True to its monthly engagement, ELIT covered the 5th DIALOGUES series on « Stereotypes. »
Moving was the presentation by Nujeen Mustafa. Nujeen is a young refugee who travelled the long distance from Syria, managed to reach the coast of Lesbos in a wheelchair, and became a symbol of strength and hope. She talked about how she experienced, and continues to experience, this long and difficult « journey » as a young woman, a refugee, and a disabled person.
Emotional circumstances always make it more difficult for interpreters to do their job, but this was not the only difficulty they encountered during this event: it, Jason-Antigone Dane also participated on the panel, a human and animal rights activist, who fights to be recognized and registered as a non-binary individual.
Jason-Antigone Dane spoke of the importance of choosing to use the neutral article in a society that is familiar with and only recognizes male and female. For these reasons, (it) Jason-Antigone Danes’ speech represented a (literally) unprecedented challenge for interpreters due to the particularities with regard to the linguistic use of gender.