Q&A: Junaid Jahangir

Name: Junaid Jahangir

Faculty: Arts

Position: Contract Instructor

Favourite book protagonist: Gandalf

Tell me about your undergrad.
I actually went to Pakistan for three to four years. In those days every boy wanted to be a computing scientist. I went along with the same crowd. But it just happened that computing science never worked so I jumped into economics. Decades later, I’m teaching economics.

What was it like to grow up as a queer Muslim in Dubai? How did it affect your studies?
I was very committed to completing my education: my bachelors, my masters, then my PhD. The time came when I was 27, and I was like, “Most of my friends in university who graduated with me.” Some guys in my time were dating and got married and had kids. I asked myself, would I? I’d never really been interested in women but I hadn’t really expressed interest in the other side either.

At that point … I was writing for a religious magazine, where I was kind of the upcoming star. My former teachers would actually call my writings impressive. When I was dealing with my issues, I wrote an article on homosexuality in the religious magazine. That’s when I got attacked by my former Arabic teacher. He said … some people should be institutionalized and locked up in mental facilities. When I received that scathing response, I said, “Wait a minute, these people are prejudiced themselves.” How could they interpret the scriptures in an unbiased fashion? So I decided I needed to do my study from here onwards.

What would you say to people who think there’s a conflict between spiritual beliefs and being queer?
It depends on how you view religion. Do you view religion as something stuck or frozen in time, context, location, space? Or do you view religion as something which grows, develops, and changes with time?

A mistake that conservative Muslims and atheists make is that religion doesn’t change. But it has changed … Go back in time, what was marriage? Male ownership over women. What is marriage now? A relationship between two equal people.

What’s one thing you would say to students here?
I’ve seen discrimination where students can’t openly be themselves. I’ve noticed at the university level is a need to have safe spaces for people of all backgrounds, regardless of the colour of their skin, the religious beliefs they espouse, what they wear.