How Berlin's Arab queers are building their community

"Adira" is an Arabic slang term used in Levantine queer culture to describe someone with a strong presence — someone powerful and accomplished.

It is also the name of a Berlin-based collective that curates events and club nights celebrating the diversity of queer Arab* culture. The asterisk signals the inclusion of non-Arab ethnic minorities and people with diverse identities and roots in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Among the collective's events is the ADIRA Drag Festival , which celebrated its third edition in Berlin in late October.

This year's theme, "Who's Your Diva?!," brought together drag performers paying tribute to legendary figures from across the Eastern Mediterranean who have become queer icons — from Egyptian music legend Umm Kulthum to Turkish star Bülent Ersoy and Lebanese pop icon Haifa Wehbe.

Hassandra, co-founder of ADIRA and the ADIRA Drag Festival, was among the performers, taking on the persona of Lebanese pop star Elissa.

"It is very important for me to bring my Lebanese Arab identity and culture into what I do, because I think it's a very beautiful culture. And there's a lot of campy, glamorous, beautiful divas," Hassandra said.

Elissa's "whole discography is very romantic, raw, soft, kind of like very Adele vibes," Hassandra told DW ahead of the October 30 show. "However, her personality is known to be the extreme opposite. She's very feisty. Very blunt, very unfiltered. Not soft at all as a person."

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