Politicking of Islam and LGBTQ+ discourse in Uzbekistan

Gena Cheburashka

Central Asian Survey, 2024, vol. 43, issue 1, 151-157

Abstract: While the rights of LGBTQ+ people are improving in many regions of the world, the protections and freedoms of the queer community in Uzbekistan are stagnating. In this research note, I share some of my preliminary observations from interviews I conducted myself with political elites and from my content analysis of social media posts from religious figures and bloggers in Uzbekistan between 2019 and 2022. I find that it is not Islamic texts such as the Qur’an or hadith that necessarily condemn the queer community, it is in fact Uzbekistan’s political and religious elites’ cultural interpretation of Islamic aspects that does so. As such, homophobia and transphobia are not a Muslim problem per se in Uzbekistan. It is Uzbekistan’s political and religious elite who define it as such. The anti-queer arguments themselves are intimately connected to communal identity and mentality rather than simply Islam.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2023.2280095

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