Asifa’s Story
I contacted Dan Winder, the artistic director at Stanley Arts (formerly Stanley Halls). Since his arrival at the South Norwood venue in 2019, The Halls have become a key venue for drag performance in Croydon and have played host to drag family ‘House of Tea’, put on regular drag balls, and dedicated the last Friday of every month to ‘Drag Society’. I asked him if he knew anyone from the scene that would be interested in contributing to the archive, and he put me in touch with Asifa Lahore…
The following video was commissioned by Mark for this project in July 2020.
Asifa is known as ‘Britain’s First Out Muslim Drag Queen’, a title bestowed to her by the British press which she proudly bears. She is a transgender woman from a Pakistani-Muslim background with an impressive career that includes guest spots on television and news articles where she discusses her experiences of gender identity, sexuality and Islam.
She has given talks for the likes of The Lost Lectures series and the Oxford Union after shooting to fame in 2015 after being featured in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Muslim Drag Queens’. She is currently involved with ‘Open Letters to Queer Britain’, which is a project supported by the UK Post Office and fashion brand Levi’s in conjunction with Queer Britain who wish to open the UK’s first LGBT+ museum.
Since moving to Croydon Asifa has been very active in the LGBT+ scene, hosting at Croydon Pride 2018 and 2019 in Wandle Park, and co-hosting events at Stanley Halls and The Oval Tavern with fellow queen Shepherd’s Bush as well as bringing over LGBT+ queer talent to perform in the borough.
I asked Asifa to film a short video of herself talking about her experiences of growing up queer, and the role Croydon has played in understanding her identity.