Queer Arab History, social media, and representation with Marwan Kaabour from Takweer

Queer Arabs are often portrayed as either hated by their own Arab community or as Western imports as if Queerness came along with colonialism. And online, queer voices are mostly from western countries and don’t represent Queer Arabs. However, Marwan Kaabour is challenging these narratives by researching, digitally archiving, and celebrating Queer History in the Middle East from centuries ago to the present day. Takweer, the Instagram page that Marwan started 5 years ago to take ownership of his own story as a Queer Arab, quickly turned into a space of inclusion and discussion and went viral.Marwan is a Lebanese artist, designer, and the founder of Takweer. He was born and raised in Beirut before moving to London in 2011. From the Takweer project was born a book, The Queer Arab Glossary which is the first published collection of queer Arabic slang and was published this year in 2024. This episode is at the intersection of social media, digital archives, queer History, Arab culture, and languages and I hope you’ll enjoy it.Takweer page: https://www.instagram.com/takweer_/ Book: https://saqibooks.com/books/saqi/the-queer-arab-glossary/

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Shifting the narrative from Big Tech to Responsible Tech by sharing & archiving the work of change makers.At the intersection of technology and social justice, Activists Of Tech is a seasonal weekly podcast dedicated to the amplification and archival of minority voices among activists, thought leaders, academics, and practitioners of responsible tech. Shifting the narrative from Big Tech to responsible tech takes honesty: this is a "say it as it is" type of podcast, and no topic is too taboo not to be named and addressed.The topics covered encompass a variety of responsible tech areas and focus on social justice, AI harm, AI bias, AI regulation and advocacy, minorities in tech, gender equality, tech and democracy, social media, and algorithmic recommendations, to name a few. We also talk about solutions and how to make tech inclusive and beneficial for all.