Ostensibly a film about lesbian and gay life in Muslim countries, this film is much more than a standard account of repression or intolerance. A Jihad For Love is as much about Islam as it is about sexual preference. In fact, it's a sort of coming out story for a culture.
And it's opening theatrically all over America.
At the table today we have filmmaker Parvez Sharma, producer Sandi Dubowski of Films That Change The World, and Iman Muhsin Hendricks, a gay imam living in Johannesburg, South Africa, who is featured in the film. It's a great discussion.
I enjoyed this film and the filmmakers — as you can probably gather. Are Muslims the only ones told to be terrified of their desires? Hardly… The only thing I would have liked to have seen more discussion of is whether that fear of what we desire spills over to intimidate our political desires: if we’re taught to fear what we want and love, could that be why we find it so hard to imagine – and build– the better world we long for?
By Laura Flanders on May 29th, 2008 at 6:00 pm