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Sa'ed Atshan, Review of “Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics under Neoliberal Islam”, Social Forces, Volume 100, Issue 3, March 2022, Page e1, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab090
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I cannot remember the last time an academic text resonated with me so deeply on so many levels as Evren Savci’s Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics Under Neoliberal Islam. This book will serve as an invaluable model for LGBTQ Middle East scholarship moving forward.
Savci accounts for the repressive nature of contemporary Turkish politics as a confluence of the following forces: state authoritarianism, a Sunni Islamic morality regime, neoliberalism, and deep citizens. She defines deep citizens as those who “distribute violence following what they understand to be state ideologies” (81). Savci adds, “The Turkish government produces deep citizens with certain societal or religious sensitivities who are ready to be provoked or incited to violence while appearing to simply recognize existing sensitivities” (104). The oppression that LGBTQ Turks face is a result of this conjoining of neoliberal Islam’s discourses and practices. Savci broadens her framework by acknowledging the “manifold normativities” (52) that also produce violence.
