The Queer Arabs

Luai Qubain is an author and engineer born and raised in Jordan and currently based in Denver. His book The Kingdom’s Sandcastle revisits his experiences as a young man in Jordan hiding his sexuality, losing his mother, and surviving an abusive relationship. Luai recalled the challenges of writing and reliving trauma, and why he felt compelled to do so. He also discussed the particular risks of relationship abuse within heavily persecuted queer communities. We also talk about the various groups of visitors in Jordan – including study abroad bros and vacationing Saudis – and the densely-packed cultural diversity of the…

Lena Harbali is an LA-based Syrian-American multidisciplinary artist working in fashion, writing, music, visual art, and more. Lena discusses how growing up in various places – Michigan, Belgium, and Japan – shaped her perspective on the world. She recounts her journey into designing, and eventually modeling, with the goal of making fashion for all body types and gender expressions. She also talks about recording her recent EP, embracing her voice, and releasing the throat chakra. We discuss how art can at once be a form of expression and something to hide behind – and learning to share ourselves more directly…

Alex (Lebanese, pronouns they/them) co-founder  studio SoftNotWeak discusses with Ellie their new game currently in development called Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To. It is an action-puzzle game set in a lush, narrative-driven world of witchy demons. Everyone is non-binary in this one. Ellie and Alex discuss killing ourselves for a white audience, white education by minorities in corporate America, hating on trash representation, Call of Duty, QPOC joy, business structuring, the over representation of traumatized white lesbians as a genre, the failures of changing the system from within, the Gerudo apologists that are us, excellent head cannon, the…

Massoud Hayoun is a Los Angeles-based journalist and writer. His book When We Were Arabs recounts his grandparents’ lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles as a decolonial reclamation of Jewish Arab identity. In part two of our two-part conversation, Massoud explains his decision not to include his queer identity in the book–with the intention of focusing on his grandparents’ stories and the anticolonial message, but also with some concern about making himself a singular voice on Queer Arab issues. We also discuss the challenges of writing for a mixed or unknown audience, where accounts of homophobia in…

Massoud Hayoun is a Los Angeles-based journalist and writer. His book When We Were Arabs recounts his grandparents’ lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles as a decolonial reclamation of Jewish Arab identity.  In part one of our two-part conversation, Massoud explains the process of conceptualizing and writing this book alongside his grandmother. We discuss the challenges of balancing our cultural focus on the past with the need to imagine a better future, and how claiming an identity can be a political choice. We also talk about how concepts of gender play out in our personal and political lives,…

Mloukhiyyé is a Beirut-based artist working with pixel art, text, video games, drag and more! They discussed their past and future projects, including illustrations of performers in and around the Lebanese drag scene, video games that reflect social and environmental issues, an illustrated book about Lebanese queer slang, and a piece involving Tatreez and Lebanese herbs.  We also talked about their journey into queer identity, why they chose the mloukhiyye leaf as their namesake, pronouns in Arabic, misogyny and homophobia within gaming circles, why queer people like Animal Crossing, and more! Shoutout to some of the artists and organizations mentioned…

Tasneem is a producer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, newly based in Toronto, with East African and South Asian roots. Their recent album “Just Before the World Ends” captures a sense of raw punk authenticity with a third-culture-kid spin. We talked about Tasneem’s experience growing up in Oklahoma in a Muslim immigrant family, the influences and inspirations that have shaped their music, a story about dates, Palestine, and Portugal, and more! www.jesuistasneem.com

Claudia (she/her) is a queer, mixed Lebanese-American, disabled sexual and domestic violence preventionist, advocate, survivor, and social justice organizer, based in Fredericksburg, VA. She joined us to talk about her work as Community Services Specialist at the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault (RCASA) in Fredericksburg, VA.  RCASA’s services include a 24/7 hotline, counseling, hospital accompaniment, legal accompaniment, case management, prevention education. As part of her position, Claudia educates people in her community (as early as middle school) about healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships, consent, bystander intervention, and much more. Our conversation included the importance of intersectionality in work around sexual…

Image: “Lovers in the Times of Revolution”  Omar Sfeir is a Beirut-based photographer and filmmaker. His work documents human intimacy as a means of questioning social norms. His photographic journeys tell the stories of non-conformists in the context of their respective societies, inspired by the taboos of sexual expression in the MENA region, especially towards the LGBT community.  We discussed his recent photography projects, which represent the Lebanese Revolution, the Beirut explosion, and the COVID-19 crisis through visual symbolism, and his new documentary “Album,” which follows the relationships between three queer Lebanese individuals (including himself) with their mothers. We also…

Photo by Dasha Landa Sivan Battat (she/they) is a queer Iraqi-Jewish artist & organizer based in New York City, focused on new play and new musical development, and Arab-Jewish cultural organizing. Sivan’s work is across genres – in the theatre, in community, in ritual celebration, and beyond. Our conversation with Sivan was so rich, we decided to make it a two-parter! This week’s episode focuses on Sivan’s recent work organizing ancestral storytelling workshops and what it means to connect to our (biological or otherwise) ancestors as queer people. Sivan also discusses her process of finding community across intersecting identities. https://www.sivanbattat.com/