‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
Swapping High Heels for Football Boots: Barbie and the Game of Men’s 5-Aside that Redefined My Feminism
My one criticism of Barbie was the mechanics of its anti-sexism messaging. I felt that pitting a whole society of women against a whole society of men overlooked the way sexism is often systemic rather than individual: it can and does exist without men and women being in direct conflict with one another all the time. When I spoke to a fifteen-year-old family friend about the film, however, it was clear she was in love…
‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
In a video I recently watched, a Muslim woman asked a Muslim gay man why he doesn’t stop being Muslim. That question made me cry. Not because I found it hurtful that the Muslim community (my community) is often still not accepting of queerness (also my community), or that I found the question ludicrous or ignorant. I cried because it made sense to me, and I didn’t want it to…
‘Consider What Decolonising Gender Can Look Like’: Non-Binary Ways of Being as Anti-Colonial and Abundant
I began questioning the gender roles so many of us abide by and so much of society is shaped around. Who is served vs. subdued by the gender binary? In a time when so many champions of intersectional justice and liberation are calling for decolonisation, I urge us to consider what decolonising gender can look like, not just in terms of how we dress or present, but in our interpersonal relationships, expectations and ways of being…