The Middle East, once a tolerant and safe region for LGBTQAI+ individuals, has now developed into a hostile environment to said community. Sexual violence, criminalisation and marginalisation of non-compliant queer bodies are rife and enabled by urban policy, planning and design. We will ask how queer people experience everyday space in the city, what kind of spaces might exist in a non-hetero-sexist city and what kind of emerging queer spaces already work towards this horizon, and finally how new planning frameworks that address the realities and diversity of queer lives can be achieved.

Special thank you to our panellists: 

Haidar Hawilo - Mosaic (https://www.mosaicmena.org/)
Mend Mariwany - Skin Deep mag (https://skindeepmag.com) + Bare lit Festival (https://www.instagram.com/bare.lit)
Ahmed Masri  - Pride of Arabia (https://www.prideofarabia.com)

And our host, Leena Habiballa, a writer and editor who has previously written about race, identity and culture (http://thirdrailquarterly.org/and-in-sudan-a-famished-food-culture)

3.09 S1E03 LGBTQIA+ In The Middle East

The pandemic of loneliness in the city has come to a fore in contemporary political discourse, with headlines outlining how loneliness now rivals obesity and smoking as a health risk. Rob Imrie, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, warns that the design of cities are in danger of reproducing ‘the merciless separation of space’ that may heighten people’s distancing from one another, becoming part of a broader trend of a loss of community and an increase in loneliness in contemporary urban society 

Special thank you to our panellists:

Alberte Lauridsen - (www.instagram.com/alb.erte/)
John Gray - (www.hta.co.uk/people/john-gray)
Lauren Andres - (www.laurenandresurbanist.com/)
MIranda Hall - (neweconomics.org/search/author/miranda-hall)

And our host, Phoebe Eustance, research coordinator at HTA and artist whose work draws on the complex relations of ​closeness​: ​proximity​, as a ​spatial measure used to organise and negotiate the way we live together​; and ​intimacy​, as a ​feeling traversing realms of the personal​, the ​political​, and the ​cultural.​ ( www.phoebeeustance.com )

3.09 S1E04 Safety In Numbers

As social facilitators of change within the built environment,  3°09 is a multi-disciplinary collective working through digital migratory experiences both culturally + geographically. Critically analysing intersecting narratives and complex interdependencies; we design, research and adapt to different cultures, overlapping constructs and interconnected relationships within cities across our climate.

3.09 Podcast