The Ottoman Empire and its legacies: reconsideration and decolonization of Islamicate sexualities

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197633076.003.0007

Chapter 7 addresses the Ottoman empire’s relationship to sexualities and genders. The author emphasizes how the late Ottoman period, in the nineteenth century, saw significant European “modernizing” influence, including law reform influenced by the Napoleonic Code that decriminalized sodomy. Following recent historians of this phase who, engaging with post-colonial studies, have re-interpreted the empire’s relationship to European imperialisms, the chapter expands analysis of “same-sex” sexualities and gender diversity beyond existing studies. Examining periodicals aimed at male and female child audiences, it shows how “modernization” led to the “heteronormalization” of the erotic realm and the “heterosocialization” of public space and family life. The chapter concludes by analyzing contemporary political, religious, and intellectual debates concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LGBTI) rights under President Erdogan’s authoritarian regime. In doing so, it charts how domestic policies are linked to the regime re-positioning in relation to geopolitical shifts, in a novel multipolar order.