Struggles of Gay Muslims

From the New York Blade - May 17, 2008

Parvez Sharma's documentary 'Jihad for Love' follows gay Muslims in 12 countries. It opens May 21 at IFC Center in New York City.

Struggles of Gay Muslims

Local filmmaker Parvez Sharma discusses homosexual Muslims—and the trouble with U.S. activists who try to help them.

By TRENTON STRAUBE
Friday, May 09, 2008

Parvez Sharma's documentary, "A Jihad for Love," traverses 12 countries and nine languages as it follows the lives of disparate Muslims who try to reconcile their sexuality with their faith. Produced by "Trembling Before G-d"'s Sandi DuBowski and shot during five years, "Jihad" offers a rare glimpse into a complex and controversial world.

After debuting in 15 countries, the film plays in New York starting Wednesday, May 21. Sharma, a gay immigrant Muslim from India now living in New York, spoke with The Blade about misperceptions Americans have about the world's fastest growing religion (Islam is also the second most popular religion, after Christianity).


"Jihad" covers a variety of Muslims, from those living under extreme sharia law to those practicing the mystical Sufism. Is it a challenge for American audiences to put each person's story in its proper cultural context? Even the term "jihad" is usually interpreted in the U.S. as "holy war" though you're reclaiming it to mean "inner struggle."

My primary audience was a Muslim audience, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make a film that was respectful of Islam. I knew that if I could get to Muslims, I could open doors to other audiences. That's what the film has been doing: Educating people tremendously about the complexities of Islam.

I try to present Islam with a little bit of sanity and with a perspective only an insider Muslim can have. I tried hard not to attack Islam. If I did, it would have been an angrier film and would not have won any credibility with any Muslims.

This is not a traditional coming-out film. We're all coming out as Muslims. The primary identity of all these people—including the filmmaker—is religion.

That begs the question, Why stay in a religion that condemns you?

Answering that was my primary impetus to make the film. So many of us as queer people have abandoned religion completely. Islam calls upon you to be part of a family and culture outside of the mosque. So abandoning religion is a difficult choice—you're abandoning religion, family, culture, a lot of things that go with being a Muslim.

In your film, a gay South African Muslim challenges the anti-gay interpretations of scripture, saying, as many liberal Christians do today, that Sodom and Gomorrah isn't about homosexuality, but about rape or hospitality. Are more Muslims open to newer interpretation of the Koran?

Scholars of all descriptions are engaged in looking at the Koran in light of the 21st century. Islam maybe has more ground to cover in a modern context [compared to Christianity and Judaism]. But a lot of it is happening.

The last battle that remains to be won—around marriage—is true of all religions. In my lifetime, I don't see the Christian church or Vatican or Islam saying homosexuality is okay. What I think is going to happen is people will look at the religious text, for example of Sodom and Gomorrah, and come up with readings that are different.

You've shown the film around the world, recently in Canada, Australia and Turkey. Have reactions varied?

Toronto reacted from point a view of knowing a little more about Islam than Americans. In Sidney, as they were celebrating the hedonistic celebration that is Mardi Gras, people became aware of how hard it is to be gay in other places. And then in Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim but also secular, young people said the film should be more critical.

Critical of Islam?

In Turkey, extremist Islam is making a comeback and a lot of people living in big cities like Istanbul feel threatened. They'd rather be part of the European Union than be an Islamic country that implements the headscarf. [Their criticism of the film] comes from that place that's fearful about Islam.

A lot of people make the case that the spread of Islam is bad for gay rights and human rights in general.

I don't agree with that at all. Islam is exactly the same for gay rights as Christianity or Judaism. There are only six Islamic states that implement sharia (Islamic) law, and this is where it starts becoming a problem. It is when the state starts interfering in personal sexual life. But again, I want to stress that a majority of Muslims are living outside sharia law.

Paradoxically, under even the extremist regimes, same-sex sexual encounters are not uncommon, correct?

Definitely. There's greater level of fluidity. You're not talked about if you're holding hands with another man. Or a woman with a woman. Certainly the avenues for having same-sex contact in a purely sexual context are much more easily available because many times the sexes are segregated. Sexuality is fluid and very open in most Islamic societies. The act is not associated with guilt. In Christianity, there is a lot of guilt around sex and reproduction. But if you're taking on a political identity like having a gay bar or gay pride or gay marriage, you start having a problem.

I take issue with a lot of Western activists, the ones who are bashing Iran for example, who have the arrogance to assume their models of gay liberation can be applied to this context. I know for a fact that they cannot.

Two lesbians in your documentary mention online dating. Is the Internet a popular and safe mode of gay liberation and communication?

Absolutely. Iran has the worlds' richest blogosphere. But what's also happening is that a lot of content is monitored in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. A lot of activism is happening through the Internet, which has huge advantages and disadvantages. In Egypt, the government used the Internet to entrap (and imprison) gay men. So the Internet can be freeing, but [the users] have to use judgment with whom they talk to and how they talk.

Let's talk about asylum-seekers. "Jihad" follows an Egyptian who fled to France and Iranians who head for Canada via Turkey.

People have felt the film portrays the West in more positive light, like the West means freedom automatically. I don't agree with them. You see in the film how much the Egyptian has had to struggle. It's an uncertain freedom if you seek asylum in the West post-Sept. 11 where being a Muslim refugee of any color is a problem and having a Muslim name is a problem.

Is claiming homosexual persecution a viable reason to seek asylum?

Increasingly, it has been viable because there has been a wave of gay immigration cases. I'm afraid to say not all of them are genuine.

The question is: When people from Iran start seeking asylum in a Western country, does that give the opportunity in this climate to take that agenda of Iran bashing even further? I feel that a lot of this agenda picked up by gay activists in the West is Islamophobic and Iranphobic as well. I'm not the only person saying that. Even the Human Rights Watch has exercised a lot of judgment in how these individual cases are perceived in the press.

How would you rate Western gay press' coverage of LGBT issues in countries like Iran?

The U.S. gay press for the most part has been fairly immature. It's not entirely the fault of the gay press in U.S. It's part of a climate of ignorance. The sensationalism of cases out of Iran has been problematic. We are in political and social climate in which it is fashionable to attack Islam or to attack regimes that are seen as problematic regimes. When we attack these regimes, we make it more difficult for people living within those regimes. For example, when you accuse [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad of carrying out a systematic campaign against homosexuals you make that issue visible and force them to react a certain in which they weren't doing in the past.

There needs to be a greater responsibility exercised in criticizing regimes like Iran of carrying out pogroms against homosexuals. That is not the case. Ahmadinejad has bigger fish to fry.

Ahmadinejad was publicly ridiculed in the press for his infamous statement last fall at Columbia University.

I thought that was irresponsible reporting around the semantics of his comments, which was sensationalized profoundly. What he said was, "We don't have gays like you have in the West." The statement that was reported was "We don't have gays in Iran." He's quite right because of the different context of being. How do you explain these complexities? It's going to take a huge effort of responsibility not just of the press, but of filmmakers, activists, everyone, to do that.

Are Americans receptive to learning these complexities?

I think so. I've lived in the states for eight years. I'm as proud to live here as much as I've been alarmed. But Americans are definitely responsive to learning. The release of the film will engage them. I've seen that in so many countries. I see no reason for that to not happen in a city as rich as ours.

"Jihad for Love" opens Wed., May 21, at IFC Film Center, 323 Sixth Ave. @ Third St. Visit ajihadforlove.com for details, including special events featuring the director, producer and Muslims from the film.

Iran's Arrest of Bahai's Condemned

From CNN - May 16, 2008

(CNN) -- Six Baha'i leaders in Iran were seized and imprisoned this week, the religious group said. The act prompted condemnation and concern from the movement and a top American religious freedom panel.

A U.S. panel says attacks on Iran's Baha'is have increased since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president.

Iranian intelligence agents searched the homes of the six on Wednesday and then whisked them away, according to the Baha'i's World News Service. The report said the six are in Evin prison and that the arrests follow the detention in March of another Baha'i leader.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment, and the incident has not been mentioned in Iran's state-run media.

"Their only crime is their practice of the Baha'i faith," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i international community to the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Friday "strongly" condeming the arrests, which it said were "a clear violation of the Iranian regime's international commitments and obligations to respect international religious freedom norms.

"We urge the authorities to release all Baha'is currently in detention and cease their ongoing harassment of the Iranian Baha'i community," the U.S. statement said.

The group -- regarded as the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran -- says the arrests are reminiscent of roundups and killings of Baha'is that took place in Iran two decades ago.

"Especially disturbing is how this latest sweep recalls the wholesale arrest or abduction of the members of two national Iranian Baha'i governing councils in the early 1980s -- which led to the disappearance or execution of 17 individuals," Dugal said.

"The early morning raids on the homes of these prominent Baha'is were well-coordinated, and it is clear they represent a high-level effort to strike again at the Baha'is and to intimidate the Iranian Baha'i community at large," she added.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom -- a government panel that advises the president and Congress -- condemned the Wednesday arrests, as well as another in March. The commission chairman called the acts the "latest sign of the rapidly deteriorating status of religious freedom and other human rights in Iran."

The commission said the seven were members of an informal Baha'i group that tended to the needs of the community after the Iranian government banned all formal Baha'i activity in 1983.

The commission chairman, Michael Cromartie, echoed the fears that the "development signals a return to the darkest days of repression in Iran in the 1980s when Baha'is were routinely arrested, imprisoned, and executed."

The Baha'is are regarded as "apostates" in Iran and have been persecuted there for years.

"Since 1979, Iranian authorities have killed more than 200 Baha'i leaders, thousands have been arrested and imprisoned, and more than 10,000 have been dismissed from government and university jobs," the commission said.

The commission said that since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power a few years ago, Baha'is "have been harassed, physically attacked, arrested, and imprisoned."

"During the past year, young Baha'i schoolchildren in primary and secondary schools increasingly have been attacked, vilified, pressured to convert to Islam, and in some cases, expelled on account of their religion."

The commission said other groups in the predominantly Shiite Muslim country of Iran, such Sufis and Christians, are subject to intimidation and harassment. Ahmadinejad's inflammatory statements about Israel have "created a climate of fear" among the country's Jews.

The Baha'is say they have 5 million members across the globe, and about 300,000 in Iran.

The Baha'is say their faith "is the youngest of the world's independent religions" and that its basic theme is that "humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society."

They say their founder, Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), is regarded by Baha'is as "the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad."

Being Both Queer and Muslim Proves Fodder for Discussion (in Boston)

 From the New England Blade

Being Both Queer and Muslim Proves Fodder for Discussion
Conversation Comes as MFA Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Ends

by Blake Evans
May 14, 2008

Using the film "A Jihad for Love" — screening Sunday as part of the MFA Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival — as a starting point, Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA) will sponsor a panel discussion on what it might mean to be Muslim and Queer, especially in 2008 in the context of an increasingly globalized world, on Sunday, May 18.

The panelists, coming from South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, represent to some extent the range of diversity within Islam as well as what it means to be Muslim (and Queer), from practitioners and agnostics to atheists and those who simply identify culturally as Muslim.

Panelists will include Imtiyaz Hussein, Saadia Toor, and Mohammed El-Khatib. Dr. Rakshanda Saleem, a local activist involved in a range of social justice issues including LGBT rights and those focused on South Asia and the Middle East, will moderate the discussion. Hussein founded MASALA in 1994 in an effort to connect his "Indian-ness" with his "gayness." Formerly chair of the Board of AIDS Housing Corporation, he worked in a number of community organizations before going to business school and moving into the corporate world. He doesn't see any conflict in being gay and Muslim.

"Allah created all of us and loves all of his creatures," said Hussein.
Toor is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at The College of Staten Island, City University of New York. She believes there is a divide: "When I was Muslim I was not queer," she says, "now I'm queer but not Muslim."

El-Khatib y works with the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston. Raised in a secular setting, he came out to himself at 17 and found faith as a way to reconcile with his homosexuality.

"Islam gave me the strength to face a homophobic home and social life," he says, though he also agrees with Toor that bringing together the two sides of himself has been difficult. "The irony is that since coming out, I've found it harder to practice Islam without feeling like I'm in personal conflict with my identity as a gay man."

"A Jihad for Love" screens at 3:45 p.m. in the Remis Auditorium. The panel discussion follows immediately after in the Riley Seminar Room at the Museum of Fine Arts.

        
   

A Diversity of Opinion: Being LGBT and Muslim (in Boston)

From Bay Windows

by Ethan Jacobs
associate editor

Thursday May 15, 2008

As an adolescent questioning his sexuality while growing up in Qatar in the 1990s, Mohammed El-Khatib found the homophobic attitudes of his parents, particularly his father, toxic. His parents were secular Arabs whose views on homosexuality were strongly informed by Western attitudes, and his father would complain that homosexuality was unnatural and a "biological defect." To escape this rhetoric El-Khatib found refuge in a place that might seem counterintuitive to many LGBT people: the local mosque. El-Khatib said that while homosexuality was frowned upon by the clergy, they counseled him that it was a temporary phase rather than a permanent pathology.

"I had to choose the lesser of two evils. There were my parents ... versus people telling me there is spiritual redemption, that it's just a phase, that there's a way out, and I believed that. ... Western homophobia is much more toxic, much more virulent than homophobia in Islam," said El-Khatib.

On May 18 El-Khatib and other local LGBT Muslims will give their perspectives on Islam and LGBT identity at a panel discussion sponsored by the Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA) at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). The discussion will follow a screening of A Jihad for Love, a film by Parvez Sharma documenting the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims struggling to reconcile their faith and their sexuality. For many of Sharma's subjects this conflict is a matter of life or death; gay men from Egypt and Iran, which criminalize homosexuality, are forced to flee and live in exile. To provide a counterpoint to the harsh realities depicted in the film MASALA, which is co-sponsoring the screening as part of the MFA's Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival, will be hosting a panel discussion to give viewers perspectives from local LGBT Muslims whose experiences are far different from those of the men and women in Sharma's film.

Imtiyaz Hussein, another of the panelists and the founder of MASALA, said that he hopes to show the audience that Islam's response to homosexuality is not monolithic. Hussein, who was born in Tanzania to Indian parents and who grew up in Toronto before coming to Boston for college, said that growing up within the Ismaili sect of Islam he faced no conflict between his religion and his sexuality. Hussein said the Ismaili sect, a branch of the Shia community that follows a spiritual leader called the Aga Khan, allows for multiple interpretations of sacred texts, and that openness has allowed adherents with more liberal views on issues like homosexuality and women's rights to take part as full members of the Ismaili community. When Hussein, who lives in Jamaica Plain, first began attending the local jamaatkhaana (mosque) in college, he brought his boyfriend with him to the congregation's celebrations. He said he is one of about a half-dozen LGBT members of the congregation who are more or less out of the closet.

"Today there's a good more than a handful, six or seven, out-to-varying-degrees people in the congregation here. And for the most part people are fine with that. ... I found a lot of freedom, especially over time, to be myself, and I've found the community here in Boston to be pretty receptive," said Hussein.

For Saadia Toor, who was born in Pakistan and who teaches sociology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, there was no conflict between her Muslim and queer identities because she began to explore her sexuality long after she had left behind her Muslim faith. She said when her friend Nikhil Aziz, the organizer of the panel, asked her to participate she initially declined, saying that since she is no longer a believing Muslim she did not fit the bill.

"I was like, I can't because when I was a believing Muslim I wasn't queer ... and by the time I realized I was queer I was no longer a believing Muslim," said Toor.

Yet for Toor the decision to leave behind her faith had nothing to do with sexuality; instead she said she felt that her faith conflicted with her rational worldview, and rationality won out.

Toor said that she travels to Pakistan about once a year, where she has a handful of lesbian friends, some of whom live openly within a small feminist community in the Islamabad area.

"They're very open within our community of friends. ... Obviously I managed to find them all, that's the way these things work in smaller community spaces, but it's not something known in the larger public," said Toor.

She said that while she thought Sharma's film was well made, she worries that by focusing the film on the apparent conflict between Islam and homosexuality it gives viewers the sense that the religion is uniquely homophobic.

"What I would have liked to see embedded within, it should have been a film about religion and sexuality, and religion and homosexuality, because the issues that were coming up were not specific to Islam," said Toor.

For El-Khatib, his relationship to Islam began to change after he moved to Boston and became more deeply involved with the gay community. He said most gay men he has met have had very secular values, and they were uncomfortable with open displays of faith.

"For someone who's Muslim who says, 'Excuse me, I don't drink,' or, 'I have to go pray now, it's seven o'clock,' while people are drinking martinis, people just start looking at you," said El-Khatib.

As a consequence El-Khatib said over time he has grown less observant as a Muslim, which he viewed as an unfortunate but necessary trade-off to becoming more integrated into the gay community.

"Here, to find that being Muslim and being gay puts you at odds from the gay community at large, because it requires so much from you, it's such a pervasive part of your lifestyle that you've got to be Muslim or you can't be something else. ... I think that's how it played out. I read the Koran, I'm theologically engaged with my religion, but I'm not as much a practicing Muslim as I'd want to be," said El-Khatib. He said despite the initial negative reaction towards his religion within the gay community he has actively worked to become part of the community, volunteering for the past several years with the Boston Pride Committee and AIDS Action's Male Center.

Hussein said he hopes the panel discussion shows audience members that the stories depicted in Sharma's film are not the whole story.

"One of the things we really wanted to do with the panel is have people who could convey some of the diversity in Islam and have positive experiences of people being able to reconcile multiple identities," said Hussein.

A Jihad for Love screens at the Museum of Fine Arts May 18 at 3:45 p.m., with the panel discussion to follow. For tickets visit www.mfa.org.


Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com

How Iraq Became a Prison for Women

From the Vancouver Sun

Tuesday » May 13 » 2008
 
How Iraq became a prison for women
 
Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun

Friday, May 02, 2008

When there were no weapons of mass destruction, U.S. President George W. Bush reframed the Iraqi invasion as a means of building democracy and restoring women's rights.

But like the entire misadventure, things have gone badly wrong. From the 1960s through most of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi women were among the most liberated and liberal of all Muslim women. Girls went to school, women worked, wore what they chose, drove cars, ran for office and spoke their minds.

It was the international sanctions against Iraq that destroyed the economy and drove women from the labour force.

Yet far from restoring women's rights, on the Americans' watch, Iraq has become a prison for women.

Its constitution, passed in 2006, says no law can go against Islam. It is now barely safe for women to go out without wearing not only a burka, but gloves.

An estimated 10,900 women have been killed since the 2003 U.S. invasion until the end of 2007. Many were killed because they were women. Some were targeted because they were secular professionals, liberal politicians, journalists and women's advocates.

In Full Cover Girl, Swedish director Folke Ryden profiles several Iraqi women who were interviewed periodically between 2003 and 2007.

The documentary premieres Monday at 9 p.m. on the Knowledge Network.

Through the women, Ryden poses some very troubling questions. What is the nature of democracy? Can it be something other than liberal and secular? And, what about equality rights? Are they antithetical to Islamic values? Or, can rights be circumscribed to conform?

Jenan al-Ubaedy is the full cover girl, her moon face shining white against the burka and her black gloves. Far from hiding behind the burka, Jenan is an elected member of the Iraqi parliament. Representing a conservative Islamic party, she is a steely-eyed, outspoken proponent of shariah law.

One of the most interesting scenes was shot in Jordan in the fall of 2004 when Western women described as "experts" were "training" Iraqi women to be political and community leaders. Two experts talked about how women often apologize, under-estimate their abilities and have to work twice as hard as men. Jenan was having none of that. She said Iraqi women don't believe that; Muslim women don't believe that.

As Jenan spoke, the "experts" called time, insisting that the session was over. They tried to ignore her as Jenan talked about how the Koran gives women more rights than other religions.

In a later interview about Islamic, or shariah, law, Jenan said if a thief steals, it is only right that his fingers should be chopped off. If her husband asked to take a second wife, she wouldn't oppose him: "It is unfair of me to say no."

It is okay for a man to beat his wife, if he leaves no marks. But Jenan says, "We are training our daughters to be cleverly with their husbands." They are training them to "absorb" their husband's wrath to forestall the blows.

Three years later in 2007, burka-clad Jenan is filmed against the backdrop of the White House, where she and other leading Iraqi women had been invited by Bush, who praised them for what they were doing for their country.

Bush talked about his hope that Iraqi women would be equal, free, prosperous and educated "not in the same way as in the United States of America, but in a way suitable for the Iraqi culture."

Small wonder the Iraqi emancipation has been such a failure. Small wonder Charlotte Ponticelli, head of America's Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative, was so reluctant to comment on camera about women's rights in Iraq and kept insisting, "Iraqi women would never accept a rollback of rights."

Only two years after the invasion, Baghdad was divided into hostile camps. Militias stopped women and punished them for not being veiled. Western experts fled and soon after, so did Abir Absilani.

She had moved back to Baghdad from Sweden soon after Saddam Hussein was deposed. Hoping for peace, Abir and her father hoped to establish a secular party and help write a new, secular constitution. She eschewed guns and declared "Our passion is our protection."

Their party won one seat in the first set of elections, but it was the father, not the daughter, who took the seat. By 2006 as Jenan was rising in prominence, Abir fled back to Sweden. Her cousin had been kidnapped. He returned bearing a death threat against her.

But Abir loves her country and returned in 2007, dressed more conservatively but still unveiled. Abir is shown tucking a handgun into the waistband of her pants. She pats the gun, calls it "my best friend," then looks at the camera, conscious of the irony.

Using the American government's own yardstick, Rydsn's documentary measures its failure in Iraq. Far from being a polemic, it is understated and left me wishing that someone would do similar reporting on the women in Afghanistan -- preferably before the next federal election.

dbramham@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Jihad for Love Launches U.S. Theatrical Release on May 21st at IFC Center in NYC

Please forward far and wide, especially to folks in NYC.  Apologies in advance for any duplicate emails.

Thanks!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sandi DuBowski <sandi@filmsthatchangetheworld.com>
Date: Thu, May 15, 2008 at 6:42 PM
Subject: A Jihad for Love Launches U.S. Theatrical Release on May 21st at IFC Center in NYC
To: Alam.Faisal@gmail.com


If you have problems viewing this, please click here:  http://www.magnetmail.net/actions/email_web_version.cfm?recipient_id=97908375&message_id=490160&user_id=FILMS

A Jihad For Love Premieres in New York on May 21st. Be a part of it! Dear friends and colleagues, The U.S. theatrical release of A Jihad for Love launches at IFC Center in New York on Wednesday, May 21st! Two weeks only! May 21st- June 4th. Buy your ticket online at http://www.ifccenter.com After Premieres in 15 countries and five awards, the film comes to the U.S. and NYC. Please bring friends to see this incredible work directed by Parvez Sharma and produced by myself and Sharma. If you come the first five days, you can significantly impact the film's theatrical life in the U.S. and other countries. Joining Parvez and I in the cinema are Imam Muhsin Hendricks, the first openly gay imam from Cape Town, South Africa and Mazen from Egypt/France, featured stars of the film. We will turn the cinema into a town hall - for debate, change and transformation. Click here for our dazzling line-up of Q & A's and forums on Islam, Human Rights, South Asian Sexualities, Interfaith... Looking forward to Q & A's and to celebrate with you! With your incredible support, Trembling Before G-d played in NYC theaters for over 4 1/2 months - let's ensure A Jihad for Love has long-lasting impact. Get involved! Right Now: Forward this email to 5 or more friends, colleagues, and family Purchase tickets online for The IFC Center Post a link to www.ajihadforlove.com and www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com on your blog Hit the streets: Download the flyer and hang it in your local cafe, store, gym, restaurant, house of worship or studio Join our NYC Street Team to distribute postcards, flyers across the city Connect us with journalists Put an announcement in your newsletters Post information about the film to websites, your newsletters, blogs, etc. Support The Cause: Donate to our International Muslim Dialogue Project Watch the trailer, and read what Time Out New York had to say about the film. Best, Sandi DuBowski Producer, A Jihad for Love Director/Producer, Trembling Before G-d Parvez Sharma Director/Producer, A Jihad for Love Parvez Sharma is blogging at www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com *Please feel free to use the film description below to help spread the word online. A Jihad for Love U.S. Theatrical Premiere at IFC Center Opens May 21st – Two Weeks Only "LIFTS THE VEIL OF SECRECY...FRANKLY BRAVE!" -NPR Talk of the Nation "REVEALING AND MOVING....A GIFTED FILMMAKER!" -Wall Street Journal "COURAGEOUS!" -The Guardian Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam today is the world's second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims. Produced by Sharma and Sandi DuBowski (director of the award-winning Trembling Before G-d), A Jihad for Love was filmed over 5 years in 12 countries and 9 languages and comes from the heart of Islam. Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, it reclaims the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, whose true meaning is akin to 'an inner struggle' or 'to strive in the path of God.' In doing so the film and its remarkable subjects move beyond the narrow concept of 'Jihad' as holy war. For showtimes and tickets please visit www.ifccenter.com For more information, visit ajihadforlove.com and ajihadforlove.blogspot.com.	Buy your ticket at www.ifccenter.com. Box Office: 212.924.7771 323 Sixth Avenue (at W. 3rd St.) Kick-off Bollywood dance party this Saturday night, May 17th for A Jihad for Love – visit www.sholayevents.com. Movie poster and T-shirt giveaways! A Jihad for Love New York Premiere Events May 21st - May 29th Show Times: 11:20am, 1:15pm, 3:10pm, 5:05pm, 7:00pm and 9:30pm Q & A's and forums with Parvez, Sandi, Muhsin, Mazen, Faisal, and others after 7pm & 9:30pm shows Wednesday, May 21st, 7pm Opening Night Premiere Thursday, May 22nd, 7pm Special evening with Sholay Productions and Al-Fatiha Friday, May 23rd, 7pm Dialogue with Progressive Muslims Meet Up Group Saturday, May 24th, 7pm Human Rights Watch and Scott Long present in association with A Jihad for Love: Before the Crusade Passes By: Trapped in the middle of a "clash of civilizations." Sunday, May 25th, 7pm Q & A on Films For Change Tuesday, May 27th, 7pm Interfaith dialogue with Imam Muhsin Hendricks and Bishop Zachary Jones, Rev. Edgard Danielsen-Morales, Rabbi Steve Greenberg, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum; co-sponsored by Unity Fellowship Church, MCC, CBST Wednesday, May 28th, 7pm Q & A on HIV/AIDS and Islam with GMHC Thursday, May 29th, 7pm Panel on South Asian, Diaspora, gender and immigration issues; sponsored by IAAC and Breakthrough Click here for more! To make a donation, please visit: www.ajihadforlove.com and feel free to contact us and share any ideas of foundations, donors or fundraisers.
Join our Facebook Groups, A Jihad for Love and Films That Change The World And visit ajihadforlove.com, ajihadforlove.blogspot.com and filmsthatchangetheworld.com

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Muslim Women Redefine Feminism

From The Connection (in Sacramento, CA) - May 1, 2008

Muslim women redefine feminism

Hanan Salem

Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Opinion

They speak in a heavily accented version of English, suffocating beneath tent-like cloaks. Voiceless and enslaved, these Muslim women wrap themselves up in head scarves in public.

While the rest of American women take the slightest sunray as a signal for baring flesh and flaunting assets, these fully covered women stand out as more than unfashionable but as victims of oppression.

Such are the tragic misconceptions of American Muslim women-barbaric, veiled housewives victimized by an Islamic lifestyle.

To about 10 million Muslim women, that lifestyle includes the female head covering, an Islamic dress code called Hijab and a symbol of modesty and freedom.

No, not of oppression but of true liberation. But how can restrictive dress be anything but suppressive?

According to the North American Council for Muslim Women, Hijab liberates females from the shackles of male scrutiny and sexual objectification. Muslim women who adhere to the Islamic dress code, as ordained by God in their holy book the Quran, are judged based on their minds and not on their physical appearance.

In a society where most women cannot walk in the presence of a man without being visually undressed and checked out like potential sex partners, the Hijab serves as a shield from such dehumanization.

Through loose coverage and modesty, Muslim women reassert their humanity, their worth as more than just another plunging neckline.
Islam says that every woman is a jewel and when she respects herself enough to preserve her beauty for herself and her loved ones, she rejects being objectified by a society that does not value her.

As a Muslim women and one who non-verbally proclaims it from a half mile away, I have been a target of pitiful double-takes, harassment, the "aren't you hot under the there" remarks that stem from those who assume a headscarf is drilled like a screw permanently into my skull.

Not only are these pathetic misconceptions, they are based on biased media. How dare they portray Islamic modesty as oppressive when, in our culture, 1 out of every 6 American women are rape victims?

If not rape, 1 out 3 American women have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime, according to the U.S Department of Justice.

Consider our American lifestyle, women subjecting themselves to plastic surgery, drugs, and diet under societal pressures. Even at the age of 15, girls are sticking their fingers down their throats and retching three times day out of desperation to fit Kate Moss' jeans.

And they claim Muslim women are the oppressed ones? Just because we don't look like what Cosmo or Calvin Klein think we should?

By all means, we choose the Islamic way of liberation, one that doesn't sacrifice health and self esteem. Not mute or meek, a Muslim women is valued for her intellect and personality rather than curves or cleavage.

It's because Islam has raised their status that Muslim women are liberated at a whole new level, one high above any traffic-stopping Hooters billboard.

Taliban Ban TV in Afghan Province

From Reuters - May 13, 2008

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have ordered residents of a province near the capital Kabul to stop watching television, saying the networks were showing un-Islamic programmes, officials and local media said on Tuesday.

The order is the last in a wave of curbs that the resurgent militants have announced in areas they are active.

A senior Afghan information ministry official, Najib Manelai, said that dozens of masked men with weapons entered mosques in Logar province at the weekend and threatened residents against watching television

"They threatened the people that 'if you do not give up watching televisions, you will face violence'," Manelai told Reuters.

Media reports quoted residents as saying that the Taliban imposed the ban because TV networks were showing programmes that were "un-Islamic and anti-Afghan culture".

Removed from power in 2001, the al Qaeda-backed Taliban who lead a insurgency against the government and foreign forces, could not be reached for comment.

But while in power from 1996 until their ouster, the Taliban Islamists had banned television, music and cinema. More than a dozen private TV networks and scores of radio stations have been launched in Afghanistan since their fall.

The information ministry along with security forces was taking action against the Taliban move, minister Manelai said, without giving details.

The ban on television programmes in Logar follows demands in recent weeks by a group of religious scholars and the information minister that some private television stations must stop broadcasting several Indian soap operas on religious grounds.

But the demand has been largely ignored.

The Taliban have in recent months also ordered mobile phones operators to shut down the networks, saying foreign troops were using the phones to track them down. They have also warned girls in several parts of the south and east not to attend schools.

Pakistan: Female Officers Challenge Tradition

From The National in UAE - May 12, 2008

Female officers challenge tradition

Amna R Ali, Foreign Correspondent

ISLAMABAD // It is a thankless task to direct traffic in the afternoon sun. But Anila Altaf, 27, keeps her cool as she conducts a steady stream of cars, vans and buses at a busy intersection in Islamabad.

The sight of women directing traffic is becoming increasingly common in Pakistan's larger cities as women push the gender boundaries and take on jobs traditionally reserved for men.

Many young women said they see the jobs as an opportunity to be independent and distinctive.

"I would have joined any force," said Asma Rauf, 27, who holds a master's degree in education. For others it is economics that drives them to seek a second income for their families. Sumaira Batool, 27, a constable from the Islamabad traffic police, said she and her female colleagues were role models. "My mother was a driving force behind my career, and told me never to back down," she said.

Although more Pakistani women are challenging the status quo that has for decades confined them to traditionally "female occupations" – such as fashion-designing or teaching – deep-rooted opposition to their foray into the police or armed forces has not made the transition easy. "While women are changing their attitude about the kind of work they choose to do, men need to change their outlook on how they view women in a man's domain," said Imran Rizvi, a consultant who conducts gender sensitivity training in the public and private sector.

Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, upheld women's rights as part of his policy of "enlightened moderation", a useful catchphrase for a leader on the front lines of the US-backed "war on terror". He received lavish aid packages to develop Pakistan's moderate image in the face of severe militancy at home.

Critics said his schemes were arbitrary, but many new projects included measures for women to join the mainstream workforce.

Despite censure from the conservative Islamic lobby, his government created a women's ministry, which launched a Gender Reform Action Plan to bring women into the mainstream through participation in politics and the public sector.

More than 40,000 women are employed in local government and 205 in the national and provincial legislatures. Pakistan's police force has for decades hired a small percentage of women, but the growing numbers come with their share of backlash from conservative quarters. Naheed Mukhtar, 27, said her brothers – members of the traffic police in Islamabad – were unhappy when she decided to join, but she did not let that deter her. "I was committed to what I wanted and I'm glad the opportunity came along," she said.

The Islamabad traffic police set up a special unit to recruit female staff two years ago, following the model of the efficient motorway police – the first traffic unit to induct women into the force. But their numbers are still small.

In 2006, Punjab province trained 3,000 graduates to be traffic wardens, 150 of whom were women. Another 33 women were recruited for Rawalpindi. In another development likely to cause controversy, female traffic police in Rawalpindi and Lahore are being trained to use heavy motorcycles.

Despite the country's conservative nature, women in Pakistan have often broken stereotypes. Benazir Bhutto was the country's first female Muslim prime minister, and Fehmida Mirza is the first female parliamentary speaker in the country and in the Muslim world. Ms Bhutto, who led the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was assassinated in December.

There have been other landmarks for women. In Jan 2006, Pakistan International Airlines, the country's national carrier, made aviation history when an all female crew of four flew a domestic flight with 40 passengers aboard. The airline has a total of six female pilots.

In March 2006, the first four inducted in Pakistan's Air Force received their wings after three years of intensive training.

Female officers have also joined Pakistani men in UN peacekeeping missions in conflict-areas around the world. Khadija Tasneem was the only officer from Islamabad selected to go to East Timor where she spent one year. Internationally, Pakistan ranks 43 out of 128 countries for women's empowerment on the World Economic Forum's 2007 Global Gender Gap Report (GRAP). But the indicators on economic participation of women are still weak, where Pakistan stands at 126.

On the participation of women in the labour force, Pakistan ranked at 121 among 128 countries.

"Pakistan now has a commitment to furthering gender equality through GRAP, but decisions must not be arbitrary," Mr Rizvi said."Gender equality should be built into the system through budgeting commitments and proper institutional restructuring."

Mr Rizvi said that unless men claim the gender disparity as their issue, society will remain patriarchal. "The new government cannot lose focus since changing attitudes is key."

Within the government, the Pakistan Muslim League is seen as the more conservative of the two coalition partners when it comes to women's rights. The next batch of female traffic wardens will be launched in the province's capital of Peshawar in the coming months. "Whether she is a peon or a prime minister, every woman has to be strong when she steps into a male dominated environment," said Ms Tasneem, of the Islamabad traffic police.

Capital of West Sumatra, Indonesia Imposes Islamic Law on All Citizens

From AsiaNews.it

April 24, 2008

INDONESIA

In Padang, Islamic law is now imposed on all
by Mathias Hariyadi

The controversial local laws inspired by sharia are now being applied to non-Muslim citizens. Female students who do not wear the headscarf are suspended, and few have the courage to rebel, because of fear of reprisals from fundamentalists.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - In Padang, capital of the province of West Sumatra, the atmosphere is increasingly that of an Islamic state. Female students who do not wear the headscarf (hijab) are frequently suspended from school. The requirement to observe Islamic customs, sanctioned by the controversial regional law of 2005, is also imposed on non-Muslim girls, and has generated an atmosphere of strong pressure on religious minorities. The proliferation of local laws inspired by sharia (perda syariat) is a growing phenomenon in Indonesia, but the central government has chosen not to intervene for now, in spite of protests from religious minorities and human rights NGO's.

The situation is not limited to Padang alone, where the most active promoter of Islamic laws is the mayor himself, Fauzi Bahar. In this province, which has an overwhelming Muslim majority, since 2002 more than 19 districts have ratified the so-called "perda syariat", norms that are, however, supposed to be applied only to Muslim citizens: some of them criminalise behaviours prohibited by Islamic law, like adultery, prostitution, games of chance, and consumption of alcohol, while others restrict the freedom of women. Men as well are required to wear Islamic dress: the traditional white robe called the "koko".

The application of the headscarf law in Padang is going beyond all imaginable limits, the inhabitants of the area say. An anonymous Catholic young woman admits: "Wearing the headscarf is not pleasant for me at all, and it bothers me while I am studying in school". Other female students in various schools complain about the same thing. If they are interviewed by journalists, the young women ask not be named, because they are afraid of "being persecuted by fundamentalists". "We have to adapt", they say, "we have no choice, otherwise they will send us home". Sudarto, one of the members of a local NGO that works for interreligious dialogue, reports that the headscarf law is applied strictly in at least four schools in Padang.

Other residents report with concern that since 2003 in Padang, mayor Fauzi has moved forward "enthusiastically" the project of "creating a more Islamic atmosphere" in the city. Among the other norms inspired by sharia, they recall the obligation for students in the elementary schools to learn the Qur'an by heart.