last night i saw a jihad for love at ifc center. this movie was produced by the same guy that made ‘trembling before g-d,’ that film about gays and lesbians in the orthodox jewish community. a jihad for love deals with gays and lesbians living in the muslim world and reconciling their religion and their sexuality - a personal struggle that is exacerbated by the strict and discriminatory laws of the countries they live in.
the screening included an intro speech by the filmmakers - producer Sandi Simcha Dubowski, director Parvez Sharma - and Imam Muhsin Hendricksman, a south african muslim man who appears in the film. the filmmakers expressed joy that their screenings have made a huge impact on how gays and lesbians are dealt with in the muslim world, if not legislatively, then sociologically - screening to sold out theaters across the world. unfortunately the turn-out at ifc was weak. we rushed to the theater to get the best seats only to find a nearly empty house peppered with a couple of gay men and the filmmakers themselves. we got some free popcorn with jess’ auteur membership card and camped out in some cushy, center seats.
the film was fascinating/disturbing/heartbreaking/inspiring/informative and beautiful. in contrast to trembling before g-d, a jihad for love featured people who’s lives i could relate to easily. they were all relatively young and - i’ll say it - attractive. the ‘characters’ portrayed could easily have evolved into stars in the next big, gay sundance hit from the muslim world. the only thing this movie lacked was individual throughlines. most characters were only represented in one continuous segment and their stories weren’t given the freedom to resonate off each other.
another issue that was touched on but not thoroughly fleshed out, was the different experiences of gay men in the muslim world versus lesbians. gay men are persecuted and banished from society, but lesbians - specifically because they are women - simply do not exist. one scene in the movie showed a lesbian couple searching an islamic law book for verses against lesbianism and coming up nearly dry. in fact, one could make an entirely separate film about the struggles of lesbians in the muslim faith. there were so many unanswered questions that could have been posed to the women featured in this film. i wanted to know how their experience as a woman rates to their experience as a lesbian. do both just totally suck? does it even matter?
there was minimal discussion of transgender issues in the film - e.g. this one drag party that was documented in a trippy way and looked cool. but other than that there was only one man who described living as a woman and then realizing that it was displeasing allah to change the body he had been given, so he quelled his transgendered feelings, got a wife and had gay affairs on the side. as in most films (ye, any mass media representation) gay issues and gender issues are usually kept separate. unfortunately, the intersectionality of gender, sexuality and religion was kind of thrown to the wayside in this film - a mistake that may have limited a jihad for love to only scratch the surface of a tantalizing and fascinating world of issues.
all that said, it was still an important film screening that every gay person and their mother should have attended (don’t worry, i called mine to tell her about it). unfortunately new york gays are too ghettoized to realize that their community reaches outside the borders of manhattan and their cushy junior one bedrooms. just as the rich, white, gay intelligentsia has difficulty in associating with the transgendered community, gays in the muslim community also remain as strangers. the ramifications of a community of people discriminated against for the same reason, coming together to solve problems and actualize the goals of their social movement would be huge. unfortunately, most people had better things to do on thursday night. i only hope that like, trembling before g-d, a jihad for love makes an impact on the netflix circuit - maybe it’s easier to stomach international atrocities with cosmo in hand, on your crate and barrel sofa.
Tags: a jihad for love, gay, gender, ifc, muslim, persecution