The Queer Arabs

Bashar Murad is a Palestinian singer, lyricist, director and composer based in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem. Bashar uses pop music and art as a vehicle to challenge stereotypes, normativity and to highlight social issues facing young generations of urban Palestinians.  We were so excited to have Bashar on the pod to discuss his recent work, including his latest EP Maskhara, a remix EP (coming soon), and covering Nina Simone’s I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free for the upcoming film A Gaza Weekend. Bashar explains the creation process for both his music and his visually striking music…

We were thrilled to have Alireza Shojaian back on the podcast after his last episode three years ago! Alireza is an artist from Iran, previously in Beirut, and currently based in Paris whose work pushes boundaries in representation of queer bodies and sexuality.  He discusses his veggie drawing series, made during a period of identity questioning, and the line between gay and trans identities in the Iranian framework. He also explains the instances of censorship he’s still experienced presenting queer work in the US and France, due to Iranian authorities exerting “soft power” abroad and Western presenters neglecting to stand…

Layla EO is a Jordanian-American artist, self taught illustrator, and overall creative, raised in Texas, currently living in Chicago, offering a more vibrant take on the world.  Layla talks about using her bold color palette as an alternative to the infamous yellow filter usually used to portray our home countries in Hollywood. Many of her illustrations feature queer, SWANA, and other POC subjects, allowing a wide range of people to imagine themselves through a lens of joy and beauty. As Layla discusses her love for drag, we all recount our own dabblings as drag kings and queens. We also talk…

Amal Amer (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, and facilitator of SWANA descent currently based in California. Through visual media, performance, and collective storytelling, they explore the tension between rootedness and movement in diaspora. Amer’s work reinterprets symbols and stories from SWANA cosmologies, holding space for queer and trans folks to transform and heal. Weaving together magic, spirituality, desire, displacement, and state violence, their work colorfully trans*cends gender and media boundaries. Blessed with the gift of traveling between worlds, they move between organizing spaces, nightclubs, institutions, friends’ couches, and star-storied spirit and plant realms. Their solo show, i love you…

Ahmad Ray is a queer activist and creator from Palestine, currently living in Canada and building a following on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Ranging from light to serious, their content focuses on glimpses of queer Arab life, Palestinian liberation, and social taboos within their communities. This episode focused on Ahmad’s challenges since immigrating to Canada and their experience becoming an online creator. They explain how they’ve navigated hate from Zionists, heteronormative Palestinians, and privileged members of the Arab diaspora, as well as the suppression of pro-Palestinian content on social media platforms. However, they have also received an overwhelming amount of…

Eman Abdelhadi is a second generation Palestinian-Egyptian academic, activist, and artist based in Chicago, IL. She’s also the subject of the upcoming documentary Coming Around, which follows her close and evolving relationship with her mother over the past six years, including Eman’s decision to come out as queer. Eman discussed what it was like to have intimate moments of her life documented, the importance of representing both herself and her mother outside a binary lens of good and bad, and the subversion of the singular coming out story most prominent in Western media.  Eman also talked about coming into the…

Samer Ghrawi is a Palestinian/Syrian-American musical artist based in California. With musical influences including Gospel, Soul, RnB, Arab pop, and older Arab music, his work sheds light on emotional struggles that are often swept under the rug.   Samer tells us about growing up gay in a strict Christian environment and Arab in an overwhelmingly white school, falling in love with RnB music as a “guilty” pleasure, experiencing conversion therapy, and eventually repairing his relationship with his parents. He also discusses the unspoken prevalence of alcoholism and addiction in both Arab and queer cultures, his own to sobriety and recovery, and…

Tarek Mohamed (TT) is an Egyptian activist, scholar and writer currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at UC Irvine. We were thrilled to have Tarek back after his first episode in June 2020! Tarek discussed the time he spent in Egypt since our first conversation, and his concern over the shift in the political climate there. He noted a rise of military nationalism and American-style neocolonialism, and how pandemic conditions have helped fuel this trajectory. Tarek mentioned several projects coming up under his creative studio House of TT, including a graphic novel called “36 Love Letters to my Dead Abusive…

Caitlin Abadir-Mullally (kt) is a Coptic-American installation and social practice artist based in Philadelphia. She works to create communities for those who live between spaces. Her research dives into fear, hybridity, queerness, collective thinking, grief, and cultural loss. Caitlin Abadir-Mullally works in sculpture, performance, and relationship building. Caitlin Abadir-Mullally is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science with a focus in archival studies. She is passionate about documenting diasporic queer Southwest Asian and North Afrikan joy and complexity, and the agency of the living to decide how their narratives are preserved. We were so excited to have Caitlin…

We wrapped up 2021 with a wonderful conversation with Mikey Amman, fellow Capricorn, who is working in higher ed; we talked about the importance of filling the roles of educators with people who will advocate for, and relate to, the students they serve.  We discussed the challenges of navigating that system as a queer Arab; we also touched on finding the balance between honoring our queerness and staying in touch with our cultures in meaningful, fulfilling ways. Additionally, Mikey told us about the Britney fan group he started (the largest Facebook group for Britney fans!) and the community so many…