Queer representation in Arab and Middle Eastern Films

Abstract

Queer representations have been present since the 1930s in Arab and Middle Eastern cinema, albeit always in coded forms. However, the idea of homosexuality or queerness in the Middle East is still not tolerated due to religious, political, social and cultural reasons. Middle Eastern filmmakers who represent homosexual relations in their films could face consequences ranging from censorship to punishment by the State or religious extremists. This article explores the representation of lesbians in three transnational Middle Eastern women’s films: Caramel (Sukkar banat, 2007) by Nadine Labaki, set in Lebanon, Circumstance (2011) by Maryam Keshavarz, set in Iran, and In Between (Bar Bahar, 2016) by Maysaloun Hamoud, set in Israel/Palestine. It analyses the position the female lesbian protagonists occupy in the narrative structure and their treatment within the cinematic discourse. The article will examine mise-en-scène elements and compare each director’s stylistic and directorial approach in representing homosexuality within different social and cultural contexts. It will also prompt discussions related to queer identity, queer feminism, women’s cinema, audience reception and spectatorship within the Middle East. Arab queer women are rendered invisible in the Middle East twice: firstly, for being women living in male-led societies where gender inequalities are still the norm and, secondly, for being queer, which is also against the heterosexual norm in these societies, where many conservative Arabs prefer to ignore or condemn the existence of nonheterosexual, queer people. It is therefore very important for Arab filmmakers, especially queer filmmakers from the Middle East, to represent themselves and their social struggles on screen and resist invisibility by using cinema as their platform to raise their voices and demands for change. Michele Aaron mentions that “[s]creening lesbianism is not simply a matter of making the invisible visible, but of negotiating different regimes of visibility” (115). Lesbian representation in Middle Eastern cinema ranges from being covert and shy in some films to becoming explicitly overt in others. The approach depends on many factors, which will be discussed in this article, such as state censorship and the level of risk a filmmaker wants to take to make queer people’s voices heard out loud despite the pervasive social stigma that surrounds this topic. This article explores how three Middle Eastern female directors—Nadine Labaki, Maryam Keshavarz and Maysaloun Hamoud, from Lebanon, Iran, and Israel/Palestine respectively—respond to the abject position of Arab queer women by producing powerful films that challenge the subjugated status of sexual minorities in the Middle East. Utilising textual and comparative analysis of films, this article discusses the representation of lesbianism in three transnational Middle Eastern women’s films: Caramel (Sukkar banat, 2007) by Labaki, Circumstances (2011) by Keshavarz, and In Between (Bar Bahar, 2016) by Hamoud. It examines the position their queer female protagonists occupy in the narrative structure and their treatment within cinematic discourse, which prompts further discussion of the different