Contested Masculinities: Outcry Over the Story of Gay Love

A controversial new book in Azerbaijan, Artush and Zaur: A Legend of Love tells the story of same-sex love between an Armenian and an Azerbaijani against the backdrop of the emerging conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. From this blog entry on the book, we learn what the author says here about his book. The author, arguing that Azeris and Armenians share ‘similar kitchen, music and mentality’, says “Armenians are closer to us than, say, Georgians” due to the influence of the Persian culture. The novel ‘exposes the absurdity of all wars in the South Caucasus a la Kusturica.’ The author ‘believes he has the full right to do so as he lost his older brother during the Karabakh war in 1994.’

War and gender go hand in hand, and this book, actually a lash-out against the many taboos regarding the war and both sides of the conflict, challenges the gendered nature of all conflicts by weaving the plot around the romance between the two male central characters. Just launched, the book has not actually received a wider readership, but it has caused a stir as nationalists on both sides fervently discuss “Who f**ked who?” Apparently this question worried them more than even the fact of the main characters being gay. They are ‘ kind of ready to ‘forgive’ and ‘forget’ the gay part of the story, as long as ‘their guy’ is ‘the man’ meaning he is ‘doing the enemy’ ‘. This controversy is perhaps the reason the author is being accused of ‘treason and betrayal of national interests.’

Predictably, there have generally been ‘plenty of hateful and homophobic comments’ in forums and blogs. The publisher admits to having published his “most scandalous” novel in Baku, and comparisons are being drawn to Salman Rushdie and Orhan Pamuk. The blog post tells us that the story is ‘a sort of partial deconstruction of Ali and Nino (a heterosexual love story of Azeri Ali and Georgian Nino) having instead Azeri and Armenian male lovers against the backdrop of the emerging Karabakh conflict’, and the story of Ali and Nino an important part of Azeri literary heritage, we can imagine the hue and cry. Apparently, there is only one book store in Baku which still has the book on its shelves, and protesters are suggesting ‘buying all the copies of the book and burning it in front of the bookstore’ and calling out for the application of the ‘Shariat Law’.

This incident serves to show a side of homophobia that is often missed: penetration is seen as invasion and conquest, and male homosexuality, which is much more taboo, disturbs the society’s gender constructs. It also casts light on how nationalism is mostly masculinity validation, and how power contests are in a sense clashes of masculinities.