The Queer Arabs

This episode features Ṭaüs Jafar, formerly Tamara, who was born in Troy, MI to an Iraqi-Muslim immigrant family.  Ṭaüs’ music and songwriting has played on the radio, been featured in pop songs, in the scores of feature films and TV shows, and been part of experiential design in museums and large-scale public installations. Jafar’s work and experimentation as an artist, musician, and activis...

It was such a pleasure talking to Mike Mosallam, creator of the film ‘Breaking Fast’ (on Hulu).  The film follows a gay Muslim man looking for love during Ramadan (the film is best described as a Ramadan rom-com).  (See more here:  https://www.breakingfastfilm.com) We discussed the importance of media portrayal of the fun and sense of humor shared among Arabs, as this is not often the...

Photo by:  VampKitty/Nadine Barišić This week’s episode features Jillian York who, like Liz Henry (featured last week) played a vital role in 2011 in unveiling the hoax surrounding the blog ‘A Gay Girl In Damascus’ — the fictional character Amina Arraf had become a beloved figure by many around the world at the time.  To many, Amina represented a key shift in conversation surrounding the LGB...

Photo source:  https://bookmaniac.org/about/ We were joined by Liz Henry who played a vital role in 2011 in unveiling the hoax surrounding the blog ‘A Gay Girl In Damascus’ — the fictional character Amina Arraf had become a beloved figure by many around the world at the time.  When Liz helped discover that Amina did not actually exist (and a catfisher in the UK was behind the sch...

Huge thank you to the UC Davis MENASA Resources Center (@ucdavismenasa) for having us as guest speakers! Following our presentation on the (brief) history our podcast, what we’ve learned along the way, and an overview of queer organizing in the SWANA region, we recorded a live Q&A with some awesome attendees.   Our discussion included pre- and post-9-11 racial perceptions of us as Arabs in the...

Denmo Ibrahim, a first-generation Egyptian-American actor, writer, and entrepreneur, joined for this week’s episode.  We focused on her upcoming work, Brilliant Mind, which is a participatory digital experience that will be presented through Marin Theater Company.  In this work, the two main characters (siblings Dina and Yusef) learn of their estranged father’s death, they return to their ch...

Randa Jarrar is a Los Angeles-based Palestinian-Egyptian writer, actress, and more. She joined us to discuss her recent and upcoming work, plus virtual kink parties, tattoos, tatreez and tea! Randa is the author of the forthcoming memoir Love Is An Ex-Country, the novel A Map of Home, and the collection of stories Him, Me, Muhammad Ali. She is also a performer who has recently appeared in Hulu’s R...

Luai Qubain is an author and engineer born and raised in Jordan and currently based in Denver. His book The Kingdom’s Sandcastle revisits his experiences as a young man in Jordan hiding his sexuality, losing his mother, and surviving an abusive relationship. Luai recalled the challenges of writing and reliving trauma, and why he felt compelled to do so. He also discussed the particular risks of re...

Lena Harbali is an LA-based Syrian-American multidisciplinary artist working in fashion, writing, music, visual art, and more. Lena discusses how growing up in various places – Michigan, Belgium, and Japan – shaped her perspective on the world. She recounts her journey into designing, and eventually modeling, with the goal of making fashion for all body types and gender expressions. Sh...

Alex (Lebanese, pronouns they/them) co-founder  studio SoftNotWeak discusses with Ellie their new game currently in development called Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To. It is an action-puzzle game set in a lush, narrative-driven world of witchy demons. Everyone is non-binary in this one. Ellie and Alex discuss killing ourselves for a white audience, white education by minorities in corporate...

  Massoud Hayoun is a Los Angeles-based journalist and writer. His book When We Were Arabs recounts his grandparents’ lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles as a decolonial reclamation of Jewish Arab identity. In part two of our two-part conversation, Massoud explains his decision not to include his queer identity in the book–with the intention of focusing on his grandpare...

Massoud Hayoun is a Los Angeles-based journalist and writer. His book When We Were Arabs recounts his grandparents’ lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles as a decolonial reclamation of Jewish Arab identity.  In part one of our two-part conversation, Massoud explains the process of conceptualizing and writing this book alongside his grandmother. We discuss the challenges of bala...

Mloukhiyyé is a Beirut-based artist working with pixel art, text, video games, drag and more! They discussed their past and future projects, including illustrations of performers in and around the Lebanese drag scene, video games that reflect social and environmental issues, an illustrated book about Lebanese queer slang, and a piece involving Tatreez and Lebanese herbs.  We also talked about thei...

Tasneem is a producer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, newly based in Toronto, with East African and South Asian roots. Their recent album “Just Before the World Ends” captures a sense of raw punk authenticity with a third-culture-kid spin. We talked about Tasneem’s experience growing up in Oklahoma in a Muslim immigrant family, the influences and inspirations that have shaped their...

Claudia (she/her) is a queer, mixed Lebanese-American, disabled sexual and domestic violence preventionist, advocate, survivor, and social justice organizer, based in Fredericksburg, VA. She joined us to talk about her work as Community Services Specialist at the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault (RCASA) in Fredericksburg, VA.  RCASA’s services include a 24/7 hotline, counseling, h...

Image: “Lovers in the Times of Revolution”  Omar Sfeir is a Beirut-based photographer and filmmaker. His work documents human intimacy as a means of questioning social norms. His photographic journeys tell the stories of non-conformists in the context of their respective societies, inspired by the taboos of sexual expression in the MENA region, especially towards the LGBT community.  We discussed...

Photo by Dasha Landa Sivan Battat (she/they) is a queer Iraqi-Jewish artist & organizer based in New York City, focused on new play and new musical development, and Arab-Jewish cultural organizing. Sivan’s work is across genres – in the theatre, in community, in ritual celebration, and beyond. Our conversation with Sivan was so rich, we decided to make it a two-parter! This week’s episod...

Amina Shareef Ali is a trans, Oakland-based singer-songwriter, therapist, mom, and punk of Egyptian, Turkish, and Filipino descent. She discussed the challenges of retracing cultural heritage lost through her father’s passing and her mother’s assimilation, and the complex pressures of passing identity to the next generation. We also discussed lies we’ve been told about “making it” as an artist und...

With Donald Trump finally out of the White House, Ellie, Alia, and Nadia took this episode to look back on the flurry of damages he’s caused over the last four years, particularly with regards to immigration and LGBTQ rights. (Not lost on us was the irony of Trump using a vague notion of “gay rights” to justify the Muslim ban, while persistently rolling back actual protections for queer and trans...

Photo credit: Jenna Hamed (IG: @j7md) Michael Zalta is a queer Syrian-American Jewish writer, researcher and playwright interested in the intersections between Media Theory, Biopolitics and Decolonial Aesthetics. His recent play “Who the Fuck is Ahmed” is about the psychosexual misadventures of an American-Jewish couple who moves to Haifa to raise a family, when a metaphysical ghost from historic...

Aram Ronaldo is a Palestinian-American organizer invested in anti-colonial land justice across geographies.  They joined us to discuss solidarity organizing between Indigenous, Black, and Palestinian movements, and the duality of being both displaced people and settlers.  They discuss their current project, The Lalime Ohlone Transfer Project, which involves transferring their family business’s lan...

For this episode, we’re inviting you to hang out with us at brunch, featuring charcuterie by Adam Elsayigh. Adam walks us through his journey as a charcuterie artist and his near-religious obsession with Trader Joe’s. Cristian joins us to talk about the queer scene in Puerto Rico and the struggles common in too-tight-knit queer communities in anywhere. We also analyze our personal tendencies...

RIDIKKULUZ  (aka Samer) is a Jordanian-American artist (with Egyptian, Palestinian, and Syrian roots) visualizing identity through painting, sculpture, performance, and video. He is also part of the NYC ballroom scene, as a member of House of Xtravaganza.  This episode was recorded from Samer’s apartment, where he showed us some of his artwork and talked about finding ballroom/vogue as part of gai...

Rime Salmi is a singer-songwriter whose work channels the fusion between her Moroccan heritage and Canadian upbringing. She sings in French, English, Spanish, and Arabic, weaving in rhythms from across the African continent and diaspora. Directed by Reda Lahmouid, the video for her cover of Warda’s “Batwanes Beek” features well-known dancers in the Montreal LGBTQ scene making the city their catwal...

Sheyam Ghieth is an Egyptian-American artist exploring themes of language, liberation, queerness and exile through illustration, hand lettering, pattern making and graphic design. Her “QUEER in Arabic” and “Nonbinary in Arabic” T-shirt designs have raised relief funds for queer and trans Muslims and Arabs since Ramadan 2020.  Sheyam has created graphics for Netflix, Hulu, A...