This Queer Arab Family: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers

This Queer Arab Family explores redefining family roles in Arab culture, where personal desires are often sacrificed for the collective. Through stories of Queer Arabs, it celebrates the family we inherit and friends we choose, highlighting challenges and triumphs from raising children to forging kinship. ''From building a non-binary belly dancing robot to tender acts of kindness that bind queer Arabs together, this book will have you laughing and crying.'' ''Jahshan orchestrates a symphony of perspectives that echo across geography and experience, bound together by strength and vulnerability. It''s simultaneously a celebration, an act of resistance, a declaration of devotion, and an assurance that isolation is an illusion. This is trailblazing work from a contemporary queer luminary – a beacon for liberation and a defiant response to any force attempting to diminish our love.''

Existence is a form of resistance.

The Arabic word ‘hafla’ means party. But is also means to care for someone.

In Arab culture, family is everything. Personal desires are sacrificed for the unit, and roles within families are traditionally predetermined based on age and gender. So what happens when Queer Arabs redefine what those roles and relationships look like?

This Queer Arab Family is a celebration of the family we inherit and the friends we choose to become our family. From raising children with mum and mum, staying connected to sisters on the other side of the world through cooking the dishes that have been handed down through generations, to finding kinship in gender neutral toilets, this book is testament to the challenges and triumphs that bind us together.

This Queer Arab Family is here to slay.

• | Author: Elias Jahshan
• | Publisher: Saqi Books
• | Publication Date: Sep 18, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781849250887
• | ISBN-10: 184925088X