The Middle East is often portrayed as oppressively patriarchal and homophobic. Yet, in recent years the region has become a vibrant and important arena for feminist and LGBTQ activism. This book provides an insight into this emerging politics through a unique analysis of feminist and LGBTQ social movements in the context of Lebanon's postwar sectarian system. Resisting Sectarianism argues that LGBTQ and feminists social movements are powerful agents of political and social transformation in Lebanon. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book takes the reader inside these movements to see how they attract members and construct campaigns, forge alliances, and the multiple ways in which they generate important forms of resistance to, and change within, the sectarian system. The book also traces the strong obstacles that sectarian parties and religious authorities employ to weaken LGBTQ and feminist activism.

Is democracy possible only in homogeneous societies? Does heterogeneity - clude a stable democracy? Throughout history, ethnic, linguistic, or religious homogeneity whether by circumstance, coercion, or choice, has seemingly been conducive to democracy. In France, democracy was established after the impo- tion of religious uniformity and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The United States pulled in immigrants who renounced their original affiliations to forge a new identity in a newly born state. Still, defying assumptions, democracies have emerged in heterogeneous states such as the Swiss Confederation, the Successor States of the Holy Roman Empire and, later, those carved out of the previous colonial empires. One common feature is the failure of - often violent - attempts to enforce homogeneity, or the lack of any such attempt in the first place. In the course of time, these divided societies have learned to live in diversity, to pacify their differences, and to find a path - wards peace or at least accommodation. In sum, they went beyond forms of se- rating powers to sharing power. Whether defined by ethnicity, language, religion, or even ideology, communities agreed to a pact on participating in a joint gove- ment based on proportional or even equal representation. It is noteworthy that political systems based on power-sharing were long marg- al in mainstream political science which laid an emphasis on democratic tran- tions in homogeneous societies and on socio-economic or cultural prerequisites that facilitate the rise of democracy.

The Middle East is often portrayed as oppressively patriarchal and homophobic. Yet, in recent years the region has become a vibrant and important arena for feminist and LGBTQ activism. This book provides an insight into this emerging politics through a unique analysis of feminist and LGBTQ social movements in the context of Lebanon's postwar sectarian system. Resisting Sectarianism argues that LGBTQ and feminists social movements are powerful agents of political and social transformation in Lebanon. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book takes the reader inside these movements to see how they attract members and construct campaigns, forge alliances, and the multiple ways in which they generate important forms of resistance to, and change within, the sectarian system. The book also traces the strong obstacles that sectarian parties and religious authorities employ to weaken LGBTQ and feminist activism.