Co Sponsored by
MASALA
(Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association) Film shown at 3:45pm in the Remis Auditorium
Followed By:
Queer & Muslim A panel discussion sponsored by MASALA Riley seminar room recent articles in the press |
| Using the film A Jihad for Love -- screened before the panel -- as a starting point, panelists will discuss what it might mean to be Muslim and Queer, especially in 2008 in the context of an increasingly globalized world. The panelists coming from South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa represent to some extent the range of diversity within Islam as well as what it means to be Muslim (and Queer) from being practitioners to agnostics to atheists to those who simply identify culturally as Muslim.
| | Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA) is a social group based in Boston that provides a safe and supportive environment to New England based Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans, and Questioning South Asians (people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet; and from the global South Asian Diaspora). MASALA's events are open to all unless otherwise specified.MASALA takes pride in building coalitions with Boston area organizations, including South Asian organizations such as the Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, and others like the Massachusetts Asians & Pacific Islanders for Health (www.mapforhealth.org). MASALA works to dismantle homophobia and discrimination and to help foster general awareness and acceptance about the Asian-Pacific Islander LGBT community. | Imtiyaz Hussein is from Toronto, Canada via Tanzania (where he was born) via India (where his family originates from, in Kutch). Imtiyaz founded MASALA in 1994 in an effort to connect his "Indian-ness" with his "gayness." Formerly Chair of the Board of AIDS Housing Corporation, he has worked in a number of community organizations such as GLAD before going to business school and moving into the corporate world. He was raised as an Ismaili (part of the Shia tradition) Muslim and is out in the local Ismaili jamaatkhaana (mosque), and doesn't see any conflict in being gay and Muslim. "Allah created all of us and loves all of his creatures."
Saadia Toor was born and bred in Lahore, Pakistan. She is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at The College of Staten Island, City University of New York. She is a member of the Womens Action Forum, Pakistan. She has written and spoken on issues of gender/sexuality, nationalism, globalization, imperialism, Islam and the war on terror. "When I was Muslim I was not Queer, now I'm Queer but not Muslim."
Mohammed El-Khatib was born in Lebanon and lived in Qatar before moving to the US in 1999. He is of mixed Lebanese and Palestinian heritage as well as half Sunni and half Shia. Mohammed, who has a degree in public policy works with the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston. Raised in a secular setting, he came out to himself at 17 and found faith as a way to reconcile with his homosexuality. "Islam gave me the strength to face a homophobic home and social life. The irony is that since coming out, I've found it harder to practice Islam without feeling like I'm in personal conflict with my identity as a gay man."
Moderator:
Dr. Rakshanda Saleem is a local activist involved in a range of social justice issues including LGBT rights and those focused on South Asia and the Middle East. A long-time ally of MASALA, she is a neuropsychologist and teaches at Harvard Medical and Lesley University. She was born and raised in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and lives in Cambridge, MA. | | |
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