HAU Disinvites Afghan Panelist After She Insists on Palestinian Representation at Feminist Festival.

In April 2024, I received an invitation from HAU to participate in the opening panel of the program, Patterns for Life – Feminist Cultural Techniques from Iran, Israel, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.
The other panelist would be a well-known figure from Germany’s post-migrant scene with Turkish roots. I was to represent a diasporic perspective from Afghanistan. The discussion topic would be feminist cultural practices from our countries of origin.
It was acknowledged that there was a desire to discuss the genocide in Gaza, but it was emphasized that this could not be the sole focus. Upon further inquiry, it was revealed that a Palestinian artist had previously been approached but declined, because HAU couldn’t guarantee sufficient discussion about the genocide in Gaza.
I requested some time to consider and later stated that my participation would only be possible if at least one Palestinian or Arab artist was involved. This was to counteract the demonization and exclusion in the German art and cultural scene, which I feel strongly about.
In response, HAU stated that Palestinian perspectives were already included in the program and that the issue was curatorial, not political, with no political reasons against having a Palestinian panelist.
After insisting on my condition, I experienced ten days of silence before receiving a call about another matter, during which HAU casually mentioned that they had invited an Iranian artist who had now accepted, so my participation was no longer needed. The call ended without giving me a chance to respond.
In early June, the program went online with the opening panel. I initially chose not to go public but discussed my experience with friends. Friends and acquaintances noted that despite the program’s focus on feminist cultural practices, including those from Palestine, there were no Palestinian perspectives represented, and a film related to Palestine that was shown was directed by an Irish person.
HAU was unaware of the stir these discussions had caused until it faced confrontations by several friends and acquaintances about a prominent participant being funded by the Israeli government and the lack of Palestinian perspectives, despite claims to the contrary.
In response, HAU frantically tried to include a Palestinian participant, but all refused, as these efforts only came after HAU realized that those responsible would lose credibility with people who had more social capital and 'importance' than I did. Consequently, I also learned that well-known Palestinians were privately pressured to participate, and the term “ungratefulness” was mentioned because people did not accept the invitation, as the lack of credibility in HAU’s approach had become widely known.
After the scandal broke within the scene, the panel suddenly expanded to three participants, one with Egyptian roots. When several program participants, including the Irish director and the panelist of turkish descent, withdrew, HAU intensified efforts to find a Palestinian participant, but no one wanted to be tokenized post-scandal.
On June 19, 2024, HAU released a non-specific statement about participants withdrawing from the program without mentioning the reasons, and changed the program’s name, knowing that the bluff about Palestinian representation had been exposed.
Two key questions reveal HAU’s unreliability:

1. Why invite an artist if the invitation isn’t binding because a previously invited person accepted? This also overlooks how the program contributed to the invisibility of Afghans, often overshadowed by Iranians.
2. Why were there suddenly positions available for additional panelists, particularly of Arab or Palestinian origin, after the scandal became public?