Decolonizing Sexualities Network

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Conference and Roundtable I

DSN Roundtable Event

Wednesday 3rd July, University of Kent, Keynes College Lecture Theatre 4

15.00-16.30: Decolonizing Sexualities Network Roundtable Event

Speakers:

Sabreen Al-Rassace, Ariadine Boussetta, Moruni Turlot and Vanessa Wilson from Paris-based activist group Lesbians of Colour.

Haneen Maikey (Director and Co-founder of al Qaws) ‘Decolonizing Queer Praxis in Palestine’

Ashley Tellis (Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global University; gay activist for over two decades in the contexts of South Asia) ‘Viewing Race, Religion and Identity Politics from the Global South’

Discussants:

Fatima El Tayeb (Associate Professor – African-American Literature and Culture, UC San Diego)- ‘European Queer of Color Activism and Global Networking’

Paola Bacchetta (Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies, UC Berkeley)– ‘Decolonial and postcolonial subjects and movements; and co-motion (alliances, coalitions, convergences, solidarities)’

Thursday 4th – Friday 5th July, Decolonizing Sexualities Network Workshop, University of Kent, Canterbury

The Decolonizing Sexualities meeting brought together researchers and activists working on the diverse ways in which sexuality can converge with religious and racial identities to produce multiple exclusions and socio-economic disadvantage as well as political marginalization. DSN meeting provided a supportive and stimulating occasion for networking and exchange, as well as a space for the generation of critical reflections and joint thinking for future activities. Over the two days, we collectively considered the issues that DSN members/workshop participants had highlighted as pressing, whilst allowing sufficient time for discussion. The program of the two days on the themes and issues listed below which participants had foregrounded for discussion in advance of the workshop. Following this and other DSN activities we have collected contributions for publication including creative content, audio clips, artwork as well as academic essays. A report of the conference can be found here.

Themes and Issues

(i) CATEGORIES, THEORIES, KNOWLEDGE & POLITICS

• The different ways in which categories, theories and other forms of knowledge travel across locations, or fail to do so. An example we could consider is ‘queer’, a term that is associated with analysis and critique in some spaces, but is also read as inextricably tied and applicable to Anglo- American contexts and connected with neocolon-ial/zing deployments of theory. If ‘queer’ fails to translate and is linked to neocolonial circuits of sexuality, desire and knowledge, what kind of decolonizing perspectives can be applied to such problems of circulation?

  • As part of this discussion, we could explore to what extent theories of homonationalism might or might not work in neo-liberal economies outside the Global North.
  • Whilst there is now considerable interest in homonationalism, queer of colour positions in Europe have remained completely marginalised, both in the transnational debate and in Europe itself. Could we discuss these dynamics in more detail and depth?
  • Queer of colour critique as an analytical tool able to deconstruct intersectional forms of oppression (against and within marginalised communities), such as processes of racialization in ‘colour-blind’ Europe, and as a means to repoliticize ‘queer’ and build coalitions among communities of colour, in particular in Europe (including South and East).
  • How can we better understand processing of sexuality organising in the global South? In what ways can solidarity be built between countries in the global South not on colonising concepts like ‘queer’ but on an attentive account of sociological particulars and ideological commonalities?
  • Possibilities and challenges in engaging in dialogue with liberal Muslim scholars to bridge the apparent gap between sexual orientation and religiosity in the mainstream Islam.
  • How multicultural manifestations are reined in to legitimate homonationalist structures that draw upon long-standing histories of colonialism.
  • A critical discussion of transphobia (beyond the LGB-fake-T format).
  • The ways the kind of knowledges dubbed as minoritarian from the mainstream (disciplinary) perspectives, such as ‘ethnic studies’, ‘queer studies’, ‘postcolonial studies’, ‘intersectionality’, etc. travel.
  • A critical assessment of the politics of ‘introduction’, ‘translation’, and ‘prefacing’ and how they generate their own celebrity systems and status hierarchy both locally and internationally. Whose texts are deemed foundational and included in the translated ‘canon’, whose ‘expertise’, who gets the credit, whose career benefits from it, who is sidelined – the deleterious effects (in terms of appropriation, marginalisation, tokenisation, misinterpretation, disarticulation, depoliticising) of these translations , circulations.

(ii) ACTIVISM/S, DIFFERENT LOCATIONS, CROSS-CUTTING CHALLENGES

What tactics are queer activists pursuing in terms of formal rights vs other understandings of activism? What are the possibilities, as well as the tensions in activist endeavours in different locations and transnationally?

  • Drawing on the workshop participants’ diverse experiences of organising at the intersections of sexual and racial identities, how can transnational solidarity networks and points of exchange be developed and strengthened?
  • African viewpoints on LGBTI identities in the Diaspora and issues of immigration and displacement from home communities. Where are the disconnections/are there connections? How do we organise in our various Diasporas? Is transnational organising viable and if so what are the challenges of organising around Queer/LGBTI concerns? How do we manage organising locally with organising transnationally?
  • How can we counter discourses of victimhood while at the same time acknowledging the realities of violence against those perceived as LGBT/queer in the “Global South”? How do we strike a balance? This would include discussing how to render more visible some of the impact of discrimination and violence against LGBT people in ‘the West’ (challenging Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s stated objective to make “LGBT rights a crucial part of US foreign policy”; challenging UK statements regarding linking development aid to human rights records on LGBT).
  • Analyses of the intersections between Islamophobia, the war on terror, and the gay international, and how to counter this matrix.
  • The collusion between local LGBT rights and women’s organisations and this matrix and how to strengthen alternative discourses and organising practices.
  • In what ways can feminist and LGBT struggles be bridged? Can a ‘sexual rights’ umbrella be useful for this? How can we build broader and more effective coalitions?
  • The discrimination and privileging of race, gender, and religion within same-sex circles with respect to both social and legal-political aspects. How exclusive internalisation of liberal values have contradicted each other in Europe, South East Asia, and Morocco.
  • Lesbian of colour activism and an intersectional approach that connects sexism, lesbophobia, racism, in feminist and LGBT contexts.
  • Queer organising vs. “queering the movement for change” in particular following the recent uprising in the Arab world, what possibilities have opened up (or closed) in the past two years in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt?
  • Intersections of trans* and intersex issues and their locations on Global South settings, in the context of queer/LGBT praxis.
  • The relationship between Queer Muslim activism and mainstream gay activism as well as mainstream Muslim communities; experience of organising and activism on the interplay of multiple identities.
  • Decolonizing practices, strategies and struggles (e.g. protests against aid conditionality policies on the basis of country violations/protection of the rights of LBTI people).
  • The different ways in which we can understand heteronormativity, and the ways the memories of genocide, or other mass traumas, affect the discourses of sexuality that circulate within those traumatised communities.
  • Activism, struggle, health and healing.

The Safra Project and the Birkbeck Department of Psychosocial Studies present: Queer Muslim Women Today

6 July 2013 – Room B35, Birkbeck Main Building

This event brought together academics, activists and communities to discuss a range of issues that impact on the lives of queer Muslim women today. Themes addressed include immigration and asylum; violence; education and employment; marriage and children; sexuality and Islam. The event co-organised by Dr Silvia Posocco (Psychosocial Studies, BBK), Dr Sarah Lamble (Law School, BBK), Mr Eddie Bruce-Jones (Law School, BBK) and Tamsila Tauqir, MBE (Director, Safra Project) in conjunction with the Decolonizing Sexualities Network project funded by the AHRC and co-run by Dr Suhraiya Jivraj, Kent Law School, University of Kent. The event fostered and developed collaboration and exchange between participants working across complex intersections of gender, sexuality, race, religion and class. It facilitated dissemination of much needed knowledge around the socio-economic marginalisations that so often go unnoticed both in policy work and academic scholarship, aiming to impact upon urgent contemporary issues.

The event fostered and developed collaboration and exchange between participants working across complex intersections of gender, sexuality, race, religion and class. It facilitated dissemination of much needed knowledge around the socio-economic marginalisations that so often go unnoticed both in policy work and academic scholarship, aiming to impact upon urgent contemporary issues..

Keynote Speakers – open session Chaired by Dr Umut Erel.

Dr Ghazala Anwar (Berkeley) – Women’s same-sex relationships in Islamic theology.

Sarah Colborne (Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign) – Pink Washing.

Assistant Professor Anissa Helie (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York) – Global happenings, international networks and geopolitics.

Followed by:

Performance by Ajah UK and poetry fronted by Lucidity and Jaheda Choudhury

World Cafe workshop (closed session for Muslim lesbian, bisexual and trans women only) on issues of:
• Women and the Mosque
• Statutory service provision for Muslim lesbian, bisexual and trans women
• Youth and the scene

Bios

Dr Ghazala Anwar of Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California – Dr Anwar’s research and teaching interests include Islamic jurisprudence and Sufism, as well as the exploration of issues of healing, gender and sexuality in Islam. She also participates frequently in national and international colloquia on interfaith dialogue and other current issues relating to Islam.

Asst. Prof. Anissa Helie of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York – An expert on colonial history and decolonisation processes; politics of Islam and gender; gender, women and sexualities in Muslim contexts; religious fundamentalisms, violent conflict and women. She is a board member of the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights and of Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights. She also serves on WLUML’s Publications Committee, and on the Advisory Editorial Board of Reproductive Health Matters Journal.

Sarah Colborne – Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) – PSC works to build a mass movement and change government policy on Palestine, through focused and coordinated national and local activism; and is building alliances with faith groups, students, trade unions and other organisations in support of Palestinian rights. Sarah has also been centrally involved in campaigns against racism and for abortion and LGBT rights. She presented in a panel at the World Social Forum-Free Palestine in November 2012, organised by Queer Visions, on creative campaigning to expose Israel’s attempt to ‘pinkwash’ its occupation.

Audio files and slides from the event can be accessed at: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2013/07/queer-muslim-women-today

Ajah UK – This group had already been making a name for themselves across the North West and Manchester. The group draws from its collective strength of being multi- gender, multi-racial, multi lingual and multi-sexuality to create music that challenges preconceptions and embraces individuality Ajah UK This group had already been making a name for themselves across the North West and Manchester. The group draws from its collective strength of being multi- gender, multi-racial, multi lingual and multi-sexuality to create music that challenges preconceptions and embraces individuality.

Audio files and slides from the event can be accessed at: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2013/07/queer-muslim-women-today.