Palestinian lesbian tours U.S.
By Leslie Feinberg
New York
She is far from her homeland, Palestine, and a bit weary.
For two months, Rauda Morcos has traveled across North America
to bring the message of her Palestinian lesbian organization
"Aswat"--"Voices" in Arabic. The message: "We are women, we are
Pales inian and we are gay."
Activist and poet Morcos brought the voice of lesbian
Palestinian women against the Israeli occupation to events in
Toronto, New Orleans, San Francisco and in North Carolina,
Illinois, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
In New York, she was featured at five events in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and the Bronx before flying home on Oct. 25. Morcos
spoke at a round-table discussion hosted by the American-Arab
Anti-Discri mination Committee (ADC-NY) on Oct. 20, a
standing-room-only reading at Bluestockings Bookstore on Oct.
20, a reception hosted by the Audre Lorde Project co-sponsored
by Astrea, and a reading at BAAD!--the Bronx Academy of Arts
Dance.
At the ADC-NY round-table discussion, Morcos told those
gathered that the group had formed in 2002 as an e-list--a
"virtual forum." A year later, the group held its first meeting
in the home of Morcos and her partner. Aswat now holds
bimonthly meetings of some 14 women, including some who have to
travel through Israeli checkpoints from the occupied
territories. And the group has a larger mailing list. The women
of Aswat have also worked to develop ties with Palestinian
feminist organizations.
Morcos said Aswat also knows about "Queer" Arab groups in
Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Kuwait.
She spoke out about Israeli groups that have organized gay
parades. "Unfor tu nately, there is no other group in Israel to
open these connections between the oppres sion against gays,
oppression against women and oppression against Palestinians,
and also against the war. They are unfortunately doing gay
parades with no relation to reality. How can we be proud in a
country that oppresses us as Palestinians?"
She concluded that Aswat therefore made "a decision not to
support any group that does not speak of political oppression,
that does not speak to oppression of Palestinians."
For more information about Aswat, visit: www.aswat-palestiniangaywomen.org.
Reprinted from the Nov. 4, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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