Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
What happens to sexual and gender identities when crossing borders under duress?
This book offers an unprecedented account of how forced migration shapes the lives of queer Iranian individuals. Tracing movements from Iran through transition countries to Western resettlement, the book explores how identities are expressed, negotiated, silenced, and reimagined along the way. Engaging de/postcolonial theory and participatory methods, the authors centre the voices of non-heterosexual and non-cisnormative Iranians in exile.
This is an essential study for scholars of sexuality, migration, and Middle Eastern studies seeking to understand queerness in global displacement.
Table of Contents:
1. Escaping Iran
2. Reframing Queerness: The International Formation of Queer Identity in Iran
3. From the Amrad to ‘The Gay’: The Making of Queer Identity in Iran
4. Methodology and Ethical Issues
5. Language, Queer Vocabularies, and Self-Identification
6. External Factors Shaping Queer Iranians’ Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Migration Decisions
7. Drawn Into a Legal Web
8. Conclusion
About the Author :
Moira Dustin is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Sussex.
Nuno Ferreira is Professor of Law at the University of Sussex.
Kamran Matin is Reader in International Relations at the University of Sussex.
Mehran Rezaei-Toroghi was Research Fellow in the School of Law, Politics, and Sociology at the University of Sussex (2022–2023).
Isabel Soloaga is a documentary filmmaker, impact producer, and communications strategist.
Review :
‘By assembling context-specific empirical material from Iran and the Iranian diaspora, this volume contributes to broader scholarly debates on the formation of queer identities. Traversing geographical and conceptual borders in relation to identity, the authors foreground a central analytical tension: claims to universal identity categories are continually reshaped and unsettled by the specificities of history and culture, and by the situated conditions of time and place. This approach contributes to a more nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality in cross-cultural contexts and points toward the possibility of a more humane and diverse world.’ Graeme Reid, UN Independent Expert on Protection Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
‘A multivocal, participatory account of queer Iranian exile, this beautifully executed book decolonizes migration scholarship through poetry, law, and lived experience. It reimagines queer migration research as collaboration, centring storytelling, activism, and care alongside a sharp critique of asylum systems.’ Phillip Ayoub, University College London
'A courageous, multi-vocal, decolonial contribution centering queer Iranian lives in exile, foregrounding lived experience, creativity, and structural violence with striking clarity.’ Jasmin Lilian Diab, Lebanese American University
‘This groundbreaking book offers vital theoretical and methodological tools for addressing the multivocal lives of queer Iranians in exile.’ Eithne Luibhéid, University of Arizona
‘This is an important and novel contribution to the field of queer migration and beyond. It sheds light on the underexamined experiences of queer Iranians, while also challenging queer migration research.’ Sarah Scuzzarello, University of Sussex
‘Decolonizing Queer Migration is an urgent, beautifully crafted volume that re-centers queer and trans Iranian voices in exile through a genuinely participatory, multivocal approach. By combining rigorous analysis with life histories and poetry, it offers a powerful counter-archive that refuses extraction and complicates easy narratives of “liberation” through migration.’ Nadje Al-Ali, Brown University
‘The authors’ account of queer Iranian individuals throughout the migration trajectory is both thoughtful and intentional, as it shifts the narrative away from Eurocentric perspectives toward postcolonial theory. The individuals presented in this book are shown in all their humanity, making it essential reading for anyone interested not only in queer migration but also in a well-told narrative of survival and hope. Nuance and complexity are at the heart of this excellent book.’ Edward J. Alessi, Rutgers University School of Social Work
‘This book narrates and theorizes migrations not as a linear story of liberation, but as a counter-archive of a generation in endless becoming of queerness and resistance.’ Shahrzad Mojab, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto
‘This book offers a novel contribution to the study of queer migration, demonstrating how identities are negotiated across historical change, state power, and exile through a decolonizing lens.’ Mehrdad Alipour, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
‘Decolonizing Queer Migration is a major contribution to queer migration studies. Beautifully written, this meticulously researched book provides critical insights into the lives of queer Iranians who left their country to escape persecution. The authors’ careful, brave and compassionate analysis stands out for its powerful decolonial vision and their original use of poetry and life-history research to reveal the complexities of queer Iranian exile. I will be setting this book as required reading for my students of gender, sexuality and forced migration.’ Diego García Rodriguez, University of Leicester
‘Decolonizing Queer Migration offers a groundbreaking framework for understanding how queer identities form and transform across borders, moving beyond traditional dichotomies that have limited scholarship in this field. Through rich empirical research with queer Iranians in Turkey, the UK and Canada, the authors center the voices and agency of those too often treated as objects of study rather than knowledge-producers in their own right.’ Ari Shaw, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
‘This book tenderly reveals queer Iranian exiles’ intimate worlds, tracing desire, identity and belonging across displacement, history and embodied futures.’ Mengia Tschalär, City University of New York
‘A critical, theoretical, yet poetic and decentralised reflection on Iranian queer resistance by redefining one’s existence amidst borders and boundaries.’ Elham Malekpoor, Poet, theoretical human rights activist and researcher
‘In Decolonizing Queer Migration queer Iranians share the violence, prejudice and precarity they endured in the Islamic Republic but which they also continued to face after leaving Iran in search of a better life. However, the book also highlights moments of resilience and the agency they possess in negotiating their gender and sexual identities on their own terms.’ Richard C. M. Mole, University College London
‘In this book different voices from diverse backgrounds share their stories and insights, from the history of queer romance in Iran to the present persecutory situation and from poetry and lived experience to deteriorating SOGIESC asylum and resettlement practices in Turkey, Canada and the UK. The book, as well as the accompanying film The Other Place, are recommended to anybody interested in the study of queer and trans migration.’ Sabine Jansen, COC Netherlands
