Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism and the State in Lebanon is a 2022 book by Maya Mikdashi, published by Stanford University Press. In the work, Mikdashi explores the relationship between sect, sex and sexuality in Lebanon.^[1][2][3][4]

Mikdashi argues that sectarianism cannot be studied in isolation, because the practice of sectarianism always goes hand in hand with the practice of sexism. Moreover, she states that the category 'sect' is already a patriarchal inheritance. For this reason, she proposes the term "sextarianism". Sex, sexuality and sect together define citizenship, and, since the concept of citizenship is the basis of the modern nation-state, sextarianism therefore forms the basis for the legal bureaucratic systems of the state and thus for state power. It emphasizes how state power articulates, disarticulates, and manages sexual difference bureaucratically, ideologically, and legally.^[5] To further illustrate the dimensions by which the dynamics of sextarianism in Lebanese society can be explained, Mikdashi refers to two central concepts: Evangelical Secularism (chapter 4), and the Epidermal State (chapter 5).

Sextarianism builds on Joan Scott’s theorization of the constitutive nature of sexual difference to the history of secularism.^[5] According to Mikdashi, sectarianism provided her with the chance to examine the Lebanese state without separating or favoring sectarian differences from sexual differences. This approach is rooted in the ways the state regulates and creates both sexual and sectarian distinctions. The Lebanese legal system shapes sexual difference across various areas of law, with sexual difference playing a far more significant role as a legal category than sectarian difference. The Lebanese state handles both sexual and sectarian differences through its judicial and governmental/bureaucratic structures. Mikdashi ties this development to the concepts of the evangelical and state based secularism which by emphasising the sectarian sphere through its sovereignty, securitisation, and citizenship laws, manages to enshrine its view into society.^[6] The second important component - the epidermal state - is used by Mikdashi to show the locus and mode with which states manifest their power to enforce sextarianism.

Although sextarianism is introduced in the context of Lebanon, the term is applicable beyond the Lebanese example. Mikdashi argues that sectarianism in Lebanon functions merely as a bureaucratic rather than a purely religious system, which makes sextarianism relevant to any context where bureaucratic governance of personal status laws intersects with gender.

Mikdashi also refers to the idea that sextarianism unpacks how heterosexuality, the sex binary, and civil and criminal law are key to secularism's management of sexual and religious difference, with secularism's investment in sex manifesting as the regulation of straight and queer sexualities and a sex-gender binary system.