Majal — Brand Guideline Proposal

Purpose

why Majal exists beyond revenue: So that the Kiez has a room of its own: a place for encounter, discussion and collective political education across languages — at a time when open, affordable, community-run places in Berlin are disappearing while the need for them grows. (direct from Konzept §1–2)

Mission

what we do daily: We run a café (10–18h), a multilingual bookshop, an event space and a small recording studio in one ground-floor room in Neukölln — a low-threshold meeting point where people sit, read, work and meet without obligation, and where readings, films, workshops, concerts and learning groups happen in six languages.

Vision

the city we work toward: Berlin has a long tradition of self-organized cultural places; we add to it. We want a Neukölln where multilingual culture is visible and ordinary, where communities exchange rather than coexist, and where a cooperative, solidarity-run space can sustain itself for the long term. (Konzept §1, §7)

Values as commitments

(each value = a practice, not an adjective — model: Artisans Co-op; dataset: politics lands as action, not position):

• Feminist — this means: the shelf foregrounds feminist and gesellschaftskritische literature (Konzept §4); programming centers FLINTA* and marginalized voices; we never book all-male panels.
• Anti-racist — this means: multilingual literature is the core of the shop, not an "international" corner; the program is made with the communities of the Kiez, not about them; we never use migration-cliché imagery or exoticizing language.
• Solidarity — this means: Soli pricing at events (§7), nobody policed for not buying, space and co-programming for local initiatives (Konzept §3); we never let the café's commercial logic override the cultural purpose.
• Multilingual — this means: six working languages (Arabic, German, English, Farsi, French, Italian) are a feature of every touchpoint — shelf, captions, counter, signage — not a translation service; we never use a language as decoration.
• Accessible / low-threshold — this means: ground floor, barrier-arm, affordable prices, daytime hours for people who don't go to night venues (Konzept §2); we never make participation depend on money, German fluency, or insider knowledge.

Positioning statement

For people in Neukölln and beyond who want more than consumption from a public place, Majal is the café-bookshop-stage-studio working across six languages — unlike chain cafés (no community), monolingual bookshops (no Kiez), and institutional Kulturorte (no everyday warmth). Because we live here, organize here, and rent cooperatively (WBV), Majal is of the neighborhood, not just in it. (Konzept §2, §5)

Audience sketches

(short, no persona decks):

1. Kiez regulars — neighbors who want a daytime place to sit, read, work, bring kids; many will never attend an "event" and that's fine (café 10–18h is for them).
2. Diaspora readers — Arabic- and Farsi-reading Berliners (plus FR/IT/EN) who rarely find their literature treated as core stock; they should recognize "their" shelf and their language at the counter.
3. The political-cultural scene — activists, authors, artists, initiatives from the collective's existing networks (Kiezkantine, Solile e.V. …) who co-create the program (Konzept §3, §5).
4. Makers needing the studio — podcasters, musicians, groups recording talks; also a revenue audience (Konzept §2).
5. Event & seminar organizers (venue hire) — NGOs, Vereine, unions, academic, feminist and diaspora groups, and mission-aligned small companies who book the room for a day (seminar, workshop, launch, meeting). A revenue audience, not a community one: they care about capacity, AV, accessibility, daytime availability and price. They are reached on the website and by email, never the community feed.

Two offers, one place

Majal is both a cultural space and a space you can hire. Outside program hours the same room that holds the café and the program is rented out for one-day seminars and events, and the rent helps carry the cultural mission (Konzept §2, §6). The brand stays one; the register shifts for the two audiences (see §4), and the hire stance is set in §9.

Neighborhood stance

Arabic script is the storefront vernacular of Sonnenallee; Latin-only minimalism is the visual code of gentrifying cafés. Majal deliberately stands between and with: dual-script presence, cooperative rent, Kiez prices — visible in §2 (lockup), §6 (palette), §7 (storefront, pricing).

The canonical name story

(use this telling verbatim; counter-example Oyoun never told theirs and the press told it for them):

Majal (مجال) is the word for room to move — a field, an open space, the scope you have to act. The same word, written with the same letters, in Arabic and in Farsi. Its root means to roam, to circulate, to move freely: مجال is, literally, free movement made into a place. In Arabic, majāl li-n-niqāsh is "room for discussion," and afsaḥa l-majāl means "to make room, to clear the way." In Farsi it is the chance, the respite — the room to breathe that a hurried city rarely gives. That is what we are building: room — for languages, for books, for argument and for rest. A café, a multilingual bookshop, a stage, a studio. Room to move between them.

Pronunciation guide

"Majal — ma-JAAL, stress on the long second syllable (rhymes with the start of 'Taj Mahal')." The J is an English j, not a German y. Arabic majāl and Farsi majâl are pronounced effectively the same — the word belongs to both. (goes on the website /about and in the press kit)

Naming note

(from the research — decide and act early): مجال / Majal is usable but not distinctive in SWANA cultural branding. The one real local clash is the Berlin-based jazz trio MAJÄL (oud + guitar + percussion, actively touring) — relevant because of our recording-studio component and music events. Mitigations: lock the "Majal Berlin" / "Majal Neukölln" construction for SEO, secure majal.de and a clear @handle early, and keep a descriptor in the lockup so the name never travels naked (see D5, D10). Other same-word orgs (Majal.org digital-rights NGO; Majal Space in Giza; the Majal creator app) are different sectors or countries — low confusion risk.

Personality traits with guardrails

• Warm but not cutesy — hospitality, no kitsch, no infantilizing emoji walls.
• Political but not preachy — statement-as-action: the shelf, the event, the price say it (dataset: Tía Chucha's purchasable anti-ICE shelf at 17× average vs. flopping commemorations).
• Multilingual but never performative — a language appears because someone speaks it here, not as garnish.
• Playful but reliable — jokes in captions, fixed slots in the calendar (dataset: Riwaq's in-jokes drive comments; habituated schedule-spam kills feeds).
• Collective but personal — "we" as default, real first names and faces in people-content (dataset: a named staff pick outperforms anonymous book posts 25–80×).

Tone matrix

(voice constant, tone shifts):

Two registers, one voice

community and front-of-house comms are warm and political (the traits above). The venue-hire register — the rate card, inquiry replies, the venue page (§3, §9) — is the same brand but leads with reliability and facts: capacity, access, AV, price, availability. Same values (they are a selling point for the right renters), less politics up front; professional-warm, never corporate-cold.

Transcreation rules per language

(voice traits constant; texts transcreated, not translated):

• German: du, never Sie, in all front-of-house comms.

• Farsi: conversational register, not bureaucratic; FA wordings drafted by the Farsi speakers of the collective.
• QA rule: a text is approved for brand fit, not just fluency — by a speaker of that language in the collective.

Banned / chosen words

(Berlin-specific; word choice carries funding politics — Hopscotch refuses "decolonial" in the German context, Oyoun's funding conflict shows the stakes):

• Never: "Integration", "Migrationshintergrund" (use: mehrsprachig, diasporisch, or name the language/community), "exotisch", "orientalisch", "multikulti", "Geheimtipp", "Brennpunkt".
• Always: communities by their own names; "Kiez" over "Standort"; "Raum" over "Location".

Inclusive language commitments

anti-ableist (no "blind für…", "lahm"), anti-appropriative (no AAVE/borrowed slang as decoration), gender-inclusive per D8, plain language where the information matters (access, prices, dates).

Messaging pillars

(become the social content pillars; each with proof points):

1. Building the place, together — the founding journey, milestones, setbacks, the room itself. (Dataset: existential first-person news about the place is the #1 genre everywhere.)
2. Literature across languages — the multilingual shelf as the offer commercial bookshops don't make (Konzept §4); staff picks with names and faces; the podcast from the studio.
3. Politics as practice in the Kiez — curated shelves as statements, solidarity events, co-programming with local initiatives; concrete, dated, embodied — never commemorative-abstract.
4. Joy & hospitality — food, music nights, Sprachcafé, celebrations; the cake that makes the theory credible. (Dataset: Haymarket's bake sale beat their star-author panels.)
5. (optional fifth — → D13: keep or fold into 2/3?) Learning in common — workshops, skill-sharing, learning groups, storytelling as collective political education (Konzept §1, §3).

Politics → proof points

(every adjective maps to an enforceable practice):

• Feminist/critical shelf focus → the published curation rule (§7, D16)
• Solidarity → the Soli sentence on every event (§7, D17) + free formats (Sprachcafé)
• Anti-racist/multilingual → six languages on shelf, counter, captions (D6) + co-programming with communities
• Collective → no boss, no owner: Verein + collective of 4–5 runs everything (Konzept §5)

Boilerplate

(50–100 words, DE first; freeze after D10):

Majal ist Epithet aus [D10]. Im Erdgeschossraum in Neukölln verbinden wir ein Café (10–18 Uhr), eine mehrsprachige Buchhandlung mit Schwerpunkt auf internationaler, feministischer und gesellschaftskritischer Literatur, einen Veranstaltungsbereich für Lesungen, Filme, Workshops und Konzerte sowie ein kleines Tonstudio. Getragen wird Majal von einem Kollektiv aus Community-Organisator:innen und einem gemeinnützigen Verein für Kultur und Literatur. Majal heißt Raum — auf Arabisch und auf Farsi dasselbe Wort.

(EN + AR + FA versions after D3/D8/D9/D10 are fixed.)

Tagline

parked — candidates live in D1; decide after the visual identity exists.

Typography requirement

one matched Arabic–Latin pair of equal quality; Farsi glyph coverage (پ چ ژ گ) is mandatory; faux-oriental Latin display faces are banned. Candidates for the branding phase: A. IBM Plex Sans Arabic + IBM Plex Sans (free, sober, sibling design) · B. Markazi Text or Vazirmatn + Inter (free; Persian-rooted) · C. commissioned/licensed pair from an Arabic-type foundry (e.g. 29LT) if budget allows. (Decision belongs to the design phase, requirement is fixed here.)

Photography principles

the real room and real people; warm light; faces large enough to read at thumbnail size; candid over posed; never migration/poverty clichés, never stock. People photographed with dignity and consent — community members as hosts and protagonists, not subjects.

Type-as-image

reserved for values statements and existential announcements (dataset: it spikes for conviction, dies for logistics). Event logistics live in layouts, not headline graphics.

Accessibility

WCAG AA contrast minimum in all palette combinations — a brand value, not an afterthought.

Templates needed

(only these, one system): event poster A3/A4 · Instagram post + story (event, recap, statement, staff-pick variants) · menu/price board · shelf talkers · window/A-board signage · podcast cover.

Storefront script mix

follows D5 — dual-script window lettering (name + gloss), A-board in DE + event language of the day, interior wayfinding trilingual DE/AR/EN minimum. Specified to the signmaker, not left to them.

Hospitality behaviors

greet in German + the languages on shift ("welche Sprachen sprechen wir heute?" board at the counter — → potential named feature, D18); sitting without buying is explicitly fine and said so on the menu; lingering, reading, working welcome 10–18h.

The standing access block

(fixed text on every event + website footer):

Erdgeschoss, stufenfrei. Barrierearmes WC. Kinder willkommen. Veranstaltungen mit Soli-Preis — siehe unten. Wir sprechen Deutsch, Arabisch, Englisch, Farsi, Französisch, Italienisch.

(verify WC/details against the actual space before freezing; AR/FA versions by the collective)

Fixed calendar slots as brand

each recurring format gets a fixed slot ("first Thursday" logic) so the slot itself becomes the reminder. Konzept formats to slot once open: Sprachcafé (weekly), Lesung/Buchvorstellung (monthly), Filmabend (monthly), Konzert/Performance (monthly), Erzählabend/Poetry (monthly), Werkstatt/Skill-Sharing (rolling). (Concrete weekdays decided at opening; the principle is the brand rule.)

Recap culture

every event gets a recap post — the full room, real faces — within 48h. The recap, not the announcement, is the proof the place is alive (dataset: recaps consistently outperform announcements). Weekly schedules go to Stories, never the grid (dataset: schedule-grids are engagement poison — Casino's 8k followers, 2–6 likes).

Funding transparency

once a year, an open "wie sich Majal trägt" post/letter (income mix, what members made possible). (Dataset: existential institutional news is the highest-engagement genre — transparency is brand-building here, not risk.)

Venue hire — the space as revenue

(the second offer; see the audience in §3 and the register in §4): Outside program hours the room is rented for one-day seminars, workshops, launches and meetings. It is structural revenue alongside café, books, events and membership (Konzept §6), and it pays toward the cultural mission. Two things are set here — how the offer is branded, and who we rent to.

• Brand stewards: 2 named members (TBD at founding) — they maintain this doc and the templates; they are not an approval bottleneck.
• Consensus required (whole collective): name & lockup, epithet string, values & commitments (§1), political statements in Majal's name, pricing model, this document's major revisions.
• Free within the rules (any member, no sign-off): daily posts, event texts, recaps, menu copy — as long as they follow §4 (voice, language lead, banned words) and use the templates.
• Review: every 6 months, 1-hour collective session; version + date at the top of this file. Participatory ("Brand IDEA": integrity, democracy, affinity), not policing.

Brand architecture · persona decks · archetype chapters · co-branding rules · trademark chapter · KPI frameworks · printed brand book · logo misuse matrices.

konzept0.md (all factual claims about Majal) · report.html + data/social-insights.json / data/visual-insights.json (dataset evidence) · name research: مجال etymology (root ج-و-ل), Arabic & Persian lexicography, naming-clash check · comparable venues: Khan Aljanub, Baynatna, Oyoun, She Said, Hopscotch, Café con Libros, News from Nowhere, AK Press, Bluestockings, GSBTB, Mil Mundos, Habibi & Hawara, Südblock, AL.Berlin, Qahwah House, Naakojaa · frameworks: Minimum Viable Brand, NN/g tone dimensions, Brand IDEA, Khatt Foundation (type pairing), charity:water (imagery dignity), Artisans Cooperative (values & inclusive language)

Goals, in priority order

(name the order so a post can be judged against it):

1. Community & mission — make Majal known and trusted in the Kiez and the diaspora scene; the place as a character people follow. (Primary. The research's #1 genre is existential news about the place itself.)
2. Event attendance — fill the readings, films, concerts, Sprachcafé and learning groups.
3. Venue revenue — bookings for the rentable side (§3, §9 / D21, D22). A different audience and register; lives on website + email, never the community feed.

Membership and book/café sales ride on goal 1 — they follow trust, they aren't their own campaigns.

Audiences

(from §3, mapped to where they actually are):

• Kiez regulars, diaspora readers, the political-cultural scene → Instagram + Telegram.
• Members, supporters, the committed core → Email.
• Event & seminar organizers (venue hire, B2B) → Website + Email only.
• Press, searchers, anyone checking "is this real" → Website.

The community / venue split

(one brand, two registers — §4): the community channels (IG, Telegram) speak warm and political; the hire touchpoints (a website page, the rate card, inquiry email) speak facts-first — capacity, access, AV, price, availability. Same look, same values, different lead. Don't sell rentals on the community feed and don't run mission posts through the rate card.

The principle: the same event moves differently through each channel. Below, each channel's one strength, the content that actually works there, and what to keep off it.

Instagram — the shop window (discovery + proof)

• Strength: visual reach, discovery, press, the younger Kiez and the scene.
• Focus: recaps with real faces (the proof the place is alive), existential place-news, joy, named staff picks, statement-as-image. Caption leads in the event's language (D6), second-language line under (D7). (Research: faces and named humans move content 25–80×; recaps beat announcements.)
• Cadence: a few strong posts a week; quality over frequency. Stories for the daily/ephemeral.
• Keep off it: weekly schedule grids (engagement poison — Casino: 8k followers, 2–6 likes), logistics dumps, rental sales.

Telegram — the direct line (reminders + diaspora + regulars)

• Strength: no algorithm, instant push, very high open rate, two-way. A primary channel for Arabic- and Farsi-speaking communities in Berlin — reach Instagram can't match.
• Focus: day-of reminders ("heute 19:00"), last-minute changes, quick drops, a regulars' chat/group. The reminder beat of the announce → remind → recap flow.
• Cadence: only when there's something to say; never daily noise.
• Keep off it: polished campaigns — it's fast and human.

Email / Newsletter — the owned audience (depth + relationship)

• Strength: you own it (survives any algorithm change), reaches people off social, ties straight to membership (§9).
• Focus: a monthly digest (what's on, what happened), the founding-journey / place-news, the annual "wie sich Majal trägt" transparency letter (§9), longer reads, member updates — and the inbox where venue-hire inquiries land and are answered in the hire register.
• Cadence: monthly + the occasional one-off; high substance, low frequency.
• Keep off it: real-time, last-minute.

Website — the home base (source of truth + SEO + the B2B home)

• Strength: evergreen, searchable ("Majal Neukölln", "Raum mieten Neukölln"), converts.
• Focus: the name story told properly (§2 — the Oyoun lesson: tell yours before the press tells it for you), the standing access block (§7), the full program/calendar, membership signup, the press kit, and the venue-hire page + rate card (§9 — the B2B business lives here). Plus Impressum + DSGVO basics.
• Keep off it: treating it like a feed — it's reference and conversion.

One event across the four

Website holds the canonical listing → IG announces (a teaser, not the flyer) → Telegram + IG Story remind day-of → IG posts the recap (faces, the full room) → the next Email digest folds it in. Same event, four jobs.

Pillars

the five content pillars are the five messaging pillars (§5) — building the place; literature across languages; politics as practice; joy & hospitality; learning in common. Don't invent new ones here; give each example post types per channel (e.g. "building the place" → IG recap of the build-out, Email founding-letter, Telegram "the shelves are in").

Formats & cadence

(recaps-first):

• Lead with recaps and place-news, not announcements — that's the genre that performs and the proof the room is alive.
• Fewer, better posts. Posting frequency correlates negatively with engagement in the dataset; there is no daily quota.
• Schedules live in Stories and the website calendar, never the grid.
• Reserve type-as-image for conviction (values, existential news), never for logistics (§6).

Per-language plan

(the operational half of D6/D7): each post type has a lead language and a writer/approver. A text is approved for brand-fit by a speaker of that language in the collective (the §4 QA rule), not just for fluency. Decide the rotation so it stays natural, not mechanical.

Accessibility of posts

(a brand value, §6 — not optional): alt text on images, captions/subtitles on video, the access block (§7) on every event post, and key logistics in the caption/layout — never trapped inside an image-only graphic.

Community management

• Response times: a realistic, stated target (e.g. DMs and comments within ~24h on weekdays; access/booking questions same-day). Better to promise slow-but-real than fast-and-fake.
• Reviews & criticism: reply once, in plain human voice, in public; never delete criticism; move anything that needs back-and-forth to DM/email after one reply (this is also the crisis rule — see Crisis, below).
• Reposting & consent: repost community/tagged content with permission; for photos of identifiable people, consent is required (§6 dignity rule + Recht am eigenen Bild / DSGVO). Keep a simple record of who consented.

Collaboration & tagging

co-hosts, artists and authors are tagged and credited as partners, not décor; agree the tag/credit convention up front; never book or platform in a way that contradicts the values (e.g. §1 "never all-male panels"). Name the humans (D12).

This section covers the channels. The venue/event code of conduct, the reporting path, and the awareness-team setup are org-level policy that lives in the standalone Safer Space & Code of Conduct — the channels link to it and enforce its online edge.

Published netiquette

a short, pinned community-guidelines note on each channel — what the space is, how we talk, what isn't welcome.

Moderation rules

(written down so any member applies them the same way):

• Reply: genuine questions, good-faith disagreement, criticism of us.
• Hide / delete: hate speech, racism/sexism/queerphobia, slurs, doxxing, spam, ad-bait.
• Never delete: criticism of Majal, awkward questions, complaints — answer or leave them.
• One member shouldn't moderate a pile-on alone; loop in a second.

The online ↔ on-site bridge

harassment at an event can surface in comments; an online pile-on can show up at the door. Treat them as one incident with two surfaces — the awareness team and the moderation are the same policy in two places. Reporting path (who to contact, what happens next) is defined in the Safer Space & Code of Conduct and surfaced on every channel.

Its own section because for a political space in Berlin it's not hypothetical — the cautionary case is in the brand doc (Oyoun losing Senate funding in a politicized conflict).

What counts, and the tiers

1. Operational — a cancelled event, a technical outage, a venue problem.
2. Reputational — a complaint, a bad-faith pile-on, an accusation against the space or a member.
3. External-political — funding attacks, press hit-pieces, organized harassment over a stance or a booking.
4. Safety / offline — harassment, violence or an incident at an event or in the room.

Online and offline are one event.

A misaligned renter (D22), an incident at a reading, or a member named online all play out on both surfaces. The awareness team handles the room; the spokesperson handles the channels; they talk to each other first.

Roles

a single spokesperson per incident = the designated press contact from D12 (so this doesn't contradict the flat collective); a clear escalation chain; one person reachable after hours during a live event.

Decision rules

handle quietly vs. make a public statement (most tier-1/2 stay quiet); when to involve a lawyer, the police, or insurance (tier-3/4); the spokesperson decides with one other steward, not the whole collective in real time.

Response principles

acknowledge fast but with verified facts only; plain human tone; no arguing in the comments; one public reply, then move to DM/email; centre the affected people, not the institution's image.

Prepared in advance

(so you're not writing under fire): 2–3 holding-statement templates (operational / accusation / external-political), an emergency contact list (stewards, lawyer, key partners), and the access/awareness contacts.

Channel rules in crisis mode

pause scheduled posts; one official statement location (website, mirrored to the lead channel); limit/lock comments only on the affected post if needed; everything points to the single statement.

Aftermath

short debrief, update the plan and templates, return to normal posting deliberately — don't let the crisis become the feed.

Responsibilities

(name people, not roles, at founding): who shoots, who writes (per language), who schedules/posts, who answers DMs, who holds the passwords (and where — a shared password manager, 2FA on, recovery owned by ≥2 people). Day-posts are free within the rules (§10); statements in Majal's name need a steward.

Planning rhythm

a light monthly content plan (batch recaps and the digest), not a rigid calendar.

Measurement — deliberately light.

brand.md skips KPI frameworks as bloat, and that holds. Watch for qualitative signal (are recaps landing, are the right people showing up) and fold a 20-minute social review into the 6-month brand review (§10).

Vanity-metric dashboards · follower-count goals · daily-posting quotas · paid ads (until there's a reason) · a separate venue brand · being on every platform.

Pillars (§5) · voice, tone matrix, language lead, code-switching, banned words (§4 / D6 / D7 / D11) · visual & photography rules (§6) · access block & pricing (§7 / D17) · recap culture & format naming (§8 / D19) · membership framing (§9 / D20) · venue-hire register & rental gate (§3, §4, §9 / D21, D22) · authorship & press contact (D12).

S1 channel set · S2 netiquette + moderation roster · S3 (deferred) venue-revenue metrics · the per-language writer/approver rotation · the spokesperson (= D12 press contact) · response-time targets.

This is one policy with five audiences: guests in the café and shop, people at our events, people in the recording studio, people on our online channels, and organizers who hire the room. The values are the same for all of them; the specifics differ. A short one-page version (the "in brief") is displayed in the space and pinned on our channels; this is the full text behind it.

It is published in all six Majal languages — Arabic, German, English, Farsi, French, Italian — and in plain language. If you need a version you don't see, ask any staff member. (Oyoun publishes its awareness policy in eight languages including Arabic and Farsi — six is our floor, not a stretch.)

Majal is a feminist, anti-racist café, multilingual bookshop, event space and small recording studio in Neukölln, run by a collective and a gemeinnütziger Verein (brand.md §1, §9).

Majal is a public space, so we can never promise it is a completely safe space. What we commit to is making it a safer space — safer than the everyday world, built and maintained on purpose, together.

Safer Space — DE: „Majal ist ein Safer Space: kein vollständig sicherer Raum, sondern einer, an dem wir aktiv und gemeinsam daran arbeiten, sicherer als die Alltagswelt zu sein." EN: "Majal is a Safer Space: not a completely safe space, but one where we actively and collectively work to be safer than the everyday world."

Safety is not the same as comfort.

It is often uncomfortable to challenge ignorance and oppression. Safety is when people's dignity and bodily integrity are affirmed — also during difficult conversations. We protect safety, not comfort. (framing from Bluestockings.)

This is a living document. Our understanding will keep changing; so will this text.

This policy applies to everyone in Majal's spaces and in connection with Majal — visitors, members, staff, volunteers, artists and speakers, studio users, sponsors, and anyone who hires the room — across the café and shop, events, the studio, our online channels, and one-on-one communication tied to Majal. Hiring the space, performing, or attending an event means agreeing to it (§9).

• Consent first. Ask before physical contact — including hugs. Only a clear yes is a yes; no means no. („Nur ein klares Ja heißt Ja.")
• Don't assume. Don't assume anyone's gender, pronouns, sexual orientation, race, religion, language or background. Use the names and pronouns people ask you to use.
• Make room. Notice how much space you take up — "step up" when you've been quiet, "step back" when you've been heard. Don't talk over people.
• Challenge the behaviour, respect the person. Assume good faith unless there's reason not to; that lets people learn. If someone tells you something you did caused harm, listen first and don't get defensive — intention doesn't always lessen impact.
• Mind the languages. Six languages live here; don't use a language to exclude, mock, or talk about someone present.

We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment or violence — in any of our languages — including:

• Racism in all its forms — anti-Black racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim racism, anti-Roma and Sinti racism, anti-Asian racism, and racism against migrants and refugees;
• Sexism and misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, cissexism, queer-hostility;
• Ableism, classism, fatphobia, ageism, lookism, colourism;
• Trans- or sex-work-exclusionary ideologies.

And specifically, as harassment: unwelcome sexual attention or contact; deliberate misgendering or use of a rejected ("dead") name; slurs; threats, intimidation, stalking; harassing or non-consensual photography/recording; doxxing or publishing someone's private information; sustained disruption of events or conversation; non-consensual outing.

Discrimination can be unintentional or unconscious.

We take perceived discrimination seriously too — the point is the harm, not whether it was meant. (named-list modelled on She Said; "perceived discrimination" from Oyoun.)

Two principles, borrowed from the Berlin Awareness tradition, decide how we respond:

• Definitionsmacht (the affected person defines it). Whether a boundary was crossed is decided by the person affected — not by a bystander, not by "both sides." It is not the intention that counts, but the effect.
• Parteilichkeit (we take sides). We are not neutral mediators. We believe people who are affected and stand in solidarity with them. Their safety comes before the comfort of the person who caused harm.

DE: „Ob eine Grenze überschritten wurde, bestimmt die betroffene Person. Wir glauben Betroffenen und stehen solidarisch an ihrer Seite." EN: "Whether a boundary was crossed is decided by the affected person. We believe those affected and stand in solidarity with them."

Harm is not all the same.

Not all harm is violence, not all conflict is abuse, not all hurt is intentional. For everyday harm we "call in" — naming what hurt and how to do better. For violence, the safety of the affected person comes first, always.

A safer space is not a space without disagreement, and criticising Majal is always welcome — we will never hide or delete a comment, or push someone out, simply for disagreeing with us or criticising us.

The following are not harassment and will never be treated as such:

• setting a boundary ("leave me alone," "I'm not discussing this with you");
• criticising racist, sexist, queer-hostile or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions — including ours;
• communicating in a "tone" someone doesn't find congenial.

At the same time, we reserve the right to reject a complaint we believe is made in bad faith — for example, a report meant to silence legitimate criticism. (criticism-protection + bad-faith clause from Geek Feminism / GNOME.)

How to reach us.

Speak to any staff member, or to the awareness team at events (at events the team is visibly marked — → confirm the marker, e.g. coloured vests or a badge — and there is a quiet Ruheraum / retreat corner you can go to). You can also write to → confirm: awareness@majal.[de] — anonymously if you prefer, and also after the fact. → confirm: whether we adopt a discreet codeword scheme (the Berlin standard is "Ist Luisa hier?", staff-trained).

What we promise.

• We believe you. Your perception is not put on trial.
• Confidentiality (Vertraulichkeit). What you tell us is treated confidentially. An anonymous report stays anonymous.
• You decide. We take no step about what happens next without your consent. You set the pace.
• Support. We listen, we don't demand justification, and we can point you to specialist services — → confirm local referrals, e.g. LesMigraS, ReachOut Berlin, the Antidiskriminierungsstelle.

Behaviour that breaks this code has consequences. We work up a ladder, and the person is told why at each step:

1. A conversation — we name the behaviour and explain why it's a problem.
2. A warning — a clear request to stop or change, with consequences named.
3. Asked to leave the event or the space.
4. A ban (Hausverbot) — temporary or permanent, on the basis of our Hausrecht.

Bright line

any physical or sexual assault results in immediate removal from the space, and may be reported to the authorities. (ladder = Contributor Covenant + Safe the Dance; assault line = Bluestockings.)

Anyone asked to stop is expected to comply immediately. A ban rests on behaviour, never on who someone is — that would itself be discrimination (and is limited by the AGG).

Our online rules are the same values, applied to comments and messages (the operational detail lives in the Communications plan's moderation rules):

• We welcome discussion, questions and criticism — and we do not delete a comment just because it disagrees with us. When you disagree, challenge the argument, not the person.
• We hide or delete: racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, sexist, queer- or trans-hostile, ableist or otherwise discriminatory comments; threats, harassment, doxxing; spam and advertising. Repeat offenders may be blocked. Illegal content we report to the platform and, where necessary, to the authorities.
• When we remove something, we may leave a short note saying a comment was removed for breaking these rules — so moderation is visible, not silent. (escalation ladder + transparency note from Amadeu Antonio Stiftung; "argument not author" from Goethe-Institut.)

Online and on-site are one space.

Harassment at an event can surface in our comments; a pile-on online can show up at the door. We treat them as one situation with two surfaces (crisis handling: see the Communications crisis plan).

We want Majal to be as accessible as we can make it, and we would rather tell you exactly what to expect than promise more than we can keep. (honesty principle from Oyoun & Wellcome Collection.)

• Getting in — → confirm the real facts: e.g. "the café is reached step-free from the street," or "there is one ~Xcm step and a portable ramp — please ask." Same honesty for the toilet and any lift.
• All-gender toilet — → confirm availability and whether it's step-free.
• Stille Stunde / Quiet Hour — a fixed low-stimulation hour (no music, dimmed lights) for anyone who finds a busy space overwhelming (this is the D18 named-access-feature option; set the weekday/time).
• Content notes — at events, we flag in advance where a topic may be distressing, so you can decide for yourself whether to attend. We say "content note," not "trigger warning."
• Scent-aware — please come as scent-free as you can; avoid perfume and strongly scented products. We know a fully scent-free room isn't always possible — do what you can.
• A quiet corner to step away to.
• Money is not a barrier — Soli pricing, pay what you can; no one is turned away for lack of funds (brand.md D17).
• Language & plain language — this policy is available in all six languages and in einfache Sprache; ask for the version you need.

Recording is consent-based: everyone recorded agrees to it and to how the recording will be used; consent can be withdrawn before publication. The studio is covered by this whole policy — → confirm the studio-specific data/consent form and who holds recordings.

Majal rents the room to external organizers (brand.md §3, §9 / D21–D22). Hiring it comes with this code attached. By booking, you agree that:

• Majal's values and this Code of Conduct apply to your event in full.
• You are responsible for the conduct of your speakers, participants and guests, and for making sure they can see and understand this policy — share it in your invitation and display the short version at your event.
• You name one person responsible for the event and present throughout.
• We reserve the right to refuse or cancel any booking we feel conflicts with our values — and we especially welcome events that uphold them.
• Accepting a booking does not mean Majal endorses the views or activities of the organizer.
• Confirming the booking confirms you have read and accept these conditions.

(model: UK Quaker "ethical letting" terms — Horsham, Edinburgh, Colchester; organizer-responsible-for-guests from Univ. of Dundee; "must display & brief" from Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op.)

This policy is reviewed every 6 months with the brand doc (brand.md §10), and whenever an incident teaches us something. Tell us what's missing or wrong — to → confirm: awareness@majal.[de]. Version and date live at the top.

Building access facts · all-gender toilet · Stille Stunde weekday/time (D18) · the awareness contact email + who's on the awareness team + the on-site marker · codeword scheme yes/no · local referral organizations · studio consent form · translation into all six languages + an einfache-Sprache version.

Neukölln peers: She Said (feminist bookshop — "safer not safe," enumerated -isms, Quiet Hour), Oyoun (decolonial cultural centre — multilingual awareness, honest accessibility, anonymous awareness@). Bookshops: Bluestockings (safety≠comfort, step up/step back, assault bright line), Firestorm. Berlin Awareness: b-aware, rundum.club, fzs, MW:M / Most Wanted Music, Safe the Dance, Diversity Arts Culture Berlin; concepts — Definitionsmacht, Parteilichkeit, Hausrecht, FLINTA\*, "Luisa ist hier." Codes of conduct: Contributor Covenant (consequence ladder), Berlin Code of Conduct, Geek Feminism / GNOME (criticism protection + bad-faith clause). Online moderation: Amadeu Antonio Stiftung (hide→delete→report→police + transparency note), Goethe-Institut, Amnesty, DOMiD. Access: Oyoun, Wellcome Collection, QWOCMAP (scent), Almeida (content notes), Sins Invalid. Rental: Quaker meeting houses (Horsham, Edinburgh, Colchester), Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op.