Syrian dancer The Darvish is a phenomenon-besides also being a self-taught performance artist. He organizes cultural events and his persona has been featured in several local and international magazines and articles. He is co-host and co-organizer of Queens Against Borders – Berlins biggest solitary party with trans/queer refugees.
SLEEK spoke with the artist about his queer haven in Berlin, his roots, and the LGBTQIA+ refugee community.
SLEEK How did you come up with your stage name „The Darvish“, the closeness to the word „Dervish“ probably not a coincidence?
THE DARVISH Not at all! My legal last name is „Darwish“ in Syrian. I am a representative of this culture and my last name refers to this humbled person that originates from the Sufi religion. And there are the Sufi dancers, the Dervishes. I do the Dervish dance so I played with the words and it fit perfectly.
It is basically a male-dominated community and feminism as well as being queer shakes them.
SLEEK What would being yourself and fully unfolding your identity look like if you still lived in Syria?
THE DARVISH It would mean three years in jail and societal suicide as a result. In our culture, it is not yet acceptable to live as I do. I say „yet“ because there are movements and calls for equality and our rights. Currently, the community doesn’t necessarily accept it because of societal restrictions. It is basically a male-dominated community and feminism as well as being queer shakes them. Thinking of that makes me realize how powerful the queer community is. This is how I look at it and I hope for the future there will be more acceptance and understanding of the complexity of a human being.
SLEEK You came here four years ago. Is Berlin open-minded? What has your experience here been like?
THE DARVISH I consider Berlin my home and I can proudly say it is very open-minded. You can’t really compare it to any other city in Germany, nor the world. The level of possibilities and chances for queer lives to prosper is very high. But even in Berlin there still is so much work to do. We are often generalized maybe because our needs are different from the ones of the heteronormative community. We are the most jeopardized to lose our families and the most jeopardized to be attacked. Our city is great but we still have to work on protecting trans sisters and brothers and other nonbinary queers.
We are survivors really.
SLEEK I recently had a talk with EBOW who is a queer rap artist and we spoke about safe spaces. Is Berlin your safe space?
THE DARVISH There are many forms to a safe space. It can be a group of friends, it can be a place, a bar, a club or a cafe where you can wear whatever you want and where you can appear in any shape or form. Berlin has a lot of these places. It is queer heaven really. Safe spaces are important for us to let go of our guard. This is something I learned as a queer POC and as a queer person in general, we learn to survive throughout our life phases. We are survivors really. For us to have a home in a way where we can go and feel comfortable and safe is really important. In the pandemic, we realized that even more and also what these places mean for our mental health.
SLEEK Is your family supporting you in what you do?
THE DARVISH The situation is like this: My mum knows. She is not necessarily supportive but she’s in my life and I am happy about it. I tried hard to include and educate her in the last four years because I didn’t want to lose her. When it comes to my brothers, no they are not supportive and we have not spoken since I came out to them which is fine. I give them time to understand and hopefully, in the future, they will realize their mistake by cutting me out of their lives. And my dad doesn’t know about anything. I am still a little shocked, no one told him?! But on the other hand, it’s a completely different world there.
SLEEK Is discrimination inside the queer community a problem?
THE DARVISH For me it is not a visual issue but I sense it because I know how the community works and I know what the phrases and words are when it comes to discrimination. I have the privilege that I am a passing POC and I don’t have to be confronted with discrimination hand in hand. But none the less when people are talking about the discrimination they often talk for us, about us, without us. It is a shade of discrimination. I’ve dealt with it sometimes when I have been asked to come and perform just for the diversity. When I sense something like that I refuse to perform.
SLEEK What would make you want to return to Syria?
THE DARVISH I don’t have the option even if I wanted to. First of all, I am out, second of all I would be drafted into the army and even if I wouldn’t be drafted it would be societal suicide because everyone knows I am gay at this point. When it comes to my family they would keep me away from society. I would love to go back for visits. I couldn’t go back to how I was living, which was basically an underground double life, afraid all the time and overthinking every move a made. The only thing I would go back for is my mum. She can’t visit because she’s Syrian and there is no visa for Syrians. I would like to think she would visit if she could but I don’t know.
SLEEK How big is the queer refugee community?
THE DARVISH From what I have experienced it is big. A lot of queer Syrians have moved to Berlin because of its reputation and because of how queer it is. Compared to the general refugee community it’s still small. A lot of people come here and are still hiding because they are afraid of what the other Arabs would say to them. They are here but still trapped. Sometimes they actively decide to stay trapped. The whole situation is very complex.
In July you have the chance to see The Darvish live in a contemporary theatre performance dancing with two other Syrian dancers. Get your tickets!
Thank you The Darvish and we hope to see you perform in the not-so-distant-future.
by Teres Köhler
Fashion Direction: Don Aretino