A Jihad For Love

Synopsis:

Filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels into the secretive world of homosexuality within the Islamic faith. He interviews those who try to reconcile their faith with the ban on gays and lesbians, attempting to walk a fine line between persecution and honesty. Religious leaders who are unequivocal on the subject are also interviewed and take a predictably hard-line stance. The subjects of the film choose to remain Muslims in countries where many others would flee.

Quick Thoughts:

Having already reviewed Parvez Sharma’s documentary A Sinner in Mecca, I was intrigued to watch his earlier and first foray into queer documentary making: “A Jihad For Love”. Overall, I wasn’t as impressed with this documentary. The biggest problem I had was that there seemed to be no overall story arc; it felt more like he was skipping around to the various countries where queer Muslims are trying to balance their faith against being homosexual. Yet even with that stance there was no real clear division between the locales, which I feel is needed because the stories range from having to balance an internal personal struggle to some who’s actual lives were/are endangered because they are homosexual!

However, there is a lot of good information to unpack within this queer documentary, especially for anyone who does not understand Islam at all, or who is unaware of the various religious subgroups within Islam. (Not to mention that different countries also have codified Islamic religious beliefs into the legal & justice system!). Subtitles are required, however the beauty of this is that it also allows the many song lyrics to make sense. Overall, “A Jihad For Love” is a conglomeration of individual stories that all pertain to being both homosexual and Muslim and is worth watching.