A Jihad For Love

Turkey/South Africa/France 2007, 81 minutes The world's first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality, a Jihad for Love is filmmaker Parvez Sharma's debut. The literal Arabic translation of jihad, is "struggle" or "to strive in the path of God." The pursuit of love has brought the people in this film into conflicts with their countries, families, and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented. The real-life characters in the film don't seek to vilify or reject Islam, but rather to negotiate a new relationship to it. In the hope of opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent in Islam's recent history, and defining jihad as a "struggle" rather than a war, the film presents the struggle for love.