Tuesday, September 30, 2008

“A Jihad for Love”

By Pat McDonnel Twair, "“A Jihad for Love” Premiers in L.A." - Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - Washington, DC, USA
September-October 2008, page 58

All 596 SEATS of the Director’s Guild of America’s largest screening room were filled July 17, when “A Jihad for Love” made its Los Angeles premiere as the documentary centerpiece of Outfest, a gay and lesbian film festival.

The documentary was secretly filmed in 12 Muslim countries by Parvez Sharma, a former journalist in India. More than six years in the making, Sharma said, the documentary took shape as a testimony of Muslim gays and lesbians who love their religion and struggle for acceptance in a system that forbids their sexual orientation.

It is shocking to hear the stories of these young, devout Muslims who have been beaten and jailed for their homosexuality and have no choice but to flee to the West.

The viewer observes several Iranian men living in Paris as they await news from the Canadian Embassy there regarding their applications for asylum. One phones his mother in Iran telling her he is to go to Canada. As he puts down the receiver, he sobs over missing his family and Iran and voices fear of having to live in a foreign country.

Mazen, an Egyptian, was sentenced to four years in prison after being arrested in a gay nightclub. He was beaten and raped in jail and has taken refuge in Paris.

Sharma filmed a lesbian couple in Turkey and a teacher in South Africa who was fired after he announced his homosexuality.

The director focuses on the Sufi perspective of homosexuality at a shrine in Lahore. There, in the 16th century, Sufi Sheikh Hussain professed his love for a Brahman Hindu boy, Madhulal.

Even though the documentary had a budget of only $2 million and has no distributor in the U.S., it has been shown at film festivals in Canada, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, India, Greece, Turkey, South Africa and England.

It will be shown Aug. 22 to 28 at the Landmark Lumiere in San Francisco and Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley; Sept. 5 to 11 at the Landmark E Street in Washington, DC; and Sept. 18 at the JCC South Bay in Berkeley.

No comments:

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

“A Jihad for Love”
By Pat McDonnel Twair, "“A Jihad for Love” Premiers in L.A." - Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - Washington, DC, USA
September-October 2008, page 58

All 596 SEATS of the Director’s Guild of America’s largest screening room were filled July 17, when “A Jihad for Love” made its Los Angeles premiere as the documentary centerpiece of Outfest, a gay and lesbian film festival.

The documentary was secretly filmed in 12 Muslim countries by Parvez Sharma, a former journalist in India. More than six years in the making, Sharma said, the documentary took shape as a testimony of Muslim gays and lesbians who love their religion and struggle for acceptance in a system that forbids their sexual orientation.

It is shocking to hear the stories of these young, devout Muslims who have been beaten and jailed for their homosexuality and have no choice but to flee to the West.

The viewer observes several Iranian men living in Paris as they await news from the Canadian Embassy there regarding their applications for asylum. One phones his mother in Iran telling her he is to go to Canada. As he puts down the receiver, he sobs over missing his family and Iran and voices fear of having to live in a foreign country.

Mazen, an Egyptian, was sentenced to four years in prison after being arrested in a gay nightclub. He was beaten and raped in jail and has taken refuge in Paris.

Sharma filmed a lesbian couple in Turkey and a teacher in South Africa who was fired after he announced his homosexuality.

The director focuses on the Sufi perspective of homosexuality at a shrine in Lahore. There, in the 16th century, Sufi Sheikh Hussain professed his love for a Brahman Hindu boy, Madhulal.

Even though the documentary had a budget of only $2 million and has no distributor in the U.S., it has been shown at film festivals in Canada, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, India, Greece, Turkey, South Africa and England.

It will be shown Aug. 22 to 28 at the Landmark Lumiere in San Francisco and Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley; Sept. 5 to 11 at the Landmark E Street in Washington, DC; and Sept. 18 at the JCC South Bay in Berkeley.

No comments: