The LGBTQ Center in Barcelona was a good new discovery for me. Safe space and environment to be ourselves and to talk about our queer works and network with other gay people and make friendships. 

Choosing Fati as a moderator was a great choice as she speaks English, Arabic too. This helped me to prepare the talk with her before as well she could read the English chapters of my book and she has her own knowledge about homosexuality in the Arab countries. The best question that she asked me was: If the protagonist of my novel Selamlik was presented as a sexual object for the western readers? My answer was that the novel never been written for the Westerns, but no Arabic publishing house dared to publish an erotic novel, the protagonist is Arab and Muslim.

The room was almost full with the audience and I got many questions. I remember about the language’s challenge as I wrote my book in English and Arabic and has been translated into Swedish. Spanish TV covered my visit and the video went so well on Twitter.