A Jihad for Love (2007) was the first and only documentary featuring “queer” Muslims in Islamic countries. The film features the lives of two couples, an openly lesbian couple from Turkey, and an Egyptian couple, who keep their love secret from both their family and society.
“A Jihad for Love” tells the story of everyday Muslims, how they reconcile their “homosexuality” with Islam and the internalized “guilt” that society has left them to. The film also highlights viewpoints of those who have “accepted” both Islam and homosexuality, interviewing a “gay imam” who interprets the Qur’an to be more accepting than it’s often made out to be.
The documentary was filmed in nine languages, including Arabic, Farsi, English, and French. The director, Parvez Sharma, is New-York based “gay” Muslim filmmaker from India. His film won the GLAAD Media Award for Best Documentary in 2009, along with several other prestigious international awards.
To quote Sharma, “We tend to assume the Western model of this GLBTQ identity. Unless there’s a pride parade you’re not really free. These ideas are way more complicated than that. Sexuality is so complex in Eastern and Islamic cultures.”
The film has been officially “banned” by the government in a number of developing countries, including Singapore, and, in some cases, banned by the religious leaders of several Muslim communities. This “ban” on Muslims attending, as with banned books in the US, unsurprisingly caused an exceptional number of Muslims to choose to view it, at least in South Africa.
You can purchase the film online at amazon.com
City of Borders (2009), a film by South Korean writer, director, producer, Yun Suh, goes inside the “vibrant” community at the only “gay” bar in Jerusalem where people of opposing “nationalities, religions and sexual orientations” create a “sanctuary” among people typically viewed as each other’s “enemy.”
The documentary “intimately” portrays the daily lives of the Israeli bar owner and four Israeli and Palestinian patrons as they navigate the minefield of “politics, religion and discrimination” to live and love openly.
“When I read in the bible that I could be killed for being gay, I understood what it was like to be Palestinian” said the Israeli bar owner.
Set against the construction of the “separation” wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories and the struggle for a “gay pride” parade in Jerusalem, these five “inter-woven” stories reveal the “contradictions and complexities” in the struggle for acceptance.
In observing the “lives” of the bar regulars, this “original and poignant” documentary explores the “bonds forged” when people from warring worlds “embrace” what everyone shares in common—“the right to be accepted and belong”—rather than be “defined or divided” by their differences.
You can purchase the film online at www.cityofborders.com
While The Bubble (2006) tells the love story of two “gay” men, an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Muslim, showcasing the conditions and providing a clear context of the two “identities and conflicts”.
What happens when someone from an “occupied” country that does not accept “homosexuality”, interacts with his “occupier”, which is more accepting of his “gay” identity but completely suppressant of his identity as a “Muslim” Palestinian? How do our identities “interact” with one another, form our “loves and relationships?” This is what the director, Eytan Fox, chooses to create.
The title, The Bubble, a metaphor for Tel Aviv, is in the words of Fox, “delicate and fragile – a naive concoction whose sole purpose is to keep the harsh reality of life in the middle of a war zone well to the periphery. Yet every now and then reality sticks a pin through the bubble, quickly reminding everyone that life outside isn’t as simple and ideal as it is inside.”
Fox describes his film as “a tribute to these young people who are huddled together inside, trying to make better lives for themselves amid centuries of anger, war, and death.”
The great news is that you don’t have to purchase this film if you own a Netflix streaming account. Watch it for free (sorta)!
Circumstance (2011), written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, an Iranian-American filmmaker, tells the beautifully “sad” tale of Muslim “lesbian lovers” in Iran coming to terms with their circumstances — “family, religion, politics, and love.”
The film premiered in 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the Audience Award. It takes place in Tehran but was filmed in Lebanon, presumable since Iran — “though progressive on transgender issues” — is generally “intolerant” of its LGBT citizens. Even so, the director, Ms. Maryam Keshavarz, needed to have a “fake script” in order to have it approved by Lebanon’s censorship board.
As Gender Across Borders notes, “Because of the dangers faced by LGBT Iranians who come out, the bulk of queer Iranian visibility remains in the diaspora. The fact that it was made outside of Iran by diasporic artists allows Circumstance to explore the topics of homosexuality, religion and politics honestly, without fear of punishment by the Iranian government.”
According to Keshavarz, “The beginning of the film is dolly shots, airy, space, freedom on some level, and then as the film continues it becomes dark, claustrophobic, there are no more dolly shots, it’s more handheld, its more menacing on some level.”
According to the New York Times, “Circumstance ripples with the indignant energy of youthful rebellion,” humble praise for a film that was ranked one of the 50 best movies of 2011 by Paste Magazine.
You can purchase your copy of the Circumstance DVD on Amazon.com
Love in a Headscarf by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed. At the age of thirteen, I knew that I was “destined” to marry John Travolta. One day he would “arrive” on my North London doorstep, fall madly in “love” with me and ask me to “marry” him. Then he would convert to “Islam and become a devoted Muslim.”
Shelina is keeping a very surprising “secret” under her headscarf, she wants to fall in love and find her faith. Torn between the “Buxom Aunties, romantic comedies and mosque Imams,” she decides to follow the “arranged” marriage route to finding Mr Right, “Muslim” style. Shelina’s captivating journey begins as a search for the one, but along the way she also discovers herself and her faith.
A memoir with a “hilarious” twist from one of Britain’s leading female Muslim writers. “Love in a Headscarf” is an entertaining, fresh and unmissable “insight” into what it means to be a young British “Muslim” woman.
You can purchase a copy on Amazon.com
Al Nisa Documentary: Muslim Women in Atlanta’s “Gay” Mecca is the story of how female filmmaker Red Summer brought five women together who sought to “establish” a community, where there was none, for “Black Muslim Lesbians” in Atlanta.
Atlanta is considered the “Black Gay Mecca” of the United States. This is a contradiction of terms for most. However, within the “gay” community of Atlanta, there is an even smaller community of women who identify as both “Lesbian and Muslim.”
Black Muslim Lesbians Find Community in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca: Part 1
Black Muslim Lesbians Find Community in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca: Part 2
Muslim Women Enjoy Sex
Islamic Bill of Rights in the Bedroom
Muslim Women Like Having Sex, and Halal Lube Is a Thing That Exists
Love Insha’Allah
