/ 2 November 2007

God and love

Why can’t we be together and be with G-d at the same time?” So implore Maha and Maryam, a devout Islamic lesbian couple, in the groundbreaking documentary, A Jihad for Love. From India to Iran, Turkey to South Africa, the documentary explores the intersection between religion and sexuality in the lives of lesbian and gay Muslims.

Three years ago I organised a tour of the film, Trembling Before G-d, which dealt with the tension between Orthodox Judaism and homosexuality. Director Sandi Dubowski (who produced A Jihad for Love) and the first openly gay orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg, spoke to packed audiences after the film. A taboo subject in much of the orthodox community, the film remarkably transformed the cinema into a consciousness-raising forum for piercing the silence surrounding homosexuality and sharing the accumulated pain inflicted on lesbian and gay individuals (and their families) by that community. Preferring to avoid rather than confront, however, the rabbinic leadership in South Africa sought to prevent Rabbi Greenberg from addressing students at Jewish day schools and from launching his book at a Jewish community centre.

Islamic communities too have a ‘deep problem with acknowledging homosexuality”, as Payam, a gay Iranian seeking asylum in Canada, puts it. In part the problem relates to traditional interpretations of certain texts in the Qur’an and Hadith, which are used to condemn homosexuality. Like Trembling Before G-d, A Jihad for Love does not seek to provide comprehensive theological responses to these textual difficulties: rather, it shows in visceral terms the dire human impact that antithetical religious attitudes towards homosexuality have on the lived experience of individuals. Any person with an iota of compassion cannot help being moved by the plight of the individuals depicted. Both films thus pose a stark and heartfelt challenge to traditionalists: could an all-good G-d really condemn lesbian and gay people to lives of suffering and loneliness?

To prohibit a lesbian or gay person from seeking relationships with members of the same sex would be similar to the cruelty of prohibiting a left-handed person from using their left hand to function in the world. Yet what is chilling about the responses of the imams in A Jihad for Love to the struggling individuals before them is the stock and formulaic nature of their responses. Rather than being troubled by the searching of Qasim — a gay Muslim in India — the cleric he approaches coldly tells him that the solution is to pray harder and, if that does not work, to approach psychologists for a ‘cure” (reminiscent of the rabbi in Trembling recommending the eating of figs and recitation of psalms).

In light of this rejectionist attitude by traditional religious authorities, why do lesbian and gay people such as Kiymet — a lesbian Muslim living in Turkey with her partner, Ferda — still have such religious faith? What A Jihad for Love shows is that the intense religious devotion of many lesbian and gay Muslims does not evaporate simply because of their sexuality: religious belief is an integral part of their identities as is their sexuality. After hearing about the humiliation and persecution of Mazen in Egypt, it is all the more poignant to hear him recite the Shahadah (Muslim statement of faith) with such passion.

Attempting to remain religious and gay leads many orthodox Jews to suffer alienation from themselves, their families and communities. Although lesbian and gay Muslims also suffer these harms, many are subjected to an added level of oppression by tyrannical political regimes that make their lives intolerable. Despite recent proclamations by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University that Iran does not have any homosexuals, A Jihad for Love shows us the trauma of four Iranians who have been forced to flee their country. Amir was sentenced by a court to 100 lashes: it is hard to believe the mutilation inflicted upon him simply for loving differently. Mojtaba has been forcibly separated from his partner who, believe it or not, he married unofficially in a ceremony in Shiraz. Chillingly and tragically, he has been torn away from his family and is informed, just as he learns of his being granted refugee status by the United Nations, that his mother has died in a car accident.

The experience of exile links one individual and the next, each being ripped out of their lives, in a state of dislocation and fragmentation. The picture is not all bleak, however. A central character in the film is Muhsin Hendricks, a courageous South African Islamic scholar. Upon coming out publicly as gay, he was initially exiled from his community in Cape Town and came to live in Johannesburg. Having wrestled with Islamic texts, Mushin has sought to integrate his sincere religiosity with his sexuality. He is invited to share his approach with a workshop of Muslim social workers in Cape Town who are themselves looking for a way to assist distressed individuals who seek them out. One participant excitedly exclaims: ‘What has happened today is that it now seems possible to me to be both gay and lesbian and a G-d-conscious Muslim.” Muhsin has now been able to return home to his community in Cape Town where he heads up the Inner Circle, a Muslim lesbian and gay organisation.

The path to integration and acceptance must begin with dialogue and discussion. A Jihad for Love does not aggressively attack Islam, but rather depicts individuals deeply committed to their religion trying to find a space for themselves within their communities. It will thus hopefully provide a stimulus for engagement within the Muslim community concerning how to respond humanely to the plight of lesbian and gay people in their midst.

David Bilchitz is a constitutional lawyer and chairperson of Jewish OutLook: SA Jewish LGBTI Alliance. Jewish OutLook, in conjunction with Out in Africa (OIA), will be holding a panel discussion on the impact of Trembling Before G-d on the Jewish community in South Africa at 4pm on November 4 at Nu Metro Killarney. Director Parvez Sharma will be at the premier of A Jihad for Love at OIA on November 7 at 8.45pm at Killarney and on November 14 at 9pm at Nu Metro, V&A Waterfront.