Star guest of this episode: "Damoun (they/them)" who is fluent in five languages and has lived in five different societies. They write often in Persian and English about their past and present journey and their experiences with racism, misgendering and queerphobia. They also recently started their own podcast called Fly Me To Damoun
What does it mean to live as a Queer Iranian? This podcast episode explores this question from three different angles:
1) We talk about the intersection between gender (queerness) and race more broadly as well as Western definitions of queerness which are based on white & binary (beauty) standards, making it difficult for people to live freely at different intersections beyond these narrow definitions
2) Damoun presents the Book: Women with Mustaches and Men without Beard: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity by Afsāneh Najmābādi who is a Iranian-American historian, gender theorist and professor at Harvard University. We chose to focus on this book because it showcases the queer history of Iran and hence broadens white Western definitions of queerness as well as creates an archive for today's Queeranians
3) We continue on the power of queer and trans storytelling and talk about the recently published Magazine: Transcodiert whom Damoun is an author of.
This is a highly dense episode but picked with incredible insights, explanations & reflections from Damoun's side and make sure you listen all the way to the end to receive a final wisdom by Damoun
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I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here
