Re: g_b keynote speech by rasha moumneh
hi sanjay i do not under stand your message On 8/5/09, Sanjay Lulla wrote: > > Please find below the key note speech by Rasha Moumneh at the > outgames, it was a great moment: > > “Thank you, it’s wonderful to be here. I was asked to come here today to > speak about the situation and progress of LGBT rights in the Middle East and > North Africa. Obviously it’s impossible for me to cover the breadth of LGBT > issues in the entire region in the space of 10 minutes, or even 10 hours for > that matter, so I’m not going to. What I am going to do instead is posit > some observations I’ve had about the international LGBT rights movement in > relation to this particular region. > I have to say it’s always fantastic to see so many faces from the movement > gathered under one roof, if only for a short period of time, to talk, > exchange, debate, and learn from each other. A lot of us from the movement > are here. A lot of us unfortunately aren’t, and this isn’t a coincidence. > The term “global LGBT rights movement” is perhaps a little misleading, > unless by global we mean of the global North, because that is largely the > locus of power from where this movement operates. And we need to always be > conscious of that, we need to always be aware of who frames the terms of > debate, of how that debate is framed, and ultimately, to what end. I think > this is particularly relevant when discussing the Middle East and North > Africa because there seems to be an abundance of people from the global > North falling over themselves to speak on our behalf. There is a missionary > zeal within the international LGBT rights movement to deliver us, to save us > from our wretched lives, to rescue us from other people like us (and by us I > mean Arab/Muslim/brown). There is an un-self-reflexive othering that takes > place of people from the global south generally and from the Middle East in > particular. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a gay European activist, a > lovely, earnest, well meaning fellow who had this insight about Iran to > share with me; he said: “you know, something has changed for the average > person in your average Western democracy. We now see that people in Iran > wear Chanel sunglasses and high heels and use mobile phones just like us, > and that’s led to an amazing transformation. They’re like us, we can relate > to them now, we can support them”. Of course he was making a point about how > the media has the ability to shatter stereotypes, but that statement in > itself is so incredibly loaded. Does that mean that if they didn’t possess > the trappings of “modernization” then people from Europe would be less > likely to support them? Or that “like us” amounts to having the latest > mobile phone? Or that we need to start proving our credentials in order to > earn European support? > I think that statement is also indicative of a lot of other things > particularly relevant to the LGBT rights movement. There is an unfortunate > tendency within the movement towards a reduction of people’s multiple selves > into a single aspect employed falsely in place of the whole: in this > context, sexuality and gender identity. By doing this, by positing a “global > gay citizen” stripped of context, of environment, of relationships, of > community, of a politics, in order to sustain the myth of a “happy global > gay family”, we are doing harm. As if, if we just manage to take away all > this extraneous noise that is “culture” (for lack of a better word) and > politics, we would then emerge with a distilled, undiluted “Essence de Gay”. > And Essence de Gay is invariably white, usually male, and predominantly > middle class. But that is not how people live, it is not how people > identity, and it is dishonest and disingenuous to claim that. But we do, and > we do it regularly, and this has been an integral part of the incredibly > strong drive to completely depoliticize gender and sexuality, when by their > very nature they are political. And we see this from every side. On the one > end we hear about how homosexuality is a Western conspiracy bent on > destroying the moral fabric of Arab societies (much as the religious right > in the US characterizes the “homosexual agenda”). I cannot count how many > articles come out in the Arab press accusing some LGBT rights group or > another of having ties to Israel and a Zionist agenda. > On the other end, and particularly when we, as queers, start talking about > the intersectionality of different axes of oppression, we are accused of > “politicizing” human rights, of diluting and obscuring the Essence de Gay by > bringing up annoying things like occupation, militarization, nationalism, > war, and racism, things that are simply not talked about in polite society. > I’m not sure why this is breaking news, but the battles we are waging are > political, and I for one, gave up on polite society a long time ago. > I recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where as many of you
g_b keynote speech by rasha moumneh
Please find below the key note speech by Rasha Moumneh at the outgames, it was a great moment: “Thank you, it’s wonderful to be here. I was asked to come here today to speak about the situation and progress of LGBT rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Obviously it’s impossible for me to cover the breadth of LGBT issues in the entire region in the space of 10 minutes, or even 10 hours for that matter, so I’m not going to. What I am going to do instead is posit some observations I’ve had about the international LGBT rights movement in relation to this particular region. I have to say it’s always fantastic to see so many faces from the movement gathered under one roof, if only for a short period of time, to talk, exchange, debate, and learn from each other. A lot of us from the movement are here. A lot of us unfortunately aren’t, and this isn’t a coincidence. The term “global LGBT rights movement” is perhaps a little misleading, unless by global we mean of the global North, because that is largely the locus of power from where this movement operates. And we need to always be conscious of that, we need to always be aware of who frames the terms of debate, of how that debate is framed, and ultimately, to what end. I think this is particularly relevant when discussing the Middle East and North Africa because there seems to be an abundance of people from the global North falling over themselves to speak on our behalf. There is a missionary zeal within the international LGBT rights movement to deliver us, to save us from our wretched lives, to rescue us from other people like us (and by us I mean Arab/Muslim/brown). There is an un-self-reflexive othering that takes place of people from the global south generally and from the Middle East in particular. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a gay European activist, a lovely, earnest, well meaning fellow who had this insight about Iran to share with me; he said: “you know, something has changed for the average person in your average Western democracy. We now see that people in Iran wear Chanel sunglasses and high heels and use mobile phones just like us, and that’s led to an amazing transformation. They’re like us, we can relate to them now, we can support them”. Of course he was making a point about how the media has the ability to shatter stereotypes, but that statement in itself is so incredibly loaded. Does that mean that if they didn’t possess the trappings of “modernization” then people from Europe would be less likely to support them? Or that “like us” amounts to having the latest mobile phone? Or that we need to start proving our credentials in order to earn European support? I think that statement is also indicative of a lot of other things particularly relevant to the LGBT rights movement. There is an unfortunate tendency within the movement towards a reduction of people’s multiple selves into a single aspect employed falsely in place of the whole: in this context, sexuality and gender identity. By doing this, by positing a “global gay citizen” stripped of context, of environment, of relationships, of community, of a politics, in order to sustain the myth of a “happy global gay family”, we are doing harm. As if, if we just manage to take away all this extraneous noise that is “culture” (for lack of a better word) and politics, we would then emerge with a distilled, undiluted “Essence de Gay”. And Essence de Gay is invariably white, usually male, and predominantly middle class. But that is not how people live, it is not how people identity, and it is dishonest and disingenuous to claim that. But we do, and we do it regularly, and this has been an integral part of the incredibly strong drive to completely depoliticize gender and sexuality, when by their very nature they are political. And we see this from every side. On the one end we hear about how homosexuality is a Western conspiracy bent on destroying the moral fabric of Arab societies (much as the religious right in the US characterizes the “homosexual agenda”). I cannot count how many articles come out in the Arab press accusing some LGBT rights group or another of having ties to Israel and a Zionist agenda. On the other end, and particularly when we, as queers, start talking about the intersectionality of different axes of oppression, we are accused of “politicizing” human rights, of diluting and obscuring the Essence de Gay by bringing up annoying things like occupation, militarization, nationalism, war, and racism, things that are simply not talked about in polite society. I’m not sure why this is breaking news, but the battles we are waging are political, and I for one, gave up on polite society a long time ago. I recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where as many of you are aware, there is a murderous campaign against gay men and men with non-conforming gender presentation. The information we gathered there pointed to the Mahdi Army as the driving force behind this campaign. After th
