Indeed, as Jeffrey Weeks informs us, “many Western gays, for a longtime now, have traveled hopefully to the Muslim world and expected to find sex-ual paradise.”14He explains, however, that “reality is more complex” (x). Draw-ing upon the findings of a collection of articles edited by Arno Schmitt andJehoeda Sofer, Weeks asserts that “the sexual privileges allowed to men [in theMuslim world] are largely at the expense of women” and that “those adult menwho do not fit readily into prevailing notions of true manhood . . . are oftenlooked down upon and despised” (x). Weeks views the present Muslim world asundergoing transformation and concludes that there are two possible outcomesof this change: “Only time will tell whether that culture will approximate moreand more to the secularised Western model, or come increasingly under the swayof a new religious militancy. What can be said with some assurance is that it isunlikely to stay the same” (xi).
I am not all that shocked that for same-sex interactions/relationships even to occur, it has to be at the expense of women. It just goes to show gender inequality. And how society will try to insert male dominance. It goes to show how men's desires are accepted, but for women, their choices are restricted.