The sexual lives of Muslim girls in the bustees of Kolkata, India

Abstract

This paper aims to understand why and how young Muslim women pursue sexual relationships in the urban bustees (slums) of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. I discuss how girls in heterosexual romantic relationships decide where, when and how to have sex, and the importance of class discourses and popular Bollywood culture in this decision-making process. Premarital sex is haram, or a forbidden act in Islam, and I will describe how girls in this research negotiate their Muslim identity whilst pursuing sexual relations with their boyfriends. Sex before marriage is also socially unacceptable in the bustee, and throughout this paper I show why young women negotiate various social risks to pursue sexual relationships. I demonstrate that girls are not overtly challenging the normative discourses of sex, gender arrangements and religious expectations in public spaces. Rather, they manipulate the norms of the ‘good Muslim girl’ in public in order to maintain sexual relationships with their boyfriends in private.

Acknowledgements

This paper was produced as part of a PhD thesis in Social Work and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, and was presented at the Women in Asia conference, Brisbane 2008. The author would like to acknowledge the generosity of the young people in Kolkata who allowed her to share their life experiences. The author wishes to thank the reviewers of this paper for their comments, Dr Harriot Beazley for her feedback, and the University of Queensland and the Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute for generously supporting this research.

Notes

^1. In this way, kissing and holding hands is not considered a sexual act. Young people with whom I worked saw kissing and other intimacies as forms of affection, where ‘sexual acts’ had distinctive sexual characterization.

^2. The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major national political parties in India (the other being the Indian National Congress). It is considered to be a Hindu National party.

^3. ‘Eve-teasing’ is a euphemism used in India for sexual harassment of women by men. The English translation of ‘sexual harassment’, in my mind, is not a satisfactory description of eve-teasing, but is the closest translation.

^4. Often abuse against women as a result of unsanctioned relationships is termed ‘honour killing’ or ‘honour crime’. As seen on the web site ‘International Campaign Against Honour Killings’, honour crimes occur where cultures believe that a woman's unsanctioned sexual behaviour brings such shame on the family that any female accused or suspected must be abused, or even murdered. See www.stophonourkillings.com

^5. For detailed explanation of using these methods in research with young people, see Beazley et al. (2006), Ennew (1994), Ennew and Pierre-Plateau (2004), Hart (1992, 1997), Chakraborty (2003), Ewald (1996), Arellano-Carandang (1996), Wang (2001), Wang and Burris (1994, 1997), Berman (2001), Young and Barrett (2001) and VanBeers (1996).

^6. Most pornographic viewing takes places in the home, as televisions throughout the bustee are equipped with cable television giving youth people access to recent Hollywood movies. VCR/DVD technology is sparingly evident in the bustees.

^7. I do not wish to suggest that SD's description of the shock when realizing the biological details of male erection and ejaculation only occurs in the slums of India. I personally was dumbfounded to learn about sex in primary school.

^8. An example of this came from SD who saved her money to buy a ‘showpiece’ to give to her boyfriend as a gift. A showpiece is a small trinket that is usually placed in a display unit at home.

^9. The Islamic community/nation as a whole.