The Queer Arabs

We were honored to have Ahmad Danny Ramadan as a guest!  Danny is a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker, columnist, and queer refugee activist.  Danny is the author of the novel The Clothesline Swing, a beautiful tale with multiple interwoven narratives speaking to the queer refugee experiences (balancing individual voices with the shared identities that come from such experiences).  We thank Danny for his wonderful representation of, and contribution to, the MENA queer community.    Listen in to hear some of Danny’s story, as well as a special surprise that he reveals! Thank you all for listening. Check out this wonderful writer’s…

The four of us are all finally in one episode together! We thought it was about time to introduce the English side of our podcast to the Arabic side.  Kilian Colin and Ahmed are the co-hosts of the Arabic language episodes of this podcast.  So far, two Arabic episodes have been published, and we have already seen from the listeners that there is quite a need for this.  We are so grateful to have Ahmed and Kilian, and it makes the podcast feel much more complete.  In this episode, Ahmed & Kilian talk about growing up in the Middle East,…

The second episode in Arabic is now here!! We talked to Tamim from Halifax, Canada about Istanbul Pride, Beirut Pride, his life in Canada, and much more.

أعزائنا المستمعين نرجوا الاستماع الي الحلقه الثانيهً من برنامج الميم العربي. الحلقه مع تميم. شاب مثلي عربي من كندا حدثنا عن فعاليات الفخر في تركيا و لبنان و تجاربه في كندا!! نرجوا الاستماع الى الحلقه و مراسلتنا عبر البريد الالكتروني

On this episode, The Queer Arabs talk to two members (Liane and Tamim) of Queer Arabs of Halifax!  It was so much fun talking to our Arab-Canadian friends; we had a blast.  Queer Arabs of Halifax is a group that was started by Liane, and this group has become a family for queer Arabs in Halifax.  They have fun (dance parties – can it get better than that?) and they also address important issues, such as pinkwashing. Some additional info related to that topic is here: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/against-pinkwashing-israel-201489104543430313.html Tamim mentioned Queers Against Apartheid in the episode, and you can find out…

This episode was not supposed to happen, but due to unfortunate circumstances, it needed to.  In this episode, we discuss the importance of the Me Too movement, and what has led us to talk about it this week.  We are grateful to the woman we know who started the conversation in this case, as this has revealed so much that we, and many other women, needed to know.

In this episode, we talk about the latest decision by the U.S. supreme court regarding the travel (or, in other words, the Muslim) ban.

Meet Allison Washington, a journalist living in Cairo.  We had an absolutely wonderful time talking with her.  During this episode, Allison speaks about what it is like for people on the queer spectrum in the Middle East, her writing, what brought her to Cairo (in addition to the plane) and more.  Allison’s writing is absolutely mesmerizing, compelling, and informative.  We were honored to have her on our…