My guest Madian Al Jazerah is a successful businessman and human rights activist living in Jordan. His story is a story of searching for identity and worth.

In Part two of the episode of Breaking Free- On sexuality, he shares an honest account of how the Gulf war left him knowing what it was like to be a refugee, coping with depression and having to go into witness protection in San Francisco after being gay bashed and much more.

He is described in the preface of his incredible memoir " ARE YOU THIS? OR ARE YOU THIS? " as:

"A Palestinian but wasn't raised in Palestine, Kuwaiti-born but not Kuwaiti, British-educated but not a westerner, a gay man out of the closet but still living in the shadows."

Things we talk about :

• The impact of the Gulf war on Madian and his family (2:00)
• A dark time in Madian's life (7:30)
• Saved by Ellen in San Francisco and outed as Gay (9:30)
• Learning to lie from a young age (11.00)
• Madian comes out to his siblings by FedEX when he thinks he has cancer (12:00)
• Witness protection (15:00)
• Moving to Jordan and finding familiar faces from Madian's life back in Kuwait (16:20)
• Succeeding in business with Zuwwadeh restaurant and Books@cafe (18:00)
• The hell of living in Limbo in Texas (26:35)
• New York, abuse and recognizing a victim pattern (28:00)
• Madian's search for his real name and identity after the loss of his father (32:00)
• Visiting Jenin (35:45)

Madian Al Jazerah's memoir ARE YOU THIS ? OR ARE YOU THIS? :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=are+you+this+or+are+you+this&crid=49BWXDYWQMHR&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_12

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