Iranian refugees share a bittersweet moment in ‘A Jihad for Love,’ a documentary by Parvez Sharma. (Photo courtesy of First Run Features)
|
GREG MARZULLO
Friday, September 05, 2008
These
days,
it’s
hard
to
escape
fundamentalist
Islamic
rhetoric,
which
often
sounds,
if
not
downright
barbaric,
at
least
bewildering.
Seemingly
shackled
to
a
patriarchal
worldview
(what
else
could
explain
the
identity-obliterating
burqa?),
radical
Islamic
clerics
and
worshipers
have
used
their
so-called
faith
as
a
means
of
flushing
“undesirables”
from
their
lives
—
and
gays
fall
under
the
label
of
social
outcasts.
In
the
haunting
documentary
“A
Jihad
for
Love,”
opening
this
week
at
E
Street
Cinema,
director
and
writer
Parvez
Sharma
explores
the
lives
of
gay
and
lesbian
Muslims
from
countries
around
the
world,
including
South
Africa,
India,
Egypt
and,
perhaps
deadliest
of
all,
Iran.
Muhsin,
a
gay
Islamic
scholar
living
in
South
Africa,
gave
heterosexuality
the
old
college
try,
going
so
far
as
to
marry
a
woman
and
have
children,
but
he
eventually
left
his
family
and
bravely
ended
up
going
public
with
his
gay
identity.
This
caused
him
to
lose
his
job
at
two
schools
as
well
as
the
rights
to
visit
his
children.
Yet
he
still
appears
on
the
radio
and
tries
to
convince
an
unsympathetic
Muslim
audience
about
the
possible
interpretations
of
the
Quran’s
one
anti-gay
verse
(A
segment
also
found
in
the
Jewish
and
Christian
bibles
where
the
town
of
Sodom
is
destroyed
partly
because
of
the
townsmen’s
regular
practice
of
sexually
assaulting
male
passers-by).
Muhsin,
in
a
conversation
with
another
(presumably
straight)
Islamic
scholar,
says
that
the
Almighty’s
obliteration
of
Sodom
is
because
of
gay
rape,
not
because
of
what
could
be
a
gay,
loving
relationship.
The
gay
scholar’s
opponent
retorts,
“You
can’t
interpret
when
verses
are
so
clear,”
pretty
much
summing
up
the
crux
of
the
film
and
the
damning
difficulty
for
gay
Muslims
—
or
any
other
group
worshiping
at
the
altar
of
a
supposedly
infallible
text.
If
the
Bible
says
the
supreme
divine
being
wants
gays
dead
—
or
at
the
very
least
calls
them
an
abomination
—
what
then?
Where
do
we
go
after
that?
Some
would
suggest
to
another
religion
or
stalwart
atheism,
but
others
try
to
find
ways
around
holy
hate
speech.
THIS
JUXTAPOSITION
OF
personal
freedom
and
the
reliance
on
a
textually
uncaring
divine
ear
is
at
the
heart
of
virtually
every
story
presented
by
Sharma.
One
member
of
the
Cairo
52,
a
group
of
gay
men
arrested
during
a
police
raid
on
an
Egyptian
party
boat
in
2001,
tells
his
story
during
the
film,
recounting
how
he
was
interrogated,
beaten
with
pipes
and
belts,
forced
to
say
he
was
“a
faggot”
and
raped
during
his
one-year
prison
sentence.
After
being
brought
up
for
sentencing
a
second
time,
the
judge
gave
him
three
years,
but
the
man
fled
to
Paris
where
he
still
resides.
Yet,
he
defiantly
declares
through
his
tears,
“I’m
sure
God
has
a
reason
for
all
that
has
happened
to
me.”
Amir
from
Iran
was
captured
by
authorities
during
a
raid
on
a
gay
party
in
2004.
He
was
told
he
could
be
stoned
after
he
received
100
lashes,
a
photo
of
which
reveals
yet
again
the
brutality
of
Iran’s
regime
toward
gays.
Amir
fled
the
country
to
protect
his
mother
from
the
pain,
yet
he
asserts,
“God
is
with
me.”
Person
after
person
recounts
how
their
lives
were
turned
upside-down
by
religious
homophobia
—
exile,
violence,
shunning,
not
to
mention
severe
mental
and
emotional
torment
—
yet
at
the
end
of
the
day,
they
still
declare
“Allah
is
great,”
and
in
the
case
of
the
Cairo
52
survivor,
he
poignantly
speaks
of
how
much
he
misses
Egypt
during
the
holy
celebration
of
Ramadan.
Perhaps
there
is
a
message
of
love
and
tolerance
far
deeper
than
the
hateful
surface
words
of
the
Quran’s
passages
on
gay
relations.
Then
again,
perhaps
everyone
in
the
film
drank
the
Kool
Aid.
What
is
clear
is
that
Sharma
has
given
a
strong
voice
to
some
of
the
world’s
most
culturally,
emotionally
and
spiritually
dispossessed
people.
His
film
is
an
insightful
window
into
the
lives
of
courageous,
often
guilt-ridden
gays
and
lesbians
who,
despite
isolation
and
the
threat
of
death,
keep
tilting
at
that
fundamentalist
windmill.
Let’s
hope
that
one
day
the
entire
contraption
will
crumble
under
their
fervent
and,
dare
I
say,
sacred
advances.
|
 |
