The personal politics of private life in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): sexualities, space, migration and identity politics in motion

Abstract

Activism on sexuality and sexual politics in South and West Asia has been increasing in the last two decades, resulting in challenges and opportunities to negotiate sexual subjectivity, intimacy and politics. But some people articulate a desire to disentangle sexual politics from identity politics. Against this background, a two-pronged investigation of the intersections of sexuality and migration was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the aim of understanding the role of sexuality in compelling migration. Data were collected by means of qualitative interviews and participant observation. Findings identify the existence of two contrasting forms of sexual politics: the strategic deployment of sexuality to affect social and political change, and activism with the goal of rethinking ideas and norms about sexuality. Challenges to sexual subjectivities resulting from the tethering of sexual politics to LGBT identity politics act as something of a ‘push’ factor for some individuals, encouraging them to migrate from places such as Iran, Pakistan and Nepal to the Persian Gulf countries in search of space in which to explore their bodies and sexualities.

Keywords:

• Sexuality
• intimate mobilities
• identity politics
• West and South Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For more detail, see Ahmad (2009) or Najmabadi (2013).

2 For a more in-depth discussion of the role of Western discourses about sexual identities and sexual orientation politics in the Middle East, see Massad (2007).

3 A full discussion of the history of sexual identity construction in Iran is beyond the scope of this paper. For a more in-depth discussion of how identities are socially constructed in this context, see Najmabadi (2013).