To be queer and diaspora is to be of/against the future simultaneously

[timotee_allouch-chantepie]

“ To be queer and diaspora is to be of/against the future simultaneously ” I find this line of Namazie’s poem both very poetic but also something that can be critiqued. The intentions of the line can be easily interpreted. Queerness has been, notably in Iran, a breaking off from the symbolism of the past and the image that the world has of it and it in Iran. With the diaspora representing the perpetuation of cultural tradition and values, this line represents how queerness is a symbol of a general society’s vision of the future. There’s a conflict between being tradition driven and future drive that queerness seeks to reconcile.

However, this comes with the implication that queerness is something that has only recently emerged, as in some sort of concept. It takes away from its true history which outlasts any current civilization, including Persian. Diaspora represents a vision of a homeland, but the danger is to be too selective of what is imported into the vision, leaving many aspects of representation unchecked, including queerness. Queers in many regions of the world lack a source of their identity to find representation in and so struggle to reconcile their identity with the history of their culture. This is what Namazie seeks to express in her poem. Even though there exists an incompatible image between the Persian diaspora and queerness, it is only true in image.