Category: SWANA
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Arab queer film finds success: an interview with the director of Lebanon’s award-winning “Warsha”
INTERVIEW As the world marks LGBT History Month, film director of Lebanese and Syrian origin Dania Bdeir is making her mark as a contributor to queer history, with her award-winning short film, “Warsha”. “Warsha” follows Mohammed, a Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to operate one of the…
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Cypriot consciousness and online spaces: can we dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools?
ESSAY Audre Lorde once professed that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Indeed, as an abolitionist, I believe that the state and all its wings of carceral violence (prisons, immigration detention centres, policing) must be dismantled for liberation to be possible. Funds, resources and energy must be funnelled away from these oppressive…
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‘Uncharted’: how white narratives distort and orientalise Cypriot history and identity
CN: trauma OPINION ‘Uncharted’ is a four-part vlog-style Youtube series on the Cyprus conflict by YouTuber, Johnny Harris. I have watched the entirety of this insensitive, offensive series, so that you don’t have to. I will delve into my thoughts below, so you know exactly the reasons why you shouldn’t waste your precious energy on…
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‘Lebanon needs help’: an interview with filmmaker, Nada Raphael
INTERVIEW Two weeks ago partial power was restored to Lebanese homes. It is a victory as anticlimactic as it sounds. A twenty four-hour nationwide blackout had brought a flurry of media attention to the situation on the ground. After the partial restoration of electricity, all has gone quiet again. Are we to assume life is…
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‘Hope is in humanity’: an interview with the activist raising thousands for Beirut’s queer civilians
CN: this interview contains detailed discussion of queerphobic violence, abuse, trauma and persecution VIDEO On 4 August 2020, nearly 3 000 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon. The explosion killed over 200 people and displaced an estimated 300 000. Within the broader humanitarian crisis that ensued, there exists another…
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Androniki and prehistoric pottery: a look at non-binary gender expression in Cypriot culture
Support Politika News on Patreon. With special thanks to Ilaeira. ESSAY ‘It’s cultural’, people have often said to me. The tenacity of multiple systems of oppression – patriarchy, heteronormativity, racism – suggests they are and always have been endemic in Cypriot culture. As a member of the Cypriot diaspora, it has certainly felt that way.…
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Re-thinking July 1974: problematic discourse in Cyprus’ Greek-speaking diaspora
Support Politika News on Patreon. CN: this video contains discussion of trauma, displacement, and war VIDEO As Cypriot communities commemorate the events of July 1974 (as well as the decades prior) that led to Cyprus’ partition, Politika News Editor, Georgio Konstandi and From Root To Vine creator, Maria Christodoulou, sit down to discuss problematic discourses…
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No pride in apartheid: Israel’s pinkwashing and the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians
With special thanks to Anastasia Gavalas Support Politika News on Patreon. CN: this article contains discussion of trauma, genocide, homophobia, racism and pinkwashing OPINION To us, to liberate our country, to have our dignity, to have respect, to have our mere human right is something as essential as life itself. Ghassan Kanafani, speaking to Richard…
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‘I’m terrified of what might come next’: an interview with Middle East academic and ‘the fire these times’ host, Joey Ayoub
Support Politika News on Patreon. CN: this article contains detailed discussion of physical violence, murder, maiming, and warfare INTERVIEW As scenes of Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians continues to fill our newsfeeds, long-time Palestinian rights activists are pushing for the latest wave of media attention to produce humanitarian results. Politika News (virtually) sat down with…
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Cyprus’ Peace Generation launch latest campaign for reunification: an interview with ‘Hade’
Support us on Patreon. VIDEO As Cyprus looks to the light at the end of a long COVID tunnel, its Peace Generation is eyeing up the chance to reset the political clock. 47 years ago, the island was partitioned and communities, who for centuries had co-habited peacefully, have since been forced to live apart. Now,…
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