Samar Habib (SOAS, University of London): “Recovering the Arab Queer: How to a write a historical and “lesbian” novel set in 9th century Iraq (and why does it even matter?)”

Dr. Samar Habib (School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London) “Recovering the Arab Queer: How to a write a historical and “lesbian” novel set in 9th century Iraq (and why does it even matter?)”

Dr. Samar Habib is the author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: histories and representations (Routledge, 2007) and the editor of Islam and Homosexuality (Praeger, 2010). Her debut novel, A Tree Like Rain, was published by Nebula Press in 2005, and Rughum & Najda, a ficto-historical narrative of same-sex love between women in ninth century Baghdad, was published by Oracle Releasing in March 2012. A link to her books in our library: http://goo.gl/96lw2r.

[Co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature]