About this Event

On October 30, 2020, the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) was proud to present Reimagining Queer Futures: Afghans and Art in the Diaspora, a virtual panel discussion featuring activists, writers, and artists on how creativity and the arts are being mobilized by the LGBTQ Afghan diaspora as a form of resistance and community-building.

Introductory Remarks:

Welcome everyone to today’s conversation, “Reimagining Queer Futures: Afghans and Art in the Diaspora,” hosted by the Afghan American Artists’ and Writers’ Association. My name is Helena Zeweri and I am a co-founding member of AAAWA. I’m currently an Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of Virginia and am very thankful to be able to offer some introductory remarks for what I’m sure will be an enriching discussion. 

Thank you for taking the time to be here with us. Our conversation today is meant to address a topic that touches so many in the diaspora, but that has not been given enough attention, or at least thoughtful attention. As writer Arundhati Roy has noted, “there’s really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard.” At AAAWA, we are committed to foregrounding the experiences of the marginalized within our diaspora, those voices who have been silenced or rendered invisible both by our communities but also by the society we live in – in the United States. Our panel today, though, is not just about recognizing the difficulty of being queer in the Afghan diaspora , but also what it would mean to think about LGBTQ life as the starting point for generative and liberatory possibilities. Our panelists this afternoon are artists, writers, performers, activists, and scholars who are all undertaking creative projects not only for art’s sake, but also in order to imagine radically new futures for Afghans and the broader communities and environments in which they live.

Before we get this conversation under way, I want to situate where we are in time and space. I want to acknowledge that we are all zooming in from different places. For most of us, the places where we stand is on Indigenous land, and is most likely unceded territory. I would like to recognize the land upon which I am speaking today. I acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land of what is today known as Charlottesville, Virginia–the Monacan people, and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I trust and hope you will join me in doing your own silent acknowledgment yourself. Participating in this event from Charlottesville, I am reminded of the events of 2017, when white supremacists violently marched through the town chanting racist and xenophobic slogans. And I am reminded that while this was three years ago, so little seems to have changed on a national level since then–in fact, it seems that we are living in a time where multiple crises have come to a head–from public health, to climate change, to racial injustice, to homophobia and transphobia, to anti-immigrant xenophobia and everything in between. We are just four days away from what is one of if not the most important election in US history. At the same time, we are also reaching tail end of LGBTQ Pride Month. And as difficult as it is, we at AAAWA felt that it is exactly in this moment that creative and innovative thinking is needed the most.  That is where queer futures comes in to play–it is within LGBTQ-run artistic, academic, and creative collectives and spaces that some of the most exciting and critical thinking is happening today. Our panelists are creators, artists, and performers who push the envelope through their work, but they have also been thinking about and more importantly, practicing, the kinds of liberatory possibilities that we need the benefit of in this moment. In short, our panelists exemplify the kinds of thinking and creativity that we need in this moment. This conversation, then, is about refusing the forces that silence queer voices and lives and what role artistic and creative expression can be in that discussion. At AAAWA are committed to elevating the Afghan diaspora, who embody intersectional identities. Our membership is constituted by those who are often at the crosshairs of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and queerphobic state policies and rhetoric, but who are also constantly resisting and refusing such regimes of hate, sometimes just by being collectively visible in public spaces. In this vein, the conversation today is also about how the arts has the potential to create more interdependent, equitable, and ethical ways of being  in the world.

In the spirit of equity and inclusivity, then, we have decided to insert a blank panelist box. This box signifies a silent anonymous panelist to pay respect to queer and trans Afghans in both Afghanistan and the diaspora who cannot join us for reasons of safety and threats to their wellbeing. This box is a way to acknowledge their existence and humanity, and that we hold this space with them.

Panelist Bios:

Ahmad Qais Munhazim is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Troubling borders of academia, activism and art, Munhazim’s work focuses on everyday lived experiences of political violence and migration in the lives of queer and trans individuals. Munhazim, born and raised in Afghanistan and exiled currently in Philadelphia, identifies as genderqueer, Muslim and displaced. They hold a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota and are the co-founder of Minnesota Caravan of Love, a queer and trans Muslim led community organizing group in the Twin Cities. (they/them)

Born in Western Australia to Afghan refugees, Bobuq Sayed is a freelance writer, artist and, formerly, an editor of Un Magazine and Archer Magazine. They have received fellowships and residencies from the Wheeler Centre, Firstdraft Gallery, Punctum, Kundiman, and VONA, and their work has been published and performed widely. Currently, Bobuq is a Michener fellow at the University of Miami’s MFA program where they are working on a novel. (they/them)

An Afghan raised in New York City, Wazina‘s storycollecting and storytelling work centers culture, collective memories and tradition. As an informal and undisciplined performer, Wazina is the co-writer and co-performer of Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love, a personal storytelling performance capturing the experience of being queer and Muslim alongside her creative counterpart and sister in spirituality, Terna Tilley-Gyado.

Wazina is a sexuality educator & trainer who focuses on intersectional identities, often speaking to issues related to Islam & sexuality. (they/she)

Moderator Bios:

Seelai Karzai is a poet, cultural organizer, and chocolate enthusiast from Queens, New York. She is a member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) and is a 2019 Poetry Foundation Incubator fellow, an initiative organized by the Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary for poets who engage with and serve their community through their creative practice. Seelai’s writing has appeared in Newtown Literary Journal and is forthcoming in an anthology of contemporary writing by Muslims from Red Hen Press. She is currently an MFA student at the University of Oregon. (she/her)

Wazhmah Osman is a writer, filmmaker, and activist. Currently she is an assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production at Temple University. In her forthcoming book Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists, under contract with Illinois Press’ Geopolitics of Information Series, she analyzes the impact of international funding and cross-border media flows on the national politics of Afghanistan, the region, and beyond. Her critically acclaimed documentary, Postcards from Tora Bora, has screened in film festivals nationally and internationally. (she/her)

Presented by the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association