In April 1997, twelve lesbian and bisexual women of Arab and Iranian descent and their partners attended a meeting in New York City. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together women who shared some commonalties and to potentially start a group.

It became apparent that the women wanted to form bonds of friendship, rather than immediately build an organization with a formal structure, mission and agenda. Many voiced the need to build and nurture personal ties to each other and become less isolated as Arab and Iranian lesbians and bisexuals.

Furthermore the general feeling was that this step is essential before venturing into community activism in the gay community and the Arab- and Iranian-American communities as women whose identity is lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender AND Arab or Iranian.

Since the initial meeting, word of the existence of the group, which was later named Assal, ("honey" in Arabic and Farsi), spread by word of mouth. The group has been functioning as a social and support network. Meetings have been generally social and informal in nature and taking place every four to six weeks. Middle Eastern restaurants and people's homes are usually the settings for the social gatherings.

Friends and allies were welcome and occasionally Arab sisters from beyond the New York City and New Jersey area joined our gatherings. The number of women contacted grew to over 40, all of whom traced part or all of their cultural/ethnic/racial identity to countries including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Sudan.

Recently, Assal has begun to work toward diversifying its nature beyond the social. Currently the group is articulating more precisely its identity and discussing more concretely issues that are relevant to the members. Moreover, the work of outreach and undertaking projects and activities are under consideration as short and long term objectives.