
queer and Muslim.
In this chapter I will show the ways in which these themes that emanated from the
research data. I have divided the interviews into four categories which will be discussed
separately, consisting of the target group, Muslim social workers, Dutch homosexual social
37
workers and the queer Muslim social workers. The focus will be on the main topics that were
addressed namely: ‘opinions on intersecting identities of sexual identity and cultural identity’,
‘experiences with coming out’, ‘experiences with coming out within the context of sociopsychological assistance’ and in relation to these three: ‘the concept of passing as a strategy to
cross borders of cultural and ‘muted’ sexual identity in order to make the counseling towards
queer Muslim adolescents more effective’. The last category was not explicitly mentioned, in
a sense of addressing the concept of passing. This concept includes various entrances, ways to
cover ‘passing’, such as questions about coping with possible difficulties in the
communication that is used in the counseling.
38
Experiences of Muslim social workers encountering queer adolescents
within the field of social work.
‘I think I am really open towards people being lesbian or gay, even though I am a muslim.
But I can understand her dad hated her for it, wanting to beat her and that he eventually
wanted her out of the house.’
(Mustapha, NIM)
The Muslim, heterosexual, social workers who have been interviewed are Mustapha and
Marzouk. Mustapha is a social worker of NIM Maatschappelijk Werk. His work consists of
helping the community of one of the suburbs of Nijmegen called Lindenholt with their daily
struggles. This entails functioning as a mediator between neighbors, between principals and
kids, between the police and inhabitants of this area. His function is also of a more sociopsychological nature, for he has his office where people come to talk about social problems
they are facing.
I came into contact with Mustapha via my internship mentor Theo Verlaan, who also
is a social worker at NIM, currently coordinating Project Veilige Haven there. Verlaan
designated Mustapha as someone who in the past decades has been working a lot with Muslim
youth and who would be able to give specific and detailed insight in the problems they are
engaging with in their daily lives. Marzouk is a social worker, specialized in working with
youngsters. He is working at Tandem, a chain partner company of NIM Maatschappelijk
Werk. Marzouk and I met during a training for teachers to create a more open environment
towards sexual diversity in their classrooms. He was giving this training as a volunteer for the
project School’s Out, a project to create more awareness at school for the existence of sexual
diversity among teachers and students.
39
Opinions on the intersection of the homosexual identity and the cultural Muslim
identity:
On the topic of the possibility of being both a devoted Muslim and at the same time
being openly queer, Muslim social workers hesitated. The following quotes show that they
feel an incapability of interacting with problems that have to do with they client being
homosexual. :
‘…if a gay person has respect for others and respect for himself and if he doesn’t do anything
wrong, on those term one could be a good Muslim as well. If you’re acting out like your gay,
that’s not done. If it doesn’t show, then it’s ok’.
(Marzouk, Tandem)
This quote reflects a double binding of Marzouk which is determinative for his
opinion on the possibiliy of combining the Muslim cultural identity with being homosexual.
Marzouk grew up within a Westernized atmosphere of the Netherlands, however values his
family lived up to when he was little were strictly Islamic. It was noticeable that in his daily
work as a social worker, he himself faced an ambiguity.
As mentioned before, Marzouk and I met during a training for teachers to create a more open
environment towards sexual diversity in their classrooms. When I asked him about his
particular interest in this topic he answered:
‘I want to create more awareness towards the existence of sexual diversity. Is sense a lot of
negativity in my daily work with teenagers on the streets. They often harass someone they
assume to be gay. I’m against this. I don’t want to change people’s entire mind set when it
comes to sexual diversity, but I want to create more acceptance towards it. I understand
people might want to beat up someone who is gay, because of the aversion they feel inside but
40
I don’t approve of this’.
(Marzouk, Tandem)
This shows that on the one hand he is willing to be of help and to be open to any kind
of problem his clients face, however, his capability of interacting with problems of a nature
that collides with him being a Muslim with Islamic values that resent homosexuality, has its
limits, for he also understands the reasons for the strong resentment towards homosexuality
from within the Muslim community.
Mustapha first came in contact with the topic of sexual diversity when he accidentally
signed up for a queer cooking course he was attending at Vila Lila in Nijmegen. This is a well
known queer socio-cultural centre which regularly organizes events and offers facilities like
e.g. shelter to those in need. Mustapha didn’t know this and signed up for the cooking course.
The following quote shows how he thinks about dangers for a Muslim of being associated
with the queer community:
‘That was really a strange experience. Haha. I didn’t know what Villa Lila was and when I
went to this course there were only gay men. Haha. I thought, something is off. I thougth:
shit! I found it really hard. This course was on Monday and right across the street was a pizza
restaurant where a lot of Moroccan people I knew were working. I had the feeling I had to be
really careful nobody would see me go in. I hesitated to quit the course, but I didn’t.
In his daily work as a social worker it is clearly noticeable that he would rather keep away
from the subject. I was afraid to be associated with the gay community’.
(Mustapha, NIM)
41
Experiences with coming out within the context of socio-psychological assistance:
One could assume that the help provided from people who share the same cultural
background could be adequate because of shared values and shared subject positions. This is
often done. Queer Muslim adolescents, who enter Tandem or NIM, are often entrusted to the
Muslim social workers. In the interviews with Muslim social workers who on a daily basis
work with Muslim youth a general sense of incapability to work with the topic of sexual
diversity was noticed not only with the researcher but also admitted implicitly by the social
workers themselves. I approached Muslim social workers with a double curiosity. On the one
hand I presumed they could give great insight in the communal identity of Muslims, Muslim
youth in the Netherlands and the nature of the problems they face when they approached him
for help. On the other hand, according to the general negative attitude within the Muslim
community towards sexual diversity, I expected a resistance in talking about this topic.
Mustapha appeared to be very willing to talk and seemed to do his best to be of service
to all of my questions, although some of a very personal nature. Professional and
encompassing answers he gave me, however, his body language told me he sometimes wasn’t
comfortable. I tried to give the topic of sexual diversity several entries, however, every time
this came up, he got nervous, started laughing, clicking with his pen and started speaking
louder and faster. I sensed I touched upon things he very much tried to approach neutrally, but
he obviously, although I told him in an email what the interview was going to be about, was
caught off guard and wanted to pass these questions as fast as he could. In order to make him
feel more comfortable we talked about his experiences in working with Muslim youth. He
claimed to have a ‘click’ with them, and sees this as the key to the successful collaborations
he has experienced with young Muslims living in the suburbs of Nijmegen. When Mustapha
42
got more at ease I tried again to talk with him about the encounters he had with queer Muslim
youth in his work as a social worker.
He said:
‘I can remember picking up on someone’s troubles concerning her sexual identity. I had the
feeling his problems at home had to do with her being a lesbian. However, I didn’t bring the
topic up in our session. We didn’t have enough time for that. Other topics were more
important at the time (keeps on laughing nervously). I think I am really open towards people
being lesbian or gay, even though I am a muslim. But I can understand her dad hated her for
it, wanting to beat her and that he eventually wanted her out of the house.’
(Mustapha, NIM)
Mustapha is not the only social worker who claimed to be very open towards the topic
of sexual diversity, but seemed uncomfortable whenever the topic of sexual diversity came up
in the conversation. Another social worker who specifically is working with Muslim youth is
Marzouk, who is working at Tandem, which is part of NIM and focuses mainly on the support
of children on the streets. Marzouk keeps them out of trouble, makes sure they arrange their
lives properly in order to be part of society. He takes care of them and regularly talks them
about their lives. Starting with the notion that these kids, mainly Muslim boys, are facing a
great group pressure in acting masculine, Marzouk said to be reserved in bringing up the topic
of homosexuality in his contact with them.
Interesting is that both the Muslim social workers I interviewed said they were open,
but nonetheless they both started laughing, playing with their pencil or raising their voice
when I brought this up. They also experienced a sense of incapability in helping queer
Muslim youth with problems concerning their sexual identity. In exploring the problem, they
tend to overlook the possibilities of queerness interacting with other problems at home or at
43
school.
It regularly happens that when a Muslim girl or boy enters the organization, she or he is often
appointed to one of the Muslim social workers. However, issues of resisting homosexuality
from within their own cultural identity and the fear of getting in too deep with the topic or
gossip get in the way of providing entirely inclusive help for queer Muslim youth.
The concept of passing as a strategy to cross borders of cultural and sexual identity in
order to make the counseling towards queer Muslim adolescents more effective:
On how he experienced encountering a Muslim youngster of which he had the feeling he had
homosexual feeling which were causing a difficult situation at home, Marzouk said:
‘I picked up the signal from one of the kids. One of his teachers called me from school and in
this conversation they also told me they had the feeling he might be gay. I deliberately didn’t
discuss this with him, because that I treated him in order of the way in which he acted and he
didn’t act like he was gay. I never discussed his sexual identity with him. I wouldn’t be able to
function, as a person with an Islamic background, if we would discuss these things. I had to
ignore it, because of my personal values’.
(Marzouk, Tandem)
This quote shows that the manner of passing of the queer Muslim boy is determinative
in how Marzouk approached him. Marzouk was brought up in a Muslim community, but in
his words developed an own identity, apart from the communal identity.
44
On how the topic of homosexuality was discussed at home, while growing up, both
Marzouk and Mustapha were clear: ‘Homosexuality didn’t exist’:
‘Growing up within an Muslim community I never talked about it with my parents; it was out
of discussion, though I somehow knew that being gay was something dirty, but I try to look
beyond what my religion tells me to do, I also live in another world. In the rare cases I do talk
about sexual diversity, I have to do this from my within my own identity, my own perspective.
If I would talk about this from within my Islamic perspective, I wouldn’t be able to talk about
it with other people, due to the taboo that lies on this topic’.
(Marzouk, Tandem)
This quote shows that Marzouk had the feeling that he had to pass as Western in order
to acknowledge the topic of homosexuality within his job as a social worker. He had to shift
along cultural lines, to let go of his cultural values as a Muslim, in order to be able to talk
about encounter the topic of homosexuality. He creates a division between his Muslim
identity and his personal identity he developed from living in the Dutch society. It is this
ambiguity that makes him capable of wanting to succeed in talking about sexual diversity and
taking up on problems that the children he works with face according to this topic. He wants
to make them feel more accepting of homosexuality and he wants to raise conscious towards
the possibility of homosexuality. However, he does not see possibilities of being both Muslim
and queer. This makes him, however wanting to be an all round social worker, in my opinion
not capable of working with queer Muslim youth. Muslim youth that enter the field of social
work in order to be helped with coping with their sexual identity, are likely to be appointed to
Marzouk, for he himself is a Muslim. This could cause experiencing a sense of incapacity for
both in the contact towards each other.
45
Evidently, social workers with an Islamic background make a distinction between their
identity within their community and the one within their working field. On the one hand they
want to be a competent social worker who is able to create an open and safe environment for
the youth they work with. On the other hand, they cannot part from their own ideas about
sexuality and gender. It might be this ambivalence that causes Muslim social workers to not
being able to work with the topic of sexual diversity and Islam. This might be due to the fact
that they cannot be unbiased in these conversations, that they always take themselves and
their own values with them. This causes a climate of acting ‘like it isn’t there’ which might
have to do with their own socialization processes from within their own cultural community.
Overall could be said that Muslim social workers are incapable to help people who share the
same cultural values with their problems concerning sexual diversity. Although they claim to
accept it, they have their own opinions about homosexuality. These refer to the idea that it is
not natural and should not be performed openly, and stand in their way. This makes it hard to
fully commit to cases in which these problems occur and work with people who are facing
problems of this nature.
46
Experiences of queer social workers encountering Islam in the field of social
work
“I have to assure them that it is not my own path, the one that I took, that I suggest them to
follow”
(Pieter-Jan, NIM
Next to the Muslim social workers I also interviewed queer social workers. From their point
of view they would seem fit to work with the target group, from their own sexual identity
experience. The idea in interviewing them is to find out how Dutch queer social workers,
from within their own sexual identity and cultural values and ideas about the Muslim
community in the Netherlands, could provide for an interesting insight in how the existing
field of social work is dealing with Muslim people as well as what it means to be queer within
the field of social work and how the contact with queer Muslim youth is perceived. Within
NIM Maatschappelijk Werk, there are two queer people working: Lydia, who has been
working with refugee and homeless children for over 8 years now with R75, a subsidiary of
NIM. And Pieter-Jan, who is not working with children currently but has been sent out to the
Dutch Antilles to work change the social work program over there. There he experienced
working with Muslim people as well as a lot of negative attitudes against homosexuality from
the Muslim social workers.
47
Experiences with coming out within the context of socio-psychological assistance:
Generated from the interviews it could be stated that lesbian/queer social workers have to
overcome a cultural barrier in order to make a connection with Muslim youth. As Pieter-Jan
stated in the interview:
‘In order to understand them and to help them as an adequate social worker, I would first
have to let go everything I myself stand for as a gay person. I have to assure them that it is not
my own path, the one that I took, that I suggest them to follow’.
(Pieter-Jan, NIM)
Pieter-Jan himself experienced the act of having to perform a sexual identity strategy
when he was sent to The Dutch Antilles to share information and experiences on social work
with social workers on the island of Curacao. He encountered various cultural contexts which
he couldn’t connect to. But he had to in order to pass as a trustworthy social worker. PieterJan, as a queer person, experienced what it is like to live in an environment where people have
different values and what it is like to ‘leave yourself behind’ in order to get accepted. On
Curacao Pieter-Jan found out that a lot of social practices evolve around sexuality and ideas
about femininity and masculinity. Homosexuality is non-negotiable and seen as something
that doesn’t apply to the norms on how to be a woman or how to be a man. His time on the
island made him understand what it is like to having to act differently, having to profile
yourself different from who you really are by stating that you are someone other than the real
Self. He experienced a hostile environment of colleagues on the island he was sent to and had
to fake being heterosexual in order to be taken seriously by his colleagues.
48
‘I lost myself and who I want to be in order to get accepted over there. I wanted to adapt
myself to their standards in order to have a good coalition and to learn from each other. The
price I had to pay to get things done was to leave my sexual identity at home’.
(Pieter-Jan, NIM)
The concept of passing as a strategy to cross borders of cultural and sexual identity in
order to make the counseling towards queer Muslim adolescents more effective:
His experiences on Curacao made Pieter-Jan realize how the situation for Muslim people
living in the Netherlands can be like and he has gained respect for the way people from other
cultural backgrounds than Dutch cope with their homosexual feelings within an environment
that isn’t supportive. However, he stated that sometimes it is hard to fully commit to
understanding the approach of a double life a lot of Muslim people choose to lead. He said
that he is used to working towards a total coming out, because that is the normal thing to do as
a queer person in the Netherlands. The negative experiences Pieter-Jan had on Curacao made
him see that Dutch social workers have to listen to where the voices they are trying to help
come from. Where the client has been, what his social and cultural background is and what
their personal context is in which they are operating. He came to understand that the process
of orientating towards one’s social sexuality is not always as linear as it is perceived to be for
Dutch people. However, he cannot do away with his personal opinion on sexual diversity, that
homosexuality is something that one needs to be proud of and openly stand up for:
‘Sometimes, in cases of gay Muslim youth I would rather not stimulate a coming out, because
I am afraid these kids lose everything and everybody they love. Nevertheless, I can’t help it to
advocate for being proud of who you are, what you want sexually and what you believe in.
49
Thus, I have often appointed them to seek intensively whether there really aren’t any options
to do a coming out’.
(Pieter-Jan, NIM)
Lydia found out that in her contact with Muslim adolescents, a ‘click’, that moment of
trust, a moment of connection and the feeling that you are on the same level, is the most
important thing in getting them to talk about delicate matters such as homosexual feelings.
She argued that in their contact with the often shy, and an attitude of wait-and-see Muslim
youth, it is difficult for Dutch social workers to make a connection with Muslim/immigrant
youth. Strategies that are used by the social workers to achieve this connection vary in the
cases that have been studied. In Lydia’s case, she strategically deploys her own sexual
identity of being a lesbian in order to make an emotional connection with some of her clients:
‘In showing them I am also part of a minority group, I hope to give them a feeling that they
are safe, that they are accepted by me for who they are. In doing so I open up the
conversation and therefore it is often easier to make a so called click with the clients’.
(Lydia, R57)
However, Lydia is of opinion that it is necessary to keep in mind that putting her own
sexual identity on display, by literally bringing it up in the dialogue, could have the opposite
effect. One has to be subtle and careful. The strategy she handles is to drop some small hints
like e.g. referring to a queer magazine or a gay-bar and see if the client is acquainted with this
or not. Although she has been interested in other cultures for over a long time and has read a
lot on social practices like the topic of honor in social settings and the strong communities
50
bonds many Muslim communities have, she indicated she would like to have some more
training and background information on how to deal with these issues as a Dutch social
worker.
Trust and respect are the main subjects that have to be accomplished, as is argued by
Lydia and Pieter-Jan. This connection can be made by position themselves not only from their
subject position of the social worker, but also as a queer person in a heteronormative society
who has had similar experiences with regard to being able to feel at ease with their sexual
identity. However, queer social workers are only partially able to understand the position
Muslim youth with homosexual feelings. They initiated more training and experience in
working with Muslim youth, in order to make their assistance more comprehensive. It could
be argued that no one can ever leave her or his own sexual identity, cultural identity and
personal values that resonate with these ‘at home’.
51
Peer-orientated help from queer Muslims:
Expertise by experience
I wanted to empower him, with myself as an example, to make him see that he could face all
his problems and deal with them. You can feed someone who is hungry fishes, but rather you
teach him how to fish for himself’
(Bahtyar, 42 years old, COC Nijmegen, Veilige Haven Oost)
Recently, as addressed in the Introduction, the idea of providing for help towards the target
group of queer Muslim adolescents who face troubles due to their sexual identity within their
Muslim community has been evolved in the setting up of peer-orientated help. Project Veilige
Haven Amsterdam, as earlier brought up, is one of the facilities that work with this idea.
Three young men, both queer and Muslim, who have experiences both in seeking help for
socio-psychological problems due to the complex intersection of their sexual and cultural
identity, as well as helping others with this, are Isjed, Farand and Bahtyar.
Isjed is a young Muslim queer man who at the age of 18 decided to move to Utrecht. He grew
up in a rural area, where he didn’t feel comfortable. The city allowed him to get absorbed by
the way more developed gay-scene. On top of that Utrecht facilitated more spaces where
young Muslim queer people could meet. Soon he became a well know person in the gayscene. By that time, 2008, debates about homosexuality and Islam were rising:
‘More and more gay Islamic people are doing coming out of, especially in the bigger cities
like Amsterdam and Utrecht. I think they feel safer, surrounded by peers who share the same
problems and experiences. It is because they feel empowered in their position. I like the
reaction of the media, jumping in on this. It gave me a sense of being important, being seen
52
and heard. The more people inch by inch come to know about us, the more acknowledgement
and acceptances we hopefully get from within our own communities and the rest of society’.
(Isjed, Veilige Haven Amsterdam)
Experiences with coming out within the context of socio-psychological assistance:
Overall, the feeling that they don’t understand to what extent these young people are able to
have the same process of coming out and the extent to which they are capable of living a
queer life, causes the perception that help by the already existing organizations is inadequate.
Farand, who has been running the ‘World Café’, an initiative for peer-orientated help by
Veilige Haven Amsterdam, explains:
‘A lot of clients were sort of pushed by social workers or psychologists to do a coming out to
be rid out their problems of feeling bad, alone or an unfaithful Muslim. This is far from ideal
in my opinion, a total coming out. This is not what the people who are facing genuine dangers
want. At least not now, not yet, not in this still hostile environment. They first need to prepare
really carefully. Get ready for a totally different life. This involves a new home, a new city,
new friends, new everything. Some of the people I met decided they could never do a coming
out. They had the feeling that a coming out would simply not be possible, because they would
always have to look over their shoulders, they would be haunted by their family to set things
‘straight’ again’.
(Farand, Veilge Haven Amsterdam)
Isjeds’ opinion on the quality of peer orientated help contributes to this quote of
Farand. He was asked to do various interviews, public debates and presentations to share his
experiences with the broader public of social workers, youth workers, organizations who
work with migrant groups, cultural establishments and municipalities. He loved the attention
53
and the feeling that he finally was given a voice. However, still had the feeling he needed
some professional support to help him with his coming out:
‘After one or two sessions with Veilige Haven Amsterdam I felt so strengthened in my
own identity that I chose I wanted to contribute to this project with all my heart and soul. I
became the new coordinator of Veilige Haven. They saw it as an advantage that I myself was
part of the target group. This opinion I definitely share. In order to being able to help
someone, I think it is necessary to fully understand ones issues. Only by sharing this, one can
fully commit to helping someone out’.
(Isjed, Veilge haven Amsterdam)
Someone who also experienced this help from ‘within’ is Abdellah. Born from
Turkish Muslim parents, he had a wife and kids, although he had always been queer. He knew
that when he decided to share this with the world he was sexually attracted to men, and
actually didn’t want to be with his wife anymore, his family would come after him. He was
living in Arnhem. Facilities in this part of the Netherlands to help people, who are in danger
because of their sexual identity, are scarce. This case was before Veilige Haven Oost was
developed.
Abdellah came in contact with COC Nijmegen. Bahtiyar, active in this community
picked up the case of Abdellah and felt responsible for this boy to help him. The Turkish
Bahtyar himself had a coming out at the age of 38. He tried to be with a woman for over 10
years. It took him a long time to figure out what he wanted to do with his sexual feelings
towards men. When the time was there, he decided to tell everyone in his social group and
family. He gave them time to adapt to the idea. He never faced any problems afterwards;
everyone was kind and wanted him to be happy, although his family found it hard to
54
understand. Bahtyar felt he needed to help Abdellah to empower him in his thoughts and to
help him making crucial decisions he felt he couldn’t make on his own.
‘We could talk Turkish together and the fact that I was gay too made feel safe, not in fear of
being unveiled. He trusted nobody. The most important thing in social assistance is trust. This
double binding between us was really important. I wanted to empower him, with myself as an
example, to make him see that he could face all his problems and deal with them. You can
feed someone who is hungry fishes, but rather you teach him how to fish for himself’.
(Bahtyar, COC Nijmegen, Veilige Haven Oost)
Together they searched for a new home for Abdellah in Amsterdam and provided him with a
new start.
Experiences in ‘passing’ between the intersecting identities of homosexuality and the
Muslim identity:
Farand has been running a café in the heart of Amsterdam that was connected to Veilige
Haven in Amsterdam. The aim of this World Café was to create a safe and laid back place for
Muslim youth with homosexual feelings. However, in Farand’s opinion too little dialogues,
about coming out and bringing one’s sexual identity into practice, are being held. He would
rather see them opening up, striving to carry out their sexual identity publically:
55
‘I don’t think I behave differently in amongst different people or in different situations. That
has always been my strategy. I see it with other Islamic gay people however. This disturbs me.
They become very shy when they are on the streets, introvert. That’s the last thing I want for
myself, not being able to be who I want, whenever I want to’.
(Farand, 27 years old)
He himself did never face difficulties with acceptance of his Muslim community while
growing up. His parents are from Iran and have adapted to the Dutch standards and norms
after they came over to The Netherlands as political refugees. Also in public he never had the
feeling of having to keep his sexual identity a secret.
‘They needed time to get used to the idea, but soon they noticed I was still the same person. I
am who I am and if you have questions about it, be my guest.’
(Farand, 27 years old)
However, in the contact with the Muslim youth in the World Café, he never told other
things had been rather easy for him in his coming out, because he wanted them to make a
connection with him, a click, to feel comfortable to share their thoughts with him. Strikingly,
he wanted to be part of the group of people who were having a hard time considering the
consequences of coming out/not coming out. In these situations, he wanted to pass as
someone who was part of the group of people who were in a less fortunate position.
Not everyone has the same kind of faith in peer-orientated help from social workers
who have experienced the same two faced problem of being queer and Muslim. In a double
interview with Rachid, a Moroccan adolescent and his Dutch boyfriend Tjeu, reflected on his
56
negative view of the general climate towards queers and especially within his own Moroccan
community he had to break from in order to live up to his sexual identity as a queer person:
‘If you’re part of a marginalized group, things will never get any better’.
This reflects the distrust in the field of social work. He does not have confidence in the
fact that anybody could ever help him. He feels designated to himself in coping with his
problems. His boyfriend finds it painful to see the struggle within Rachid. Talking about
whether he had hope to one day being able to do a fully coming out and the options of getting
some help along the way Tjeu said:
‘You have to understand that you are not the only one who wants to help other people. You
helped me out, you help others out, why don’t you let somebody else help you out who knows
exactly what you are dealing with?’
(Tjeu, 18 years old)
To which Rachid answered:
‘I’m not struggling with myself, I know what my options are and I have to deal with them.
Nobody can help me, I know what is behind those closed closet doors, I know what will
happen when I come out of it, and I have chosen not to. I have left my old self in Roosendaal.’
(Rachid, 19 years old)
This conversation between Rachid and Tjeu thoroughly reflects the non-linear process
many Muslim queer people have to deal with and the distrust in the field of social assistance
in being able to help him, for he perceives them to expect him to do a coming out. It also
reflects what the situation can be like for young people like Rachid who are afraid of what
older brothers will do if they find out, the hurt they think they will cause their mothers etc.
57
Sometimes, in a club or a bar in Breda where he now lives with Tjeu, Rachid has come across
people from the Muslim community in Roosendaal. This quote indicates that an instant bond
between queer Muslims, a bond that comes from a doubly minority position and which shows
the importance of ‘having experienced the same struggle’ in order to reach a level of
understanding:
‘At first it scared the crap out of me, but right in that moment, a bond is shaped. We instantly
feel respect and understanding towards each other. We feel a connection, a warm and loving
feeling towards each other amongst Islamic gays’.
(Rachid, 19 years old)
Still, however upcoming the Muslim gay-scene in Breda, Rachid has to take pictures
of the wall and send Tjeu up stairs to hide every time his family is visiting. For the sake of
family bonds, in their presence he needs to pass as heterosexual.
‘I don’t see a way out of this act and I don’t need a way out, because this seems a hopeless
and never ending struggle’.
(Rachid, 19 years old)
This hopelessness is what people like Bahtyar, Isjed and Farand, committed to make
people like Rachid see how a non-straight Muslim life could also be like.
In general they are confident about who they are and are not afraid to carry their
homosexuality out in their daily lives. It seems that they feel so comfortable in their social
groups that they would want to help other Muslim youth with homosexual feelings to
accomplish the same thing, regardless the consequences this might have.
58
The Muslim queer people that were interviewed generally have the feeling that groups
have to be configured whose members all share the same sexual identity and similar
backgrounds in order to create an opportunity to frame their own sight of help, their own
community of helping each other out.
However, they seem to also, just like the Muslim social workers Mustapha and Marzouk and
the queer social workers Lydia and Pieter-Jan, have their own perspective on how this help
should be performed. This always involves own ideas about sexual diversity which reflects
their own experiences.
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Chapter 5
Conclusion
With this research I have attempted to explore how the existing facilities for social assistance
as it is facilitated by two locations of Veilige Haven work, and which approach fits the target
group best. To achieve better insight in this I have analyzed the narratives of the lived
experiences of the social dynamics between social workers and the target group of queer
Muslim adolescents who face socio-psychological problems concerning their sexual identity.
Secondly I have engaged with the concept of ‘passing’ as a strategy to cross borders of
cultural and sexual identity, in order to make the counseling towards queer Muslim
adolescents more effective. This concept functioned as a base for understanding the social
dynamics of the counseling. I have demonstrated how various social workers engage with
significant aspects of their own cultural and sexual identity in the context of providing social
assistance to queer Muslim adolescents who experience socio-psychological problems due to
their intersecting cultural and sexual identities. The framework of the cultural context in
which these actors operate has functioned as a base for understanding the boundaries for
queer Muslim adolescents in shaping their queer sexual identity. Engaging with queer
phenomenology as presented by Sarah Ahmed has given insight in understanding different
processes of coming out and the possible shortcomings of Dutch social workers in effective
counseling. As the data analysis has shown, intersecting identities make the counseling
complicated. Not only for the queer Muslim youngsters who are dealing with shaping their
social lives, but also for the social workers who are working with the backdrop of their own
truths and values concerning the topic of sexual and cultural diversity. This complexity results
in what I have been addressing to as ‘passing’. Passing, as interpreted from the data analysis,
consists of discursive practices which show how hegemonic racial and sexual norms are
60
negotiated and destabilized by subjects who do not fit neatly in the categories of white
heterosexuality. According to the data, these practices are carried out by the social workers in
order to create a safer social space for the queer Muslim youngster or for themselves. The act
of passing along the intersecting lines of sexuality and cultural ethnicity occurred in various
concepts of behavior and situation as is set out below.
The main conclusions are presented in five terms:
‘Ambiguity’
Muslim social workers are able to understand the complexity of the intersection of the cultural
and the sexual identity. However, there is an ambiguity in how they think about the topic of
sexual diversity and how they actually react when they have to deal with clients who bring up
the topic. They understand the nature of the problem and that doing a coming out is too
dangerous in many cases. However, they experience an internalized negativity towards the
topic of sexual diversity because of their cultural identity of being a Muslim. This ambiguity
has as an affect that they are not fully able to help the target group, for they experience a
resistance towards same-sex acts and relationships. Furthermore they are likely to overlook
the importance of the identity struggles of the queer Muslim youngsters and how these
struggles intersect with other problems e.g. at school or at home. While talking about this
topic, I sensed they were feeling uncomfortable.
‘Shifting’
In order to be open towards the sexual diversity of their Muslim clients, Muslim social
workers experience that a switch has to be made from the collective Muslim identity to a self
created identity and work from there on. They have to create a division between their Muslim
61
identity, which entails the resentment of homosexuality, and their –in their words- personal
identity which they developed from living in the Dutch society. This shifting between two
cultural identities and therefore crossing cultural borders in order to be able to cope with a
certain situation can be seen as a form of passing.
However, the target group is hesitant to engage with heterosexual Muslim social workers, due
to the fear of being unveiled within the community. From the point of view of the queer
Muslim adolescents who seek social assistance, the bias towards the topic does not create a
safe and open space.
‘Politics of Trans-cultural Communication’
Although the Dutch homosexual social workers that have been interviewed said they do their
utmost best to place themselves into the situation of the target group, this trans-cultural
communication, this crossing of borders in order to create a safe space for them, cannot be set
apart from their own personal and cultural values towards the process of ‘coming out’. The
trans-cultural communication refers to the exchange of meaningful and unambiguous
information across cultural boundaries in a way that preserves mutual respect. In this research
this practice is approached as a discursive practice to cross boundaries in order to make the
communication lines more effective and create a sense of trust between the Dutch social
worker and the Muslim client.
‘Linearity’
Dutch social workers tend to work towards a ‘coming out’ of the client according to their own
internal sexual identity process they have experienced. While in fact, this is in contrast with
the possibilities and needs of queer Muslims. Their connection with both the Muslim
community as well as a queer sexual identity often makes it impossible to do a linear ‘once
and for all’ shift from straight to queer with ‘for all’ referring to ever and everyone. Queer
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Muslim adolescents that have been interviewed feel that Dutch social workers are not able to
understand their complex problem. This is caused by the idea that Dutch social workers are
tempted to push them towards a total coming out, which in many cases is no option, regarding
the fear of rejection and punishment by their family or social community. This is also felt by
the Dutch homosexual social workers who claim they understand the problem. However, due
to their own experiences in coming out and from a sense of ‘proud to be queer’, they advocate
a total coming out in order to solve psychological problems.
‘Trust’
All respondents have claimed that trust is the basis for effective social dynamics between the
social worker and the client. As pointed out above, this trust cannot always be achieved, no
matter how hard social workers try. Experiences according to what is seen as the key factor
to opening up the conversation are based on the concept of ‘expertise by experience’. This
opinion is based on the idea that one can only help another accurately only if she/he knows
exactly what the other has gone through emotionally/psychologically/physically.
Thus,
In the interest of the target group -regarding its negative attitude towards social assistance as it
is facilitated by Muslim social workers or Dutch homosexual social workers and the
experiences of these social workers of being incapable to fully empathize with this target
group- I conclude that the concept of peer orientated help as it is organized by Veilige Haven
Amsterdam should become more of a focus in other organizations who want to help queer
Muslim adolescents with the socio-psychological problems they face due to the intersection of
their sexual and cultural identity.
To implement this, I suggest that social workers in the future pay more attention to their Self
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as being a constituted subject and how they take the characteristics of this subject with them
in these vulnerable social encountering in which the well-being of queer Muslims adolescents
is at stake.
As we have seen emerging from the data, social workers already know what their
shortcomings are, but they work with this notion too little. A more reliable, truthful and
trustworthy social dynamics could be accomplished if they would reflect more on what they,
as a person with on truths and values, can significantly mean to the target group, but also what
their own shortcomings are. In this way, a more fruitful and effective alliance could be
accomplished.
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Acknowledgements
My toe-nails have had sixty eight different colors this summer. What to many seemed like an
undoable task, except for a few slight moments of stress, to me was a challenge which I had to
complete and in which I enjoyed every moment. To prove to myself and to everyone near to
me that the past couple of years, which were least to say somewhat restless, that mountains
that keep on getting higher and higher definitely can be concurred.
Apart from the help of my nail paint and cigarettes, yes I started smoking; I owe a lot of
friends who have provided more healthy oxygen, who have helped me put my feet on the
ground, back on the mountain in times I fell off. They provided with the calming trust in me
in this process that was so welcome in a period in which I found myself in an emotional
rollercoaster.
Thanks go out to my mom and dad, for always picking up the phone, always making me feel
I´m the most important person in the world, who never lost sight of me and always, not only
in this process, but always, assure me I’m intelligent enough to start and finish everything I
believe in. My supervisor at NIM, Theo Verlaan, for opening up the field of study, his
experience, his knowledge and especially his kindness. My supervisor Bettina, who had
confidence in my independence and her guiding remarks. And of course the research
participants.
My sister Wendy, for her exemplifying perseverance and also reading my draft when it was
37 degrees outside. Thank you Lara, for assuring me the sun will also shine to enjoy after I
had finished my thesis and that there will always be plenty parties to attend. Rachel who,
although her ADHA, always took the time to actually listen to me and who, right at the crucial
moments, helped me see the bigger picture. Danja and Finn for sharing their academic
experiences. Maartje and Moniek for making the library a fun place.
I also thank the members of ´Washed Out´ who made the album `Inside and Out´, which in
the last weeks has been my source of energy and concentration.
But the very very special thanks go out to Petra, and she knows why.
Danielle
65
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