My talk at Conference “Femininity and Masculinity in Persian Culture and Literature”, held at Utrecht University, 11-12 April 2024

(Mis)application of Modern Gender and Sexuality language to Premodern Culture: the case of Persian literary discourse

The very modern culture has produced various gender, sex, and sexuality categories, terminologies, and discourses, such as transgenderism, intersexuality, masculinity, femininity, homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality. While sometimes vernacular culture and a group of scholars tend to generalise these categories and apply them beyond their specific time, geographical space, and cultural context, prevalent gender and sexuality theories presume that such categories are socially constructed and do not subsist apart from their cultural contexts and historical circumstances. Focusing on premodern Persian literary works (dominantly poetry and prose), I will examine several such gender and sexuality comportments, including masculinity and femininity. The study will attest that the constructed social meaning given to such categorical discourses have differed and continue to differ, depending on cultural and historical contexts of modern and premodern Persian world. Therefore, overlooking such variations or sensitive factors shall cause the misapplication of such categories, terminologies, or discourses between and across the modern and premodern eras. This, in turn, shall negatively affect LGBTQIA+ individuals or emancipation movements. Thus, it can ultimately result in irrevocable political, religious, or societal turmoil and harms, particularly for those who live in Muslim societies.