Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ذُوالفِقّارعلِي ڀُٽو

Alif is for Revolution was the first performance in the Alif Series, Faluda Islam recounts her own death at the hands of American backed rebels in the Sahara desert while on a camel caravan with several other bearded drag queen commanders who are part of a global uprising determined to rid the world of colonial settler states and neo-imperialism. Faluda Islam is less a drag queen and more a drag comrade, she is more “extra” than terrestrial; and more dead than alive. A warrior drag queen, branded comrade by some and terrorist by others, she was part of a band of bearded Muslim queens who roamed the world striking fearing into American and European backed regimes and rebel groups. She was killed in the Great Queer Revolution but has been resurrected through wifi technology and comes back to this earth and time to tell us of the future and what it is we need to brace ourselves for. She has as much contour as conviction, eyeshadow that stands for egalitarianism and heels to stamp out heteropatriarchy.

An poetic excerpt from the performance:

“They’re scared of us.

The Anglos are scared of us.

Of us brown folk, 

Of us Muslims.

With our piercing gaze

Our androgynous features

Even when we’re veiled,

They’re scared we might be looking right at them

But is it really about Muslims?

Or is it about being different.

Different politically and ideologically

Eating different, speaking different.

In fact,

These things we talk about:

Islamophobia, Orientalism, Queerness and Islam merging together.

These ideas and concepts were first brought up, written about and spoken about by writers like Edward Said and Amin Ma’alouf.  They were Arab Christians and ironically, they too felt what I like to call, The Muslim’s Burden

That hot, jugdemental gaze of the so-called ‘West’ on the so-called ‘East’,

Burdening us w/ a weight of colonialism, violence and imperialism.

Nonetheless this society has found Muslims to be the enemy.

It really does not matter if you are actually Muslim though.

We have become racialized,

We no longer act,

We simply exist

And that’s enough to scare the shit out of an anglo.

I will say it again,

It is our piercing eyes,

Androgynous features,

Sharp tongues,

Guttural Khhhhhhs,

Heaving hhhhhhhs,

Nauseating 33333s,

Rolling tds, ds and rs

Our sharp tongues that can twist and turn into every sound imaginable because,

We are everywhere at once,

We have no nation, your nation is our nation.

It is our piercing eyes

Even when you cannot see them you know they are looking

right

at

 you.

Judging you.

What is behind these veils?

Sensuous lingerie

Versace skintight dresses

Fishnets from Gucci

Garters from fendi

A dildo by Abercrombie and Fitch

In what way would you like us to satisfy your imagination?”