Questioning the Third Gender

Empirical approaches to the study of Islamist movements pose unavoidable challenges concerning access to such a conservative and usually gender-segregated field in the position of a white, non-Muslim, female researcher. Drawing from my own experience with ethnographic research in Tripoli (Lebanon) on Salafi groups, I will reflect on how my positionality has deeply affected and, thus, reshaped my own fieldwork. Without aspiring to generalisation, yet emphasising the contextual nature of my reflections, I will argue for the need to problematise the idea of the Third Gender. First, a major distinction should be drawn between élites and non-élites research. Indeed, accessing and interviewing rank-and-file male members of Islamist movements, particularly in informal settings, might prove almost impossible. Further, female researchers have rather limited access to male domains and spaces, thus facing insurmountable challenges when it comes to conducting participant observation therein. This is even more conspicuous in a context – like Tripoli – marked by patriarchal structures, and social and religious conservatism. Physical mobility for female researchers is limited as space is ubiquitously gendered and social normativity dictates roles and expectations. It is thus crucial to reflect on the identities you perform and the roles you take (e.g., clothing and, notably, veiling, posture, manner of speech, how to present oneself), taking into account also the moral and ethical dilemmas that are occasionally entailed. Nonetheless, many of the challenges female scholars face when it comes to interviewing male Islamists have sometimes less to do with gender than with tackling sensitive political issues. In a context of suspicion and reluctancy to speak like the one I encountered among Tripolitan Sunnis, it is crucial to reflect on how specific features of one’s positionality might affect the way people see you and eventually answer your questions: indeed, interacting with a foreigner may push people to either ‘hide’ or perform certain narratives. As a result, other attributes than gender might prevail in defining the terms and conditions of this interrelationship: age, nationality, religion, class, educational and professional background. Also, preconceptions work on both sides. And interviews can rapidly turn into an open lecture, with the interviewer feeling constantly tested, if not inferiorised. Subsequently, instead of playing on the alleged benefits of being an innocent ignorant outsider, a right balance of professionalism, knowledge, and deference needs to be established in order to gain respectability. Positionality shifts all the time and changes according to interlocutors and throughout the fieldwork. While acknowledging the intersubjective and continually changing nature of the relationships we establish with our interlocutors, we must always be aware of the dynamics of power involved. Gender proves to be a determining issue when doing research on Islamist male actors as a white female researcher. The cost of entry is simply not the same for a male or female researcher, thus severely restricting the latter’s ability to conduct certain types of research. However, a truly reflexive exercise should not downplay the significance of other attributes that are sometimes more decisive in shaping the conditions of this relationship.