The Queer Arabs

Meet Amara!  We had a fantastic time with her on this episode.  We talked with her about her research of the Muslim punk scene and women’s mosques, and she told us about her experience of coming out as trans to her family – both her Mexican side and her Pakistani side.  We touched on the common issue with communal/family-oriented cultures: finding that balance between being oneself within the LGBT sphere while also maintaining that connection to family/culture.  Thank you for listening!  As mentioned on the episode, here’s her email address if you’d like to get in contact: [email protected]

In this episode, we give an overview of what has been happening in Yemen regarding the Saudi-led coalition intervention & the genocide that has occurred due to everything that has been going on over the past 3 years or so.  As mentioned in the podcast, here is a documentary that we suggest as a resource to learn more: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/fight-for-yemen/ Other resources are discussed in the episode.  Thank you for listening; let us know if you have feedback or clarifications you feel we need to make in the future.   We forgot to say all this in the episode at the end like…

This week, we decided kind of last minute to do a fun, light-hearted episode instead of the episode we’d been planning to do (probably going to table that one for next Friday).  This week, since this episode drops on June 1, we talk about Pride!  We tell our fun stories from Pride festivals, and to end the episode, we each give our accounts about the first day we met each other.  It was a fun conversation and we kept it super casual and not planned out.  Next week will be a more serious and researched topic.  For now, though: Happy…

We spoke to Mekhi Adams (he invites you to email him at [email protected] if you have questions/feedback).  Mekhi is one of the many individuals who has seen the impact and manipulation caused to many by Rabi’a. Some points from this episode: -Rab’ia is a supposed “ally leader” but abuses her position. -She consistently misrepresents herself, her position and the positions of those around her using her respectability as a minority leader as a sword and shield. -She turns questions of her credibility into arguments over race and religion. She creates situations where people are pitted against each other for their…

On this episode, we speak to Aditi, whose parents traded India for Indiana.  Aditi talks about growing up in the Midwest & her experience growing up American while being consistently exposed to Indian culture.  We covered many topics during this conversation, such as cultural appropriation (please make sure to listen to the intro of the episode!), gradual growth in diversity in makeup, communal cultures and how wonderful and also overwhelming that can be, and much more.  Aditi also talks about the cool work she is doing or will be doing in the near future!  Take a listen!  Below are links…

Meet Kilian Colin, a beautiful human who never shies away from standing up for the right thing.  Kilian was born and raised in Iraq until their family had to flee to Syria.  Once in Syria, Kilian and their family waited for years before being able to resettle in a third country (the U.S.).  In this episode, Kilian describes their experience dealing with the various agencies, interviews, and the paperwork involved in the refugee resettlement process.  Kilian also describes being out as queer in Syria, as well as being an activist in Syria and in the United States.  We loved talking with Kilian and are very excited to share this episode with everyone.  Important additional note: as promised, we are posting pictures of their friendly, sweet, fluffy cat!  To get in touch with Kilian, you can contact their Facebook, or send us a message and we’ll make sure to relay the message to Kilian.

Our guest on this episode is the fabulous Naushaba Patel, a Pakistani American who embraces themself in a beautiful, genuine way.  We spoke about their navigation toward accepting every part of themself and living an honest life (as we can all relate to in various ways).  It was an absolutely lovely time with Naushaba.  Listen to this episode to hear about all of the important work Naushaba has been doing.  Pakistani and Arab cultures have many commonalities, and we discussed that too.  Thank you for listening, and thank you to Naushaba for being on our 10th episode (yay – we’re…

This week, we spoke with Cherine!  Cherine talked with us about her experience growing up as a child of Egyptian immigrants in the United States.  Cherine also shared her experience being bisexual, and that got us talking about bisexual visibility and how the “B” in “LGBT” often gets overlooked.  We also spoke about mental health and the stigmas against the topic within many Middle Eastern cultures.  Oh, and Cherine gave us an idea of how into metal she is (listen to see how many CDs she has)! Also, as mentioned in the episode, Against Me! is the band that we…

On this episode, we got to speak to Kashgar, who shared her family history, her experience with Islam, and the importance of asking questions.  We also spoke about the diversity within the Islamic world (i.e. Muslim does not equal Arab!), stopped for breaks to pet the cats, and got some excellent book recommendations (book list below).  It was wonderful to have Kashgar as a guest and we’re so grateful to her for doing this!

Kashgar also wrote a short article on her personal relationship to Islam and she asked us to share it because she felt that it was easier to articulate through writing. “Sometimes I still wonder if I had made the right decision or if Islam is something that resonates with me but the answer has stayed the same every time I have thought about it: My spiritual relationship with Allah is meaningful in a way that is difficult to articulate and Islam has come to mean more than simply a connection to family heritage. Even if I had left Islam, I think that this spiritual aspect of my life would have remained. At the end of the day, I believe we’re all on different paths that lead to the same destination whether that is truly some kind of afterlife or nothing at all. But in the meanwhile, I choose to have faith in Allah despite the inner tug of war between logic and emotion. I obviously don’t have the answers and this personal story is full of self-contradictions but I have learned to find comfort in the grey zones, the ambiguities and the nuances as an agnostic Muslim for progressive/secular values.”  (She used a pseudonym for the article.)

Click Here for Kashgar’s Article

Kashgar’s book list!

On Progressive Islam

Edited by Omid Safi

https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Muslims-Justice-Gender-Pluralism/dp/185168316X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524187624&sr=8-3&keywords=Omid+Safi

A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance

Parvez Sharma

https://www.amazon.com/Sinner-Mecca-Muslims-Hajj-Defiance/dp/1944648372/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524187717&sr=1-1&keywords=A+sinner+in+Mecca

Homosexuality in Islam

Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kuggle

https://www.amazon.com/Homosexuality-Islam-Critical-Reflection-Transgender/dp/1851687017/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524187667&sr=1-1&keywords=Homosexuality+in+Islam

Qur’an and Women

Amina Wadud

https://www.amazon.com/Quran-Woman-Rereading-Sacred-Perspective/dp/0195128362/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524187765&sr=1-1&keywords=Amina+Wadud

Queer Muslim Marriage: Struggle of a Gay Couple’s True Life Story Towards Inclusivity and Tawhid within Islam

Ludovic-Mohamad Zahed

https://www.amazon.com/Queer-Muslim-marriage-Struggle-Inclusivity/dp/1483990206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524187820&sr=1-1&keywords=Queer+Muslims

Progressive Muslim Identities

Edited by And Zonneveld, Vanessa Karam, Olivia Samad

https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Muslim-Identities-Vanessa-Karam/dp/0983716102/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524188124&sr=1-8&keywords=Progressive+Islam

Photo credit: Trish Badger Join us for this very fun & meaningful conversation with Miriam Hakim, lead singer of the punk band Giant Kitty.  We talk to Miriam about many things: music, her Syrian-American identity, forming our own communities, and so much more.  We had such a blast during this episode and we hope our listeners will enjoy listening to this great discussion. As mentioned at the end of the episode, we made Spotify playlists!  Miriam talked about how she and her friends used to make mixed CDs for each other, and she suggested we each make a playlist for…