Women have recently become visible in all Islamic countries. In most Islamic countries, where even heterosexual relationships are heavily censored, sexual relationships between women are completely hidden. What follows is a collection of evidence that supports the existence of this type of relationship in Islamic countries.

It is believed that there may be more sexual relationships between women in harems than what is visible. There are dramatic reports about this, such as the concern of Caliph Musa al-Hadi who had brought two beautiful young girls to his harem. Later, these two girls were caught committing indecent acts, separated from each other, and their heads were cut off.

In one of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights, a man goes to visit his beloved and sees that his slave is kissing her. Richard Burton claims that harems were “warm [sexually] beds for female homosexuality. Every woman who had passed the age of youth had a young girl at her disposal, called a Teflon flower (in Damascus).” He adds: Among Arabs, men have been more jealous of their female lovers’ female friends than their male rivals.

Chabel

The absence of any mention of lesbian love in the Quran indicates its absence in early Islamic tradition (and therefore in Arabia during the time of Muhammad). Rousseau states that same-sex relationships between women were completely separate from sexual diversity in medieval Arabia and Iran.

Abukhaili reports that the word “suhāqīt” is an esteemed term in Arabic for “lesbian who has declared it herself” and refers to the fact that many of the poems of Walidah bint al-Mustakfi, an Arab Safavid, praising her lover, the poet Muḥjā, have been lost because most authors have refrained from mentioning them due to the explicit sexual language. He claims:

There are parts in the Torah where men tolerate lesbian love. A man was told that his wife is also attracted to the same sex and he replied: As long as she considers me free from any sexual restrictions, let her do whatever she wants. A poet has expressed: I drank wine in the pursuit of love/ And turned towards lesbianism as I fear pregnancy.

Sharif al-Idrisi refers to the relationship between two women as a lack of access or disorder in accessing a male sexual partner, which is known as situational homosexuality.

There are also women who are smarter than others. They have many masculine ways, even in their movements, way of speaking, and voice. These women may want to be active sexual partners and want to be dominated by a man who is capable of doing so for them. Such a woman is not ashamed to seduce someone who is interested in her. If she is not interested, a man cannot force her to love. This makes it difficult for this woman to submit to a man’s desires and leads her towards lesbian love. Most of these women are educated among women and are passionate, writers, Quran reciters, and female writers.