Sharifa Al Hashem

Within the LGBTQ+ community or within some certain aspect of the community, seeing someone who identifies as being Muslim or as brown is very… is very… you know, is like a minority within a minority, so at times particularly at the beginning, I didn’t feel very well placed there. So you know, I’m like okay this should be my community but actually my visibility and kind of my identity means that I wasn’t as welcome as I could be, um not by everyone but I think it needs to be said that was definitely felt. On the other hand within the Muslim community being gay isn’t openly accepted either- there’s a whole conversion conversation around well Islam doesn’t accept you being gay and Muslim and so… it was understanding… what… what it means to be me, and kind of confronting the different aspects of those spaces, so within the LGBTQ+ community its finding I s’pose my people that understood who I was and welcomed me and they became my support bubble, my power, which then enabled me to be in that space and kinda go okay… well not the whole space might not welcome me but this space is mine, so that’s my chosen family. And it’s the same within the Muslim community, so there will always be someone that thinks that I don’t belong there and I have to make a choice between well you’re either Muslim or you’re gay, right? But I also know that there are particular sort of parts of Islam, so you know, we’re talking about Islamic feminism for example and how they might interpret religious texts, well actually within that… that space I’m absolutely included and actually there’s nothing wrong with it so, it’s about finding your people and kinda going well this is my powerhouse ultimately and this is who I am and finding your space within that.

Recorded: 22nd March 2021 by Neomi Alam