LGBTQ Muslims in Melbourne gather together to celebrate Ramadan with their Queer Iftar event, providing a safe and inclusive space for those who feel ostracised from traditional Muslim communities. As one of the five pillars of Islam, Ramadan requires Muslims to fast from dawn until dusk each day for around 29 or 30 days, with the Iftar serving to break the day’s fast. The Queer Iftar event has been running for three years and was started by organiser Abdullah Yahya, who fled his home country to escape criminalisation for being queer.
For many LGBTQ Muslims living in Australia, Ramadan can be a much lonelier time of year. Yahya said the community aspect of Ramadan can be “heartbreaking and isolating” for LGBTQ Muslims like himself, who feel ostracised due to their sexuality. Yahya started running the Iftar for his community in 2019 and joined with BridgeMeals, a community-led initiative that holds dinners for marginalised groups, such as refugees, migrants and LGBTQ people.
The Iftar started with just 6 to 8 people per week in 2020, but this year, BridgeMeals ran three small Iftars to ensure privacy and confidentiality for those who attended. For the final Iftar, the organisation brought everyone together and allowed allies to attend too, filling the room with around 80 people. Yaser Yousry, who attended the Iftar for the first time this year, said that growing up queer and Muslim, he never thought a space like it would exist.
Nurul, the president of the community group Sydney Queer Muslims, said creating safe spaces for LGBTQ Muslims could be saving lives. Her organisation has been running queer Iftars in Sydney since 2017 and she said it was “very encouraging” to hear Melbourne’s events were growing too. Nurul said queer Iftars give people a chance to reconcile their Muslim and queer identities, a major source of pain for her community.
Yahya said a lot of work needed to be done for the wider, socially conservative Australian community and the wider LGBTQ community to accept queers of faith. He said members from more “conservative” parts of the community had attacked the event online, but he was hopeful more queer Muslims would hear about the Melbourne Iftar and attend next year. For Yahya, the meal symbolised a community that was free to express themselves. “Having this space means that nobody gets to dictate our faith, because we believe in our religion. We believe in how we practise our faith. We believe in how we define our relationship with our God,” he said. “This is our own journey and this is our own space.”