A Jihad for Love

1. What is your filmmaking background?
This is my first film. I used to be a television journalist in India and studied film in India and the US. I also briefly taught film here in the US.

2. This is a very intimate film that required a great deal of trust, how did you meet the subjects in the film and why, despite the obvious risks, do you think they chose to participate?
The film took more than six years to make. I met the subjects through a variety of means including personal contacts, networks of contacts in different countries and obviously a significant amount of research. Winning the trust of the subjects was paramount and the most challenging. It helped that I was a Muslim filmmaker making the film. It helped that I understood many of the conflicts deeply. And certainly my intention to try and depict Islam in a way only a believer can was also critical with the subjects and I being deeply aware of the problematic discourses around the religion that continue to this day.

3. She film details a group of four Iranian exiles living in Turkey awaiting the results of their appeals for refugee status. The film showed two men receiving asylum in Canada, What has happened to the two men who remained in Turkey? Were their appeals approved?
Yes they were approved and they are all now in Canada. I always feel though that they arrived into an uncertain freedom-given the challenges of being a refugee and especially a Muslim refugee in a post 9-11 West.

4. Has the film been screened in any predominantly Muslim counties?
Yes it has. It was screened with great success in India, my home country which has a huge Muslim population and also in Turkey at the Istanbul International Film Festival. I continue my efforts to try and have the film screened at public venues in some of the other countries, but that remains challenging. However copies of the film have been seen in Iran, in Egypt and in Pakistan in private screenings.

5. Which are the most and least tolerant Muslim nations?
That is a difficult question as tolerance cannot be measured that broadly. In my opinion Islam has a long history of "tolerating" homosexuality much more than the West. Post colonialism a different legacy lives on where in some nations the discussion has moved briefly into the bully pulpits of the Mullahs. However invisibility and a willful invisibility at that is the preference for most people. As long as you are not marching down main street in Cairo or Tehran holding a pride banner and continue to observe the clearly drawn morality lines between the public and the private you are allowed to be, for the most part.

6. What is your family background and did the knowledge of your own sexuality influence your decision to live in the USA?
I am Indian and grew up there. My sexuality did not influence my decision to live in the US.

7. Most of the people in the film express a continued devotion to Islam. Do you share this cultural and religious sentiment?
I do consider myself a believer and this respect and understanding of my own religion has helped in the success of the film. I have always felt that it is true believers who will create reform in any religion and that is true of Islam as well.