Ghadir Shafie (also Ghadir Al Shafie,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

غدير الشافعي) is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

activist and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She is the co-director of Aswat, an organization of

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Palestinian women, which she joined in 2008.

Views

Shafie is a critic of pinkwashing by Israel. She has criticized Israeli efforts to promote

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

rights to Palestinians, writing that these efforts ensure "that sexuality education is only delivered condescendingly by non-Palestinians to Palestinians" and cannot account for language and cultural differences. In an interview with

Middle East Eye ''Middle East Eye'' (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

, she said that “ hemoment we represent ourselves as gay Palestinians and speak about politics, it’s the end of the story” and that Israel wants queer Palestinians "to be the victims of our own society, and they want to be the saviours.” Shafie is a supporter of

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's ...

, describing it as "the only effort that acknowledges and emphasizes the need to recognize our rights as Palestinians." She has opposed

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

s in Israel and the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

by artistic groups from

Arab countries The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

, citing the Brand Israel campaign as a reason. Her advocacy work involves

anti-Zionism Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the Palestine (region) ...

Activity

In 2011,

Sarah Schulman Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in nonfiction at Northwestern University and is a fellow of the New York ...

organized a speaking tour in the

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with Shafie as well as Haneen Maikey and one other queer Palestinian activist. The speakers held events in six cities in February 2011. In March 2015, Shafie attended a conference titled "Sexualities and Queer Imaginaries in the Middle East/North Africa" and held by the

Middle East Studies Middle Eastern studies, sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies, West Asian Studies or South Western Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, an ...

program of the

Watson Institute for International Studies Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) is an ultraviolet Raman spectrometer that uses fine-scale imaging and an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy, and detect org ...

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. She spoke as part of a panel focused on Palestine. In May 2016, Shafie was one of the signers of a statement by Palestinian feminist activists supporting the decision of the

National Women's Studies Association The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization founded in 1977, made up of scholars and practitioners in the field of women's studies also known as women's and gender studies, feminist studies, and related names in the 21st c ...

to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Personal life

Shafie was born and raised in

Acre, Israel Acre ( ), known in Hebrew as Akko (, ) and in Arabic as Akka (, ), is a List of cities in Israel, city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The city occupies a strategic location, sitting ...

. She lives there with her son Jude. Shafie is queer and a citizen of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. She has described experiencing racism and discrimination from

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Israelis in Israeli cities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shafie, Ghadir Living people Palestinian activists Arab citizens of Israel 21st-century Palestinian women 21st-century Palestinian LGBTQ people Palestinian feminists Year of birth missing (living people) LGBTQ feminists People from Acre, Israel Palestinian LGBTQ rights activists Queer women 21st-century Israeli women 21st-century Israeli LGBTQ people Israeli activists Israeli feminists Israeli women activists Israeli Arab LGBTQ people