Rafeif Ismail says there is no single refugee story, queer story, migrant, Muslim or African story
Meet Me at the Intersection contributor Rafeif Ismail is a Perth-based, emerging Muslim writer who is a refugee from Sudan identifying as queer. She will be on a panel focusing on diversity at the Great Big Book Club Tea Party, an event co-hosted by the City of Melville and Fremantle Press at AH Bracks Library on 21 October.
While her story in Meet Me at the Intersection is fiction, parts of it were inspired by true events, personal experience and the desire to see more representation of queer, black Muslim women in fiction. Rafeif writes, ‘I hope the story highlights that there is no single refugee story, queer story, migrant story, African story, Muslim story, etc. The danger of a single narrative is that it leaves individuals vulnerable to the dehumanisation that is at the core of all institutions of oppression.’
In this video chat with Ishita Mathur, she talks about why she chose to explore identity in her writing, the danger of homogenisation and who she’d choose if she could program anyone in the world for a diversity panel at the Great Big Book Club Tea Party.
Where to catch Rafeif in the coming months:
Saturday 25 August, Melbourne Writers Festival, Melbourne, VIC
Friday 31 August, National Young Writers’ Festival, Newcastle, NSW
Saturday 8 September, Writing and Intersectionality workshop, Writers Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 21 October, Fremantle Press Great Big Book Club Tea Party, AH Bracks Library, Melville, WA
