Decolonizing Queer Migration: Iranian Voices in Exile

This book retheorises queer identity formation processes of queer Iranians who have left Iran to escape persecution or discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC). The book contributes to postcolonial research on gender and sexuality, augments life histories of exile, explores trauma-based cultural politics, blends poetry with more traditional methods of social science analysis in a creative form of participatory research, and makes a nuanced contribution to emerging queer studies of migration, transnationalism and exile. In particular, the book explores the lived experiences of queer Iranians in exile, by enquiring: a) how migration from Iran to ‘the West’ affects the way queer Iranians in exile negotiate their sexual and gender identity; b) how some feel misrecognised, retraumatised, or silenced in that process, others are able to understand and articulate their identities in new ways, and most have both positive and negative experiences during their ‘journeys’; c) how queer Iranians in exile negotiate culturally specific categories such as ‘LGBTIQ+’ and how innovative/tactical/strategic they are in resisting processes of determination/subjugation. The book investigates the difficulties of cultural translation and the ways in which Iranian experiences are read through the prism of dominant Western signifiers. The book explores the experiences of queer Iranians in exile in three countries generally seen as being of transition, destination or resettlement, respectively Turkey, the UK and Canada, and relies on the analysis of 57 interviews and five poetry workshops, reflecting the strong artistic and folk traditions of poetry in Iran.<p></p>