Rayyan Dabbous is a PhD student at the University of Toronto's Centre for Comparative Literature. In this interview with fill-in Queer View Mirror host Kirby, Rayyan discusses 'pinkwashing', perceptions of queer communities in the so-called 'East' and 'West' — though that's a binary that Rayyan seeks to problematise — as well as concepts of 'freedom' and 'justice'.

He also elaborates on his Conversation article In Gaza, a photo of Israeli soldier raising a pride flag ‘in the name of love’ goes viral, ‘pinkwashing’ a war. You can click through to read the piece in full, including Rayyan's dissection of a photograph that was widely circulated on social media in November 2023 that showed a uniformed Israeli Defence Force soldier standing in Gaza holding a rainbow pride flag with the words "in the name of love" written on it. This image is an example of Israeli 'pinkwashing', a rhetoric of Israel as a haven for queer people in the Middle East, working to 'liberate' queer communities — a rhetoric that Rayyan says is built on colonialist legacies.

This audio is an extended version of the interview, excerpts of which were first broadcast on Queer View Mirror on January 10th. Here, Kirby and Rayyan explore the importance of context and complexity as resistance to dogmatic ideological thinking, and draw from Rayyan's 2019 book DIY Creative Activism.

Further resources that Rayyan mentions in this interview include: Hannah Arendt's book The Human Condition, Rayyan's Liberum article West vs. East = Freedom vs. Justice and the work of Judith Butler.