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Critical Pride: Queer Arabs facing occupation
July 03, 20247:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
With the cooperation of the project/platform FDIHA, Casa Árabe is
organizing this talk on the queer queer community in Madrid on Wednesday
July 3, within a context of oppression and propaganda.
The queer community has historically been one of the most greatly affected by aggression, rejection and fetishization. These practices have had a profound impact on individuals, interfering in the development of their personality and their process of building an identity.
A pride for belonging and just existing is manifested as a vindication of this social group. From the 1970s onwards, pride-related events began to get organized during the months of June or July, depending on the country. New Yori’s 1969 Stonewall riots marked a turning point in LGBT rights. In Spain, the first protest march took place on June 26, 1977, in Barcelona.
However, practices surrounding Pride have since evolved. In addition to the rights earned, the queer community’s demands are being faced with numerous forms of violence and propaganda. And given their increasing commercialization and instrumentalization by big business, a critical movement has emerged, which also encompasses what is happening to the Arab queer community.
Up to now, pro-LGBT marches in the region have been few and far between, given the authoritarian environment and patriarchal control. In addition, the colonial legacy has shaped policies in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, furthering homophobia even more. The first law against the homosexual community in the world was imposed by the British colonial regime in India, also affecting countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Iraq or Yemen.
However, the case of Palestinians, which must deal with the pinkwashing efforts carried out by Israel,, provides a clear example of an attempt to clean up the image of the Zionist project as the .queer community’s savior in Palestine and the Middle East, as oppression and retaliation against the Palestinians increases. Being queer and Arab is not contradictory, nor is it something new. Within a context of propaganda, occupation, genocide and colonialism, we must reflect upon pride and the process of identity building.
The event will include participation by Murad Odeh, a queer Palestinian activist; Mahmoud Assy, an Egyptian activist, and Kleo La Faraona, an activist of Syrian origin, who created and hosts FDIHA.
It will be shown live on our YouTube channel.
