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Queer | Storyteller | Educator 🍉
@nqfrg Fellow
@safeaccess.co.in Seek Peer Support
Here to challenge norms & rewrite narratives ✊🏼🏳️‍🌈

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I've always watched writers being invited to talk about their art on podcasts, and I used to wonder what that would look like for me.

A few months ago, I was invited by @dasrajorshi to be on their podcast, Queerness and Storytelling in India.

It was my first time being on a podcast, so naturally I was quite nervous, but excited nonetheless. Kudos to Rajorshi Das, who gave me so much space and time to talk about all the things I care about.

We talked about storytelling and representation, particularly queer Muslim representation, which is still scarce in the media. We talked about the lack or absence of queer vocabulary in our mother tongues to articulate our queerness to our desi parents and families. We talked about Rumi, the labels we use for communities, and what queerness looks and feels like.

I also expanded on my idea and definition of "queer Muslim," and how I see it more as a socio-political identity than a strictly religious one, one which is and can be expansive and inclusive enough to hold many different experiences.

We also talked about the people, books, and communities that have shaped me. I spoke about the pivotal role @thequeermuslimproject has played in my journey, not just as a writer but as a young person, and the belonging and acceptance l've received from @youthallianceofindia.

I talked about the beautiful anthology On the Brink of Belief by @kazimalipoet and what it means for writers like me, who may not always have the exposure, background, or connections to access publishing, but whose stories still deserve to be out there. I also spoke about @saraazamana piece on jinns, and i hope and pray that their grandmother's jinn is looking not just after them but all queer muslims across the globe. The work of my friends @ipsaing, @rajeevanandkushwah, and gave a shout-out to my mentor @saraswatibythesea, without whom my essay in the anthology would not be what it is.

We spoke about the inspiration behind my work, including @lamyaisangry brilliant book Hijab Butch Blues, will forever be grateful for this book and for what it means for queer muslims across the globe. Can't wait for your second book!🫶🏼

(continued in the comment section) by @_adnanshaikh3

$It still feels unreal, I remember when @rahmanrafiul first read my essay and said, “I was expecting work like this from the cohort but I just didn’t expect you to be the one to write it.” Without the Queer Writers’ Room, I never would have. @lamyaisangry breathtaking session cracked something open in me and inspired me to write my story. @saraswatibythesea gentle, powerful mentorship helped me shape it. And every person who’s held me, challenged me, loved me into being, this is yours too. Recently, I attended the launch event of "On the Brink of Belief: Queer Writing from South Asia edited by @kazimalipoet" my first published book. I signed copies. I saw my name in a Penguin Random House Anthology, My friends showed up in Delhi, sent me photos of the book, asked for autographs (!!), and held me through every second. We even went to bookstores together so they could buy their copy. I used to wander around Crossword for hours, dreaming. It’s still hard to believe there’s a book on those shelves now with my words in it. I couldn’t be more grateful. Alhamdulillah 🤲🏼 I also got to meet the wonderful @gazaldhaliwal again, and as always, had such a warm and affirming conversation. Spoke to the lovely @rayyanmonkey and met so many beautiful souls. I said @saraazamana, “This feels like a dream. It’ll all disappear when I open my eyes.” She looked at me and said, "This is real. And we deserve this." Thank you @thequeermuslimproject @literarycliticism @saba.nehal @rahmanrafiul @rachitasbarak for bringing this dream into reality!🥹❤️ {#QueerWriters #SouthAsianWriters #MuslimWriters #QueerJoy #PenguinIndia #OnTheBrinkOfBelief #KazimAli #BookLaunch #QueerMuslim #LGBTQIAWriters #DebutAuthor #BrownAndQueer #QueerLiterature #RepresentationMatters #QueerSouthAsia #BookstagramIndia #LiteraryCommunity #CrosswordBookstores} by @_adnanshaikh3$

I was invited to a Pride & Policy workshop by @ylacofficial and High Commission of Canada.

We sat with the weight of the recent regressive and illegal trans amendment bill 2026, how quietly violence gets rewritten as “protection”, how policies and laws decide who gets to exist with dignity and yet, in the same room there was also resistance, conversations on allyship, on solidarity, on what it means to keep showing up when things feel like they’re moving backwards.

It was such a pleasure to listen to Paromita Vohra (@bombay.rosie) She spoke about the most intense, complicated things like desire, sexuality, politics, power but with so much laughter and joy, she also talked about her work and philosophy behind @agentsofishq and how it all started. It felt like a reminder that movements don't just survive on outrage, but on imagination, creativity, care, and feminist ways of seeing.

She also spoke about the difference between creativity and storytelling, how not everything we create has to be reduced to a neat narrative, how sometimes creativity is just about holding complexity, contradiction, mess. Somewhere in all of that, i kept coming back to this that joy is not separate from resistance, it is part of it. Maybe even what sustains it.

It was so nice to see familiar faces like @nowyouveseenme, @aayaansinghjamwal, @chel_sie_kelp, @regina_phalangee73, and more. I'm grateful for conversations and spaces that that let you sit, feel, and rethink.

@nishthanishant thank you for recommending me for this workshop!❤️

#rejecttransbill2026 #transrightsarehumanrights🏳️‍⚧️ #nogoingback #queerpolitics #lgtbqrights by @_adnanshaikh3

Two of my essays were featured at FLAME University as part of their Queer Archive exhibition!❤️

I also got to meet Mario, @mleccha, (Queer Historian & All India head of the #LGBTQIA+ vertical of @profcongress) It was lovely to hear their insights on queer history and archival work, and to have a brief conversation around Salim Kidwai and their extremely important contributions to documenting queer histories and larger LGBTQ+ movement in India.

I’m grateful to see my work being recognised and exhibited, but every time I’ve been to FLAME, I’ve left with a strange sense of grief.

Not too long ago, I was trying to apply to this very university, and the response I received was deeply distasteful. To now see my work being showcased within its walls brings up a question I find difficult to ignore.

How does the art of marginalised people find its way into elite spaces, while the people themselves continue to be denied access to the institutions and opportunities these spaces offer?

How am I not meritorious enough to be a student at your university, but meritorious enough for my work to be showcased here?

The myth of meritocracy is so real, and so deeply troubling, in India.

I often wonder how long students from marginalised communities will have to wait before they are afforded the same opportunities, access, and institutional support. What makes this particularly insidious is how systemic it is. These are not merely individual experiences of rejection, but reflections of larger structures that determine who gets to enter these spaces, who gets left outside, and whose work gets celebrated within them.

There is something deeply unsettling about institutions celebrating the work of marginalised people without necessarily making those same spaces accessible to them. I hope more and more people who find themselves in positions of power choose to challenge these structures rather than reproduce them. Because recognition without access can only take us so far!

I hope we move towards a world where marginalised people are not only invited into these spaces through their work, but are also given the opportunity to learn, grow, and belong within them!💙

#mythofmerit by @_adnanshaikh3

I had the opportunity to read my latest essay with @latenightbreakfastmag in Pune.

I began my reading with Assalamualaikum, a greeting I’ve only used with my family and relatives. I’ve always believed for me faith is something deeply private and personal. But what happens when the personal and the public become almost indistinguishable? When something as ordinary as a greeting becomes enough to get a public officer transferred?

To not name the indignities that Muslims and other marginalised communities are being made to live with daily feels in itself, like a form of betrayal.

I wanted to bring that reality into the room. I printed out news headlines and distributed them during the reading, hoping to draw the audience into the headspace that minorities in this country are constantly made to inhabit , the vigilance, the uncertainty, the exhaustion of never quite knowing what comes next.

One of my favourite parts of the evening came towards the end, when I asked a question I’ve been carrying with me for a while: What would it feel like to not be constantly in fight or flight mode? What would it feel like to finally breathe?

The question stayed with us long after the reading ended. It became a conversation that continued throughout the evening and beyond, as people came up to share what it meant to them. Someone shared a poem that tried to imagine what that kind of freedom might feel like. Others thanked me for asking the question because it was the first time they had considered it as a possibility even while living with the uncertainty of whether it could ever become real.

The point of asking wasn’t to arrive at an answer. It was to make room for our fears and questions, to sit with them together, and to imagine what might be possible when we don’t have to carry them alone.

I didn’t have an answer prepared. But in that moment, looking around the room, I found myself saying that I don't know. Maybe it felt something like this, all of us gathered in the same room, showing up for the love of art, literature, and each other.

(Continued in the comment section)

#QueerWriters #MuslimVoices #PoliticalWriting #PuneEvents #LateNightBreakfast by @_adnanshaikh3

Every journey leaves us with stories, questions, and moments that stay long after we return. 🌱
For our participants, Gramya Manthan was more than a journey through rural India. It was an opportunity to listen, reflect, unlearn, and see the world through different perspectives.
In this video, our participants look back at their journeys, sharing the stories and experiences that continue to stay with them.
Because sometimes, the most meaningful learnings are the ones we carry back with us.
What has stayed with you from your Gramya Manthan journey?

GramyaManthan | YouthAlliance | StoriesThatStay | LearningFromRuralIndia | ExperientialLearning by @_adnanshaikh3

What does it mean to live with intersecting identities, esp when there are rifts between them. In “The Lives We Keep on Hold” @_adnanshaikh3 grapples with questions of belongingness as a queer Muslim in the wake of the 2026 trans amendment act.

🔗 read the full essay at the link in bio

From Issue 1: Writing Transgression by latenight breakfast

Adnan Shaikh is a Queer Muslim writer and community organizer, whose work explores the intersections of faith, identity, memory, and resistance in contemporary India

[ independent magazine, literary magazine, indie magazine India, culture, art, writer, author, non fiction, latenightbreakfastmag, lit mag, artists of India ]

#writers #writernfinstagram #nonfiction by @_adnanshaikh3

We have been receiving a range of questions about our first reading space—and so, we decided to answer some quick FAQs. 📝

The registrations are open, and are moderators @_adnanshaikh3 and @ujjawal._._ are busy in their last minute checks. Join us tomorrow, as we read Umar Khalid’s Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power(2026). 📚

🗓️ Date: 22 August, 2026 (Saturday)
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM onwards
🔗 On Google Meet. [It will be shared on your registered email address.]

RSVP at the link in bio. Or, scan the QR code on the image attached to register. ✍🏻

Come with your friends, chosen families, lovers, networks and acquaintances. 📌

Victory to Humanity! Victory to Life!
মানবতার জয় হোক! জীবনের জয় হোক!
मानवता की जय हो! जीवन की जय हो! ❤️
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[Umar Khalid, Fractured Communities, Juggernaut, Tribals, Adivasis, Colonial Rule, Reading Club, Books, New Releases, UAPA, Jamia, JNU, Jawaharlal Nehru University, PhD Thesis, Banojyotsna Lahiri, Anirban Bhattacharya, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, RSS, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, queer Muslim futures, Partition Studies, Jadavpur University, FAQs, Questions] by @_adnanshaikh3

Hope and Humanity is thrilled to introduce its first-ever reading space. Join us, as we read Umar Khalid’s Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power (2026). The session will be moderated by @_adnanshaikh3 and @ujjawal._._ 📚

🗓️ Date: 22 August, 2026 (Saturday)
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM onwards
🔗 On Google Meet. [It will be shared closer to the date on your registered email address.]

RSVP at the link in bio. Or, scan the QR code to register. ✍🏻

Victory to Humanity. Victory to Life. ❤️
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.
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[Umar Khalid, Fractured Communities, Juggernaut, Tribals, Adivasis, Colonial Rule, Reading Club, Books, New Releases, UAPA, Jamia, JNU, Jawaharlal Nehru University, PhD Thesis, Banojyotsna Lahiri, Anirban Bhattacharya, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, RSS, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, queer Muslim futures, Partition Studies] by @_adnanshaikh3

If what's happening in this country doesn't boil your blood then idk what else will. Speak up. I can have thousands of disagreements with CJP and its politics but please stand in solidarity with Neha, other AISA student leaders and Sonam Wangchuk. We can't let the government get away with it this time!🙏🏼

#CJP #studentprotest #sonamwangchuk by @_adnanshaikh3

"I'm glad this was my first queer event."

That's what the person I took to An Intimate Evening of Staged Script Readings by the brilliant fellows of the @queerframesscreenwritinglab told me afterwards.

It's a funny feeling, taking someone to their first queer event in the very same space where you attended yours for the first time three years ago.

But what they said captured something so real about @thequeermuslimproject events. By the end of the evening, you can't help but feel completely immersed, completely held. You leave feeling like you belong. And queer people know the weight of that word.

I was in awe of the scripts. Stories from across the country and beyond, written and performed with such honesty, tenderness and nuance. They reminded me why I started writing in the first place. Why stories matter. Why there can never be real cultural change without authentic, nuanced storytelling.

Stories have a way of slipping past people's walls, their certainties, their beliefs. They can make someone question what they thought they knew, even if only for a moment. There are places stories can reach that no amount of intellectual discourse ever can.

After the event, someone asked me what I had written when I was part of the program. I smiled, remembering it was a piece of fiction called The Night We Met.

I genuinely can't remember the last time I wrote fiction. I've spent the past few years almost exclusively writing nonfiction, trying to make sense of this world as it is. But perhaps, after my current commitments, it's time to return to imagining other worlds and lives.

It was so lovely to be back with the TQMP family and see so many familiar faces. And finally meeting Rafiul after two years. So much of my life has changed since then. Maniza reminded me that I first applied to a TQMP program when I was just seventeen. I don't think that version of me could have imagined where writing would take me.

(continued in the comment section)

#QueerStories #Storytelling #CreativeWriting #Screenwriting #RepresentationMatters by @_adnanshaikh3

Adnan Shaikh

@_adnanshaikh3