Friday March 28th I went to see the documentary ‘A jihad for love‘ at the Amnesty International Filmfestival, screened at the Kriterion film theater in Amsterdam. This documentary is made by Parvez Sharma, an Indian Muslim now living in the United States. This documentary depicts how gay Muslims find a way to be true to themselves and their believes. It shows their struggle with the believes of others and the situation they are in. In a country like Iran gays can face a death penalty, the idea to be unallowed to live if you are true to yourself, is one no one person on this world should be confronted with. Though not all of the persons are both proud of their sexuality and their believes, the proudness that is showed in this documentary projects the strenght these people possess.
One can say a lot about the style of the documentary which isn’t one like ‘An inconvenient truth‘ or ‘Fahrenheit 9/11‘, this documentary finds it’s strenght in the people which it depicts, strong people whom have strong believes and show the love they find in their religious believes as well as in their friends and the oppurtunity to gain freedom wherever in this world. This documentary tells us not to look away anymore when people are discriminated against, are being persecuted, or being forced to flee their country for being homosexual, for being whom they are, being themselves. These are people like me and you whom have loved ones, believes, hopes and dreams, and everyone should have all this in freedom.
I support Amnesty International and will keep doing so, and if I one day can help the cause of Parvez Sharma in an other meaningful way I more than willing to do so.
I recommend everyone whom has a heart for freedom and has an affinity with human rights to watch this documentary.