Queer Arab History, social media, and representation with Marwan Kaabour from Takweer

Queer Arabs are often portrayed as either hated by their own Arab community or as Western imports as if Queerness came along with colonialism. And online, queer voices are mostly from western countries and don’t represent Queer Arabs. However, Marwan Kaabour is challenging these narratives by researching, digitally archiving, and celebrating Queer History in the Middle East from centuries ago to the present day.

Takweer, the Instagram page that Marwan started 5 years ago to take ownership of his own story as a Queer Arab, quickly turned into a space of inclusion and discussion and went viral.Marwan is a Lebanese artist, designer, and the founder of Takweer. He was born and raised in Beirut before moving to London in 2011. From the Takweer project was born a book, The Queer Arab Glossary which is the first published collection of queer Arabic slang and was published this year in 2024. This episode is at the intersection of social media, digital archives, queer History, Arab culture, and languages and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Takweer page: https://www.instagram.com/takweer_/

Book: https://saqibooks.com/books/saqi/the-queer-arab-glossary/