Reclaiming Terminology | AL.FESTIVAL

Following an article by writer and music producer Rami Abadir, published on Ma3azef, we invited Rami to join Hanan Toukan, Associate Professor of Politics and Middle East Studies at Bard College Berlin; Leil Zahra Mortada, queer political organiser, researcher, and multidisciplinary artist; and moderator Rasha Chatta, Associate Researcher in Cultural and Postcolonial Studies at FU Berlin.Together, they explored how terms such as MENA and SWANA shape how the region is understood, funded, and represented — and ask: Who has the power to define cultures? A conversation around identity, belonging, decolonisation, and cultural self-determination.