Set Her Free: Meltem Avcil on Life Inside Yarl’s Wood
“Believe it or not, when you are a refugee you are always taught that being a refugee is a bad thing. So, to some extent you are subconsciously ashamed of yourself.” Meltem Avcil has an incredible story. Aged 13, she and her mother were locked in Yarl’s Wood, the notorious women’s immigratio
New Bodies, Old Norms: Transsexuals in Iran
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, ‘male’ and ‘female’ are clearly defined oppositional concepts. Yet the country is also the world’s second most prolific practitioner of sex-reassignment surgeries. In 1985 Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa stating that transsexuals should be permitted to ch
Love is Enough: Jeremy Deller in Oxford
An interview with Jeremy Deller and a review of his Modern Art Oxford show ‘Love is Enough’ Since Jeremy Deller generates his own work through what can and has been called a curatorial process, I approached the Modern Art Oxford show with the impression that it was, in its entirety, one
Not Just A Dream: The story of Helem, the Arab World’s First LGBTQ Rights Organisation
From the perspective of the western media, gay rights activism in the Arab world is virtually non-existent. It’s difficult to fly the rainbow flag when homosexual acts are criminalized in all but three of the 22 countries of the Arab world
