ba namak is seeking contributions for a new zine dedicated to radical queer, trans*, and/or gender non-conforming Iranians in the diaspora. Much of what’s available to us is centered around our assumed salvation in diaspora (à la Reza Farahan), away from our supposedly oppressive homes/families/culture, with little room for articulation of a specifically queer sense of Iranian being in the world. We are always either violently closeted or gloriously liberal, with no possibility for a queerer materialization for those of us who perhaps didn’t struggle with the concept of the “closet,” didn’t understand ourselves as either gay or straight, or aren’t interested in fulfilling orientalist fantasies of who Iranian queers should be. ba namak is interested in collecting material about being an Iranian queer in diaspora. We will take submissions from anyone who is Iranian, though we are invested in centering the lives and experiences of marginalized Iranian queers - poor and working class folks, refugees, bi- or multi-racial Iranians, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, etc. We are unequivocally against and bored with: nationalism, Baha'i bashing, Islamophobia, Persian chauvinism, or other forms of ethnic, racial, religious, or national identity built through anti-blackness, anti-Arabness, or any other position that upholds white supremacy.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
diasporic aesthetics
refusals to calls for resiliency
navigating queerness and being bi- or multi-racial
We are seeking critical essays, artwork, personal narratives, and poetry. Please send submissions as attachments (.doc, .docx, .jpg, .png) with a short bio to Tahereh Aghdasifar at [email protected] by July 29th, 2016. For more information, visit banamak.tumblr.com.
