Tell us what you’re doing at The Coast is Queer this year

I’ll be on the panel ‘Against All Odds’, talking about my memoir, The Ayatollah’s Gaze, and what it was like growing up gay in a devout Muslim family in Tehran, including the secret, flamboyant gay scene that existed right under the regime’s nose.

Why is The Coast is Queer an important festival?

Spaces like this are still rare, especially for stories from places where being queer is still criminalised, or worse. TCIQ gives those stories a stage, at scale, which matters more than ever as hostility towards the queer community grows in many parts of the world. For someone like me, coming from a country where ‘gay’ isn’t a word you’re allowed to say out loud, being invited to a festival this size to talk about it openly is significant.

What is the queer book that inspired you as a writer?

A few come to mind: The Walk-In Closet by Abdi Nazemian and A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi both explore what it means to be queer within an Iranian and Muslim families, which spoke to me directly. And Life as a Unicorn by Glamrou showed me a queer story could be loud, funny, and unapologetic, which gave me courage for my own.

What is the book you would add to the queer bookshelf for future readers?

Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian; it captures generational trauma and chosen family across three generations of queer Iranian-American men with tenderness. It’s the kind of book I wish had existed when I was young.

Majid Parsa will be speaking on the Against the Odds Panel on Saturday, 17 October at 12:00PM.