Story
My name is Hamad Alghareeb حمد الغريب
I was born in Bahrain, where I learned my first language, Arabic. My first name means Thankful, and my last name means Stranger. That reflects my heritage as a nomad earth-child. Like many other places, Bahrain was colonized by the Greeks, Portuguese, Persians, and the British. The past tense does not apply to the latter empire because a post-colonized world does not exist.
Therefore, my existence will always coincide with politics. In which we never escape unless all of us reach self-sovereignty. I was born in the closest health facility to my parents on Muharraq island, the British Royal Air Force base (RAF). I was delivered by Indian medical staff that was probably left over by the Brits and inherited by US imperialism.
In my third decade, I am still learning vocabulary to describe my authenticity in any of the three languages I practice. I grew up in a world that told me to focus on English more than other languages because it would enable me to compete for a better future by obtaining a university education. Yet, I am still looking for a future and language that is relevant and affirming to me.
I live in a system that intentionally made it harder for gender non-conforming/non-binary people like myself to meet each other and realize they exist. When colonizers arrived in new lands, they enforced their gendered rules on the ground, people, and language. I continue my quest to learn about linguistics and hope for humanity to achieve more gender-neutral languages and modes of communication. For now, I go by they/he pronouns to represent my journey.
I identify as neurodivergent because some scientists decided to label brains for the way they process and normalized some over others based on a bell curve. I found belonging with outliers who are usually removed from peer-reviewed research. So you could say; I don’t exactly fit a mold, and I will always work for margins to be centered.
I continue to live in someone else’s imagined reality. For that, I have learned the colonizer’s ways through educational institutions, only to aid in dismantling and reshaping them through their purpose—all hoping to share lived lessons and stories to inspire humanity for a future it needs.
If you are looking for a biography that lists institutions I have attended and impacted through a set of skills and experiences gained over time: click here.
