Under one roof : lesbians and their Malay Muslim families

• Main Author: Hafizah Syed Ismail
• Other Authors: Tam Chen Hee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Communities, classes and races
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/35493
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This qualitative study of eleven in-depth interviews aims to describe and analyse the experience of Singaporean Malay Muslim lesbians in their thirties who are still staying in the family home, and how they reconcile homosexuality with religious membership. The dilemma these women face is with regards to the support and acceptance they would lose should they choose to come out publicly about their sexual orientation. Given the circumstances placed onto them such as: housing, expectations as Muslim women and the regulation of Islam by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), the women are placed in a predicament. For these women to remain within the boundaries of Islam, they take on one of three religious identities – the Neo- Muslimah, the disconnected Muslimah and the nominal Muslimah. While all these identities are with respect to her connection with God, there is a unanimous reason to why Islam is maintained in their lives – family.