A Seminar on Sexuality: “One Day One Struggle”
Helem, the first LGBT organization in the Arab World, and Meem, a community of lesbian, bisexual, queer & questioning women and transgender persons in Lebanon, held on November 9, 2009 at the American University of Beirut (AUB) a seminar on sexuality entitled “One Day One Struggle”. Heading the panel were experts and activists Rasha Moumneh (Human Rights Watch), Dr. Faysal El Kak (National Reproductive Health Programme Consultant), Hiba Abbani (Helem), Nadine Mouawad (Nasawiya). The seminar was part of the international campaign “One Day One Struggle” organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR), an international solidarity network of progressive NGOs and premier academic institutions in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
 

Operation: Sex Change
Operation Sex Change is a grassroots online campaign launched by a couple of activists in Meem to raise awareness around challenges facing transgender people everywhere in the world. This 11-day campaign started on Monday, November 9, 2009, which is the international day of action for sexual and bodily rights across Muslim societies: “One Day, One Struggle,” an initiative organized by the Coalition of Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR), of which Meem is a member. It ended on Friday, November 20, which is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day on which we remember the many trans individuals who were murdered in hate crimes. 2975 persons participated in this campaign by changing their sex on Facebook and engaging with issues related to transgender identities.
 

Bekhsoos: The Weekly Queer Arab Magazine Published by the Peeps at Meem is OUT
Since September 7th 2009 and till the end of 2009, Bekhsoos published 15 issues with a total of 168 stories. Articles were read over 57,000 unique times and over 369,000 times in total. Bekhsoos visitors were from 165 countries. We can’t tell you how much fun we’ve had bringing you Bekhsoos every Monday morning in 2009. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more from the Arab world’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and transgender communities in 2010. Remember to check out the magazine every Monday here.
 

Staged Readings of Bareed Mista3jil in San Francisco
Arab Feminists for Change & the Global Fund for Women presented two staged readings of Bareed Mista3jil: True Stories by Meem. More than two hundred people came to watch a group from the area perform stories from the book on stage with the purpose of raising funds for Meem's work. The staged reading was followed by a Q&A session, where members of the group answered questions related to its work and the publishing of Bareed Mista3jil. A video of the reading can be found on Meem's YouTube channel which you can view here.
 

Meem Participates in Amnesty International Conference on Human Rights
On November 4th 2009, Meem took part in a conference entitled "Human Rights: A Dangerous Activity" organized by Amnesty International in Belgium. During the panel, a member of Meem discussed the group's holistic approach to struggles pointing that the real danger is not understanding that LGBTQ rights intersect with many identities and struggles. An article was posted in Bekhsoos about the event.
 

Merhaba Launches Bareed Mista3jil in Belgium
On Friday the 6th of November 2009, the Belgian group Merhaba launched Bareed Mista3jil in the presence of different local organizations. The book launch started with a presentation on how the book was conceived and came to be as well as small anecdotes regarding its launch. The introduction was followed up by the reading of four stories from the book , English, French, Arabic and Flemish, followed by questions and the presentation of the 45 minute documentary by Sara Bracke: Pink Camouflage.
 

Meem's Secret Santa & the Christmas Party
The holiday season didn’t pass unnoticed at the house! During the first week of December, each of the participating members became a Secret Santa for another. The holiday was celebrated throughout the month by hiding small gifts for each other around the house. When it was finally time for the partay! the members gathered over a glass of red wine for the final gift exchange. The last party of the year brought many smiles and surprises. We raise the glass for many more to come!
 

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News Bits

► We apologize for being away since August. As you will now read, we've been very busy! That's no excuse; we know. But look on the bright side. Your favorite newsletter is back! <3

► The Book Club is Back with Aphrodite. Also in February was the relaunch of the Book Club at Meem with a reading of Zeina a novel by Dr. Nawal El Saadawi. The book reading was stimulating and has brought up discussions about the phallus in El-Saadawi’s literature, patriarchy, family lineage, and physical abuse.

► On February 5th, a terrific poetry workshop was given by the lovely Gya at the Womyn House. At the end of the workshop, the attending poets-to-be each wrote a poem based on an exercise that Gya put together. It involved listening to a melody, tasting a questionable violet elixir, and of course being caressed by a feather on one side of the face while being nearly scratched on the other (what else would we do for creativity to kick in?). Poets-to-be then combined their writing into a collective poem, made up of lines from each individual poem. Gya will be hosting open-mic poetry readings every second Wednesday of each month at the Womyn House.

► A couple of Italian Meem members have been thoughtful enough to give a workshop on “Wendo” a special lesbian self-defense course. Unfortunately the heart of Wendo lies in its secrecy, similarly to our beloved Meem. Details of the workshop cannot be shared with the public, but some members are working on adapting Wendo to the Lebanese context. We will keep you posted with the updates!

► We're very excited to announce the relaunch of Lebanon's first-ever Feminist Collective, Nasawiya, a group working to promote feminism and gender equality in the Arab world. Among their causes are the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people, as well as those of transsexuals. Congratulations fellow feminists!

► Over 9000 people have checked out our videos on Meem's YouTube channel, the latest of which was about gender binary. Check it out here.

► Meem btetkallim 3arabi! Our gift to you for the new year was the launch of Meem’s website in Arabic! The content of the English website has been translated by the members, and now all the information about the group is available in our mother tongue, making it more accessible to the masses.

► More than 40 people came by Meem's Womyn House on the last sunday of October for our monthly Bring-a-Friend event. Attendees shared how their friends came out to them, their feelings, their views on support and alliances. Afterwards, friends and family had the chance to hang around the house, have a cup of coffee, get to know the projects we work on and encouraged us to keep it up with the spirit that “none of us are free until all of us are free.”