For Vox Populi’s September/October issue, we chose to focus on the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting themes of activism, expression, and representation. Now more than ever, we must recognize the fight for queer justice as an intersectional struggle, occurring across several different fronts – one of those being the aesthetic and artistic. The pieces compiled in this issue represent the breadth of the region’s LGBTQ+ presence, drawing from a variety of different cultural media, including music, literature, film, social media, and television. The stories showcase aspects of resilience from the queer Middle Eastern community and demonstrate active resistance against Western hegemonic narratives regarding LGBTQ+ existence in the region. These articles and interviews also critically question current normative responses within societies of the Middle East, and aim to contextualize LGBTQ+ normalcy within actual Arab and Muslim history. Finally, we also made it a particular goal of ours to include more Arabic content in this issue, in order to create a more accessible learning environment.
Listed below are our pieces for this issue:
الخط الساخن للجنسانية: مقابلة مع مشروع الألِف
We welcome all submissions and feedback from the community, feel free to contact us at voxpopuli@jadaliyya.com!
Sincerely,
The Vox Populi Team