Guapa Quotes

“Digging through my roots to understand the way my branches grew.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“In America the gay world touched my life at the margins, though references and images and occasional conversations with men and women who celebrated their homosexuality with pride. As far as I could see there was nothing to be proud about. There was only pain, humiliation and shame. If I were to join this group, I would have to act proud and hide my feelings of rejection and loneliness. If I were to show these men and women that I was terrified for my future, I would be regarded as misguided or a victim of Islam or Arabness. But if there was one thing I wsa certain of it was that there was nothing misguided about my feelings, and I did not feel that Islam or my Arabness was to blame. If I were to join this group, I would simply go from the repressiveness of secrecy to the repressiveness of pride. I didn't despise my shame. I had no reason to do so. My shame illuminated my intense attachment to the world, my desire to be connected with others.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“I was finished with assuming the best intentions of those who abandoned me, done trying to assuage my loneliness in barren places.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“The disfigured carcasses of so many beautiful causes are scattered throughout history, battered by war and betrayal, their once hopeful spirit darkened and soured.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“Has old age and her stagnant sense of shame dried out her heart? Eib, she would say. Eib. This obsession with what people will say has stripped her of her humanity.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“All things in life, no matter how small, have some level of significance.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“I chanted and I thought of power and imperialism, and I realized that it was all linked, that challenging lies and oppression was also fighting on behalf of love.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“I loved Taymour because he was from here, because everything in him reminded me of everything here, because to love him was to love this city and its history. And yet I couldn't love him because he was from here and so held ideas of how to be and how to love, which would never fit in with the love that we shared.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“There is no such thing as forcing someone to be free. My obligation is not to my love for him but rather to what this love represents. My obligation is only to myself. Like two parallel lines running alongside each other, Taymour and I could only ever come together if one of us were to break.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“Oh, I loathe weddings. I loathe sitting down and participating in inane conversations with proud parents and smug couples who all look like they might secretly hate each other.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa

“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I know it won’t begin with shame.”
― Saleem Haddad, Guapa