Review of Tommaso VIRGILI (2021): Islam, Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Sexual minorities and Freethinkers in Egypt and Tunisia, Londres,Routledge

Abstract

Islam, Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Sexual minorities and Freethinkers in Egypt and Tunisia deals with a topic both sensitive and taboo in Islamic societies: the antagonism between religion and individual freedoms within the Shari'a and the Islamic ethos. By examining the current legal texts that claim to be Islamic, Virgili examines the recognition of sexual freedom and freedom of religious belief in the post-revolutionary scenario in Tunisia and Egypt. Two rights that share similar dynamics of persecution and that, affected by the vagueness of the laws and their interpretative ambiguity, are subject to the same legal criminalization pattern. Heretics and sexually depraved people share more than they think, since both are viewed as abuses of freedom. Adopting an openly neo-naturalist stance, the text concludes that Sharia and its meaning of government are irreconcilable with the principles that are common to any constitutional regime. The Egyptian scenario presents a horizon that invites to pessimism and no prospects for change; Tunisia, on the other hand, seems to have broken taboos and is showing signs of slow but positive change.