Moka Zakareya
23 Oktoba 2025
11:15 AM
Session summary
In a world where languages are always evolving and diversifying, authoritarian regimes in the Arab World have spent a lot of effort to silence the voices of queer people living in the region, and they dictate what can be said and what can't be. Politically it is something prevalent in official spaces to prevent opportunities to queer people to speak their minds or demand their rights. We can also see this with the pinkwashing happening in Palestine by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Language is power, and power means visibility. In this talk, Moka will draw attention to the ever-evolving terms and speech used by Arab queers, and how language can be used as a tool of resistance against fascism in public and private spaces.
Biography
Moka (he/they) is a global campaigns officer at ReportOUT. Born and raised in Egypt he lived there almost all of his life, and now lives between Cairo and Lisbon, Portugal. Moka has a bachelor's degree in English, which reflects his huge interest in languages and in becoming a polyglot, and a Master's degree in Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage from the University of Bologna with a background in working in project management, career coaching, and as a facilitator in mental health and sex education.
