Samra Habib

The recent mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL affected many lives within the LGBTQ+ community, and in particular the Latinx community. The tragic event also shed a national spotlight on the continued presence of heterosexism and transphobia in the U.S. and information released about the alleged suspect of the shooting brought attention to the continued rise of Islamophobia in the U.S.  The conversations that ensued included dialogues about seemingly disconnected identities among Muslim and queer communities, and such conversations often starkly overshadowed the experiences of those living as queer Muslims. 

Samra Habib, a queer Muslim photographer, journalist, and activist, will visit UNC Charlotte as the 2016 OUTSpoken guest speaker.  Habib will be hosting an exhibition of her photographs from her project entitled Just me and Allah at 3:00pm Tuesday, November 8, in the Gallery Lounge on the first floor of the Student Union.  She will then deliver her keynote address at 7:00pm Wednesday, November 9, in McKnight Hall in the Cone University Center.  

Habib is a multimedia journalist and a visual activist.  She left Pakistan at the age of 10 and moved to Canada with her family as a refugee. Her writing and art often look at Islam through a queer lens.  Her project entitled Just me and Allah documents the experiences of queer Muslims around the world and has garnered praise by world media outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, PBS, Vanity Fair Italia, Washington Post, Art Magazine, i-D and Vice.  She has exhibited her work in Brooklyn, Toronto, Berlin, and Linkoping, Sweden.  As a journalist, her work has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times, Vice and Public Radio International.