Feature: How Do Modern Queer Arab Authors Conceptualize a Cohesive Queer and Arab Identity?

Library > Community Presentations

Presenter: Michael Karam & Rashad Nimr

Delivered: DC on June 11, 2023

In this afikra feature, Michael Karam & Rashad Nimr explore how modern Queer Arab authors conceptualize a cohesive Queer and Arab identity. They talk about global LGBT rights and their application in the MENA Region, and representations of queerness in Middle Eastern and North African literature.

Sources & Future References

• You Exist Too Much By Zaina Arafat | Catapult

• The Postcolonial Predicament of Gay Rights in the Queen Boat Affair: Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies: Vol 7, No 3

• Bareed Mista3jil: True Stories | kotobli

• Gender Dictionary: traveling concepts and local usages in Lebanon | Civil Society Knowledge Centre

• Guapa By Saleem Haddad | Other Press

• This Arab is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers – Saqi Books

• The Thirty Names of Night By Zeyn Joukhadar | Simon & Schuster

• Desiring Arabs By Joseph A. Massad

• Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World | Project MUSE

• Queer Beirut By Sofian Merabet | University of Texas Press

• Gay Rights as Human Rights: Pinkwashing Homonationalism | Jadaliyya

• Queering the Mother Tongue By Sara Mourad

• Is Another Language Possible? | History of the Present | Duke University Press

• God in Pink | Arsenal Pulp Press

• An Arab Melancholia By Abdellah Taïa

• Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek | Scribd

• The Bride of Amman - Signal 8 Press

• ‘No Longer Alone’: LGBT Voices from the Middle East, North Africa | Human Rights Watch

Note: All community presentations are prepared & presented by non-experts on the subject. They are sharing information in the hopes of spurring interest in that subject.

---

About Afikra Community Presentations

Delivered and prepared by afikra Community members, the presentation’s goal is to showcase the presenter’s curiosity and research and share some knowledge on a ‎topic related to the Arab world’s histories and cultures. The presentation is the ‎culmination of the afikra coaching process to help identify a topic, find research, and develop the ‎presentation. afikra presentations come in two forms, a long question-driven afikra Feature, and a short afikra FWD with the purpose of sharing something interesting.