Fear of female sexual power produced rare female Muslim monsters in the colonial era.

Evidence

Sexual fantasies of Oriental women were not limited to seductive Muslim and Jewish females, but often included the darker aspects of the sexual power attached to these figures. This led to the production of some of the only female Muslim monsters found outside the Middle Ages. Muslim female monsters emerged in the colonial era because of the multiplicity of ways that Muslim female bodies were envisioned- “as mother, evil seducer, licentious aberration.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 413

Categorization

• QUESTION: Chapter cuts off mid-claim — the specific form of the colonial female Muslim monster is unresolved here; worth chasing in subsequent pages.
• SEED: Angle: the female Muslim monster as the West’s fear of its own desire — versus male monster as fear of its own violence.
• XREF: connects to: English colonists associated Indian savagery with female lust and witchcraft. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 557