Feminist and Queer theorizing have located gender, sex, and sexuality as central to the exercise of power and domination. From the gendered division of labor, compulsory heteronormativity as the structuring logic for state control and social ordering, and the intersections of race, gender and class to categorize bodies along a hierarchy of power, these concepts have gained traction in explaining different and intersecting systems of domination. From a decolonial perspective, scholars have linked hegemonic constructions of gender and sexuality to colonization, as they enable the organization of relations of power that position the White, Male, colonizer at the top of a system that subordinates colonized masculinities, femininities, and sexualities. Much of the discourse on the struggles for gender and sexual liberation, however, have been assimilated by Western, liberal, nation-states. In what has been termed ‘homonationalism’, liberal states are increasingly integrating gender equality and LGBTQIA+ inclusiveness as part of their liberal and ‘progressive’ national identity, simultaneously reproducing the position of non-Western, ‘illiberal’, states as the primitive Other. Similarly, the discourse of gender equality and LGBTQIA+ rights has been adopted by Israel in an attempt to ‘pinkwash’ a system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians, the illegal occupation of Palestine, and the human rights abuses of the settler colony. On the other hand, women’s collectives and queer communities in the (post)colony have continuously criticized their marginalization from decolonial struggles. Gender and sexual perspectives and activists are often excluded in the struggles for self-determination, sidelining the intersecting oppressions of colonization, patriarchy, and hetero-normativity.
Bringing to the forefront queer and feminist perspectives from Palestine, this event will explore the ways in which gender and sexuality are entangled in colonialism and power. Centering the experiences of activists, and queer and feminist resistance, this event asks: In which ways are gender, sexuality, and hetero-normativity implicated in the production of (post)colonial subjects? How are heteronormativity and patriarchy mobilized to enable colonial domination? How does pinkwashing participate in the exclusion of ‘non-Western’ LGBTIAQ+ subjectivities? What is the experience of queer and feminist activism in resisting colonial oppression? Based on these questions, this event builds on the premise that the struggle against colonialism, patriarchy, and cis-heteronormativity cannot be neatly separated, and thus, transnational networks of solidarity must be grounded in the experiences of LGBTIAQ+ subjects and feminist activism fighting against colonial domination.
About our speakers:
Haneen Maikey is a queer feminist organizer, co-founder and former director of the LGBT and queer grassroots organization alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society.
Hala Marshood is a Palestinian political and feminist organizer, part of the feminist movement “Tala’at”, and a researcher in political economy.
Izzeddin Araj (Moderator) is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the Graduate Institute. His works centres around reproduction politics in Palestine/ Israel.
Relevant resources:
Signposts from alQaws: A Decade of Building a Queer Palestinian Discourse
Queers Resisting Zionism: On Authority and Accountability Beyond Homonationalism
Tali’at: Putting feminism at the center of Palestinian liberation