When Marwan Kaabour created “The Queer Arab Glossary,” he wanted to challenge the assumption that queerness is absent and exempt from Arab culture.
“The book shows that not only are we part of every community and of every country and of every group throughout the region, but we've been speaking about it in a literary way since before Islam,” Kaabour told LGBTQ+ publication Them. “We have always been here.”
Illustrated by Palestinian artist Haitham Haddad, the glossary brings together over 300 slang terms from a wide range of Arabic dialects — including Levantine, Iraqi, Gulf, Egyptian, Sudanese, and Maghrebi.
Equal parts dictionary, memoir, and historical guide, the book highlights the depth and diversity of queer expression across the Arab world.
Kaabour, who hails from Beirut, Lebanon, said that his international…
