Queer Muslims

salahtinychat: i’m still hanging out for another 10 minutes or so before starting isha so late...

navigatethestream — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:44:57 -0500

i’m still hanging out for another 10 minutes or so before starting isha so late comers are welcome! <3

A request from your mod

navigatethestream — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:59:39 -0500

Salaam y’all

First off, happy pride month. i know this can be a difficult time for many people, whether you’re an LGBT Muslim or not. But know that the LGBT Muslim movement is gaining groundswell all over the world, which hopefully means the amount of resources, retreats, and events will increase with the amount of visibility its gaining.

Second, a really good friend of mine theboyprincessdiaries has started a tumblr called salahtinychat to give a digital space for queer and trans* Muslims to pray together. check it out if you want to pray with other queer and trans* Muslim folk, and ask how you can lend a helping hand because theboyprincessdiaries also works full time and would probably appreciate some help in holding things down.

Last but not least, I am fundraising to attend divinity school in the fall to become an imam who can hold space for LGBT Muslims. i know i already posted it on here once, but i’m asking that if you don’t have the money to donate you could please reblog it to your many corners of tumblr. I’ve put my heart and soul into maintaining this tumblr while i was finishing undergraduate school, and this tumblr was a large part of the inspiration for my becoming an imam and trying to create more real life opportunities and safe spaces for LGBT Muslims. But i can’t run this tumblr, attend school, work, and pay the bills by myself. Individuals don’t create community by themselves, they support each other in creating community. And now i am asking the community that follows this tumblr to support me.

Stay lifted y’all

navigatethestream

SIGNAL BOOST: Help Navigatethestream get to Starr King School for the Ministry

navigatethestream — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:10:15 -0500

SIGNAL BOOST: Help Navigatethestream get to Starr King School for the Ministry:

navigatethestream:

The Imam Dream:

I’ve been admitted to Starr King School for the Ministry to pursue a double Masters in Divinity and Masters in Social Change degree for the 2013-2014 school year. Starr King is a Universalist Unitarian divinity school committed to theological education that is multi-religious and rooted in anti-oppression praxis. They are one of the few Christian divinity schools in the United States committed to training non-Christians to become spiritual leaders. Their faculty is composed of people from a wide range of faith based traditions, most notably Ibrahim Farajaje and Ghazala Anwar, two well know queer Islamic studies professors.
I have been given the incredible opportunity to attend Starr King School for the Ministry in the fall and work with Ibrahim, Ghazala, and other members of the Starr King family.

My ultimate goal for attending Starr King is to become an imam. I want the ability to lead prayers, hold spiritual space, and spiritaully support LGBT Muslims in a variety of ways. I’ve already started to do this via the queer muslims tumblr that i moderate, but I want the ability to do this in more than just an online capacity (and improve the online capacity that i do it in currently). I also want the ability to create more resources for LGBT Muslims that are spiritually affirming and are located in an anti-oppression praxis.

This isn’t an easy goal to accomplish. Many people believe traditional Islam maintains that Muslim women are not suited for spiritual leadership, let alone a queer Muslim woman like myself. Subsequently, finding people who are willing to train women and LGBT identified Muslims to have the necessary bodies of knowledge and skill sets to become an imam is a hard road to come by.
So finding faculty at Starr King who believe in support women’s spiritual leadership and queer spiritual leadership has been nothing short of amazing.

Yet making this dream come true has become complicated financially. After waiting two months for a financial aid package, I only received $5500 worth of institutional grants to put toward my $20,058 yearly tuition. I’m also not guaranteed work study because Starr King has a limited amount of work study grants to distribute.
This means I am left to take out loans for the cost of tuition, plus the cost of housing (Starr King doesn’t have on campus grad housing), and other non-tuition related expenses until I can find a job after relocating to the Bay Area.

The Breakdown:
Tuition at Starr King for a double Masters in Divinity and Masters in Social Change is $20,058 per year for four years. After receiving $5500 in intitutional aid with no guarantee of getting a federal work study grant, I still need $14,558 for the first year’s tuition.
The $14,000 will be going to helping fund my first year’s tuition.
The remaining 6,000 will help me put a down payment on an apartment and pay rent until i find a job in the bay area.

Why you’re nothing short of amazing for helping me out:

My family has no ability to help me finance my graduate school education ever since my grandmother’s apartment burned down in January.

Since my grandmother’s apartment fire my family has been pooling their resources together for the cost of her medical care related to carbon monoxide poisoning and the cost of restoring her apartment. On top of helping my grandmother get back on her feet my mother is already paying $100,000 in loans related to my undergraduate education at Hampshire College.
Whereas usually I can count on my family to help me off set the cost, that is not the case this time.

By donating to my campaign, you’re helping me achieve my dream in the wake of financial hardship and familial tragedy.

By donating to my campaign, you’re saying you believe in the power of women’s spiritual leadership and queer spiritual leadership. You’re saying LGBT Muslims deserve spiritual leaders who are committed to creating radically affirming, anti-oppressive spiritual spaces.

queergiftedblack: So excited for this, it’s about to start...

navigatethestream — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:37:09 -0500

queergiftedblack:

So excited for this, it’s about to start screening!

Q&A: Islam can be reconciled with homosexuality - S.African gay imam

navigatethestream — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:41:51 -0500

Q&A: Islam can be reconciled with homosexuality - S.African gay imam:

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:45 AM

Katie Nguyen

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - “The best thing was to just come out and be authentic - even if it means the world is going to kill you, but at least you die an authentic person,” says Muhsin Hendricks, one of the world’s few openly gay imams.

Born and raised in South Africa, the 46-year-old has spent years helping gay Muslims reconcile Islam with their sexuality through The Inner Circle, an organisation he founded that was set up in 2004.

Hendricks spoke to Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone from Cape Town about what the Koran says about homosexuality, the reality for gays in South Africa and what it was like coming out at the age of 29.

Q: What was your experience growing up being gay and a Muslim?

A: I come from a very conservative Muslim background. My grandfather was imam of our community mosque, so there was a lot of pressure on us children to be good Muslims - if there is such a thing as a good Muslim.

There was no expression for sexuality. There was nobody you could talk to about sexuality. So for the first 16 years of my life, it was a lonely journey with me having to deal with all these emotions on my own. My mother was ruling with the iron fist, so she was not somebody I could approach with that. I resolved at the age of 18 to further my studies in Islam because I couldn’t understand that when I went to the mosque, they preached a very compassionate and merciful God, but it was the same God that gave me this sexuality and asked me not to act on it. I needed to find out what the Koran was really saying about sexuality, and then at the age of 21, I won a scholarship to study at one of the universities in Pakistan.

I think it was during my studies when there was confusion - am I doing the right thing? Am I being the right person? That’s when I decided to get married. I thought if I’m not going to get married, I’ll probably go through the rest of my life thinking what if I had tasted a woman like they say I have to, would that have made me straight?

So I got married. Fortunately there was a girl very much in love with me. I told her a few weeks before I got married. I said, ‘Look, this is who I am. I’m willing to give it a try.’

But six years down the line, having had three kids, things didn’t happen and we both just felt that we had been doing an injustice to each other. The best thing was to just come out and be authentic - even it means the world is going to kill you, but at least you die as an authentic person.

I didn’t just take a small step out of the closet, I just jumped out and went straight to the papers and on the front page, it was: ‘Gay imam comes out’. I had three jobs at that time and I was fired from all three of them. I went through a kind of depression.

Q: How did your family respond to you coming out?

A: I was divorced for a whole month before my mother came to discover I was divorced. She said she was hearing some rumours I was divorced because I’m gay. I thought, you know what, this is the woman I most feared in my life but at this point I can’t hide it anymore, so I said, ‘It’s true, it’s not a rumour’ - and she fainted. After my sister came to help her, I thought I’ll just leave her to work on that. The next morning she came to me and she said, ‘We’re going to have to go to an imam. I think you’re jinxed. You need some spiritual help.’ I said, ‘No, mother, that’s enough. I’ve gone through that process for 29 years and I don’t think there’s anything wrong me.’

We had a tiff. She said, ‘I can’t accept it.’ I said, ‘Well what do you want to do? Because I can’t accept the fact you can’t accept it.’ I think because I spoke in a way I had never spoken to my mother before she could understand the seriousness of my pain and she said, ‘Show me what you think is right.’

I got her documentaries to watch, books to read on the issue. Then finally there was an acceptance. One day I heard my mother saying to a lady enquiring about this and about me - she said to her, ‘I know my son is a very honest child. He’s always been God-conscious, and I don’t think he would choose something like this. I’m not going to throw my son away. I still don’t understand it completely, but he’s my son and I’m leaving that up to God to decide.’ She accepted me and she accepted my partner. When she passed away I was the only one at her bedside.

Q: What does the Koran say about homosexuality?

A: The Koran only speaks about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Koran doesn’t use the word homosexuality. It’s only a term that was coined in the 18th century, and the Koran was a 7th century book. The story has been interpreted for years to refer to the atrocities of Sodom and Gomorrah as homosexuality so what I do is I unpack it. One of the principles that we learn when we study the Koran is that you can’t quote a verse from the Koran out of context. It has a context, it has a history, there’s a real particular purpose. So, I say, ‘Let’s do the same with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.’ We look at the archaeological findings, we look at what historians say about Sodom and Gomorrah, and once we piece that together we find that the story was really about economic exploitation, inhospitality to guests, rape, molestation, homosexual practices that were related to idolatry. So then I ask in my conclusion, ‘If you look at that and if you look at who you are in terms of your sexual orientation, do you think that story talks about you?’

Q: South Africa does not criminalise homosexuality. In fact, its 1996 constitution prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and has been described as one of the most progressive constitutions in the world - but what’s it really like for gays and lesbians in the country?

A: I think that that statement holds true, that we do have one of the best constitutions in the world, but it doesn’t translate to what happens at grassroots level. We still see that lesbians are being killed in the townships, there’s corrective rape happening. Now and then you hear that some gay person has been killed and nobody knows why, and I think that happens because there haven’t been enough programmes instituted by government to help with the transition. We come from a very violent history of apartheid and then suddenly into a very liberal constitution.

If you perhaps were living in more developed cities in South Africa like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth, you’d probably see less of that discrimination, but the more you move you into townships where there is a lack of education, there is a lack of information around these issues, you do still see violence and discrimination happening.

People in work areas are very aware that they shouldn’t be discriminating, but if you dig deeper down you still wonder if people have really made peace with the fact that gay people are on the same level in terms of human rights as straight people.

Q: Is the situation getting any easier for gay Muslims in South Africa?

A: I’m not sure I can look at South Africa in isolation to what’s happening in the rest of the world. I think there’s gains in some areas and there’s losses in others. If we look for example at the recent statement from the president of the Muslim Judicial Council in Cape Town, we see that there’s a definite move in the last five years now from saying that queer Muslims should be killed - ‘If this had been a Muslim country they would have been killed’ - to ‘Let’s look at what kind of programmes can be instituted, what kind of help can amassed to help queer Muslims.’ They still think we should become straight, but at least they’re not saying we should be killed. That’s a big shift for us. Another big shift is the fact that for the first year at our annual international retreat, there were two straight imams willing to engage. Positive steps like that. We get more families coming into counselling where before it was only queer Muslims, now it’s queer Muslims and their families.

But on the other hand, look at the rise of fundamentalism on the African continent - the Sahel region, the sub-Saharan countries, and events like the Arab Spring - how that influences the way people practise Islam. What happens in other countries does affect Muslims in different parts of the world as well, so perhaps that’s the challenge at the moment.

Queer/Trans Salah

navigatethestream — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:17:29 -0500

Queer/Trans Salah:

salahtinychat:

tinychat room for isha prayer. all are welcome, especially queers and trans* folks. prayer starts at 10:30. (ps did you know you don’t have to broadcast via webcam? you can just come and watch anonymously if you’re shy or don’t know what you’re doing! it isn’t creepy and we won’t judge i promise there’s no pressure to talk if you don’t want to) also, you don’t necessarily need to be trans or queer (or even necessarily muslim) to join, we just ask that you be respectful.

this space is welcoming of all genders and there will be no gender divisions. hijab and wudu optional. prepare your body however you like if at all and wear what’s most comfortable to you. there will be a video displaying his to pray with the words spoken out loud and with english transliteration of the arabic provided in the subtitles so feel free to try to follow along even if you don’t know how or to just sit and pray silently while others perform salat.

I will host salah tinychats every day for dhuhr and possibly for isha as well so keep an eye out for virtual community prayers in the future if you can’t make it today! track the salahtinychat tag for future updates and use it to add your own salah tinychats if pacific standard time doesn’t work for you!

if you’re cis and/or straight, please refrain from asking questions about people’s sexual or gender identities in this space (besides asking pronouns when necessary!) as that may be a sensitive subject especially just before or after prayer for some people. anyone who says anything homophobic or transphobic will be permanently banned from the chatroom at the discretion of the group members without warning if we deem it necessary.

LGBTQ Muslims: A Diverse, Dynamic and Confident Community - Aslan Media

navigatethestream — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:21:18 -0500

LGBTQ Muslims: A Diverse, Dynamic and Confident Community - Aslan Media:

Published on Wednesday, 12 June 2013

On Friday May 31, 2013, the Washington Post published an article about a retreat for LGBTQ Muslims and their partners that had taken place the weekend before. Along with five other individuals who were present at the retreat, the article included a section about me. Amidst positive reactions coming my way from friends and long lost acquaintances, I struggle with my own mixed reaction to the article. For a community whose identities, needs, and struggles are too often invisible within society, it is indeed a cause for celebration to be featured by a high profile media outlet. Yet, I worry that the article misrepresented me, and presented the LGBTQ Muslim community and the LGBTQ Muslim Retreat through a narrow lens.

The title of the section about me, “The Immigrant Experience,” felt misleading. While I feel connected to the immigrant experience, that phrase does not accurately capture my identity or my experience. My father is from Somalia and my mother is a white American whose family has been in the United States for many generations. Though I was born in Somalia, I was born a United States citizen. This, along with the fact that English is my mother’s primary language and that she was raised to navigate American society, has privileged me in a way that most immigrants and first generation Americans do not experience.

I want to make clear: when I speak of the challenges of being a refugee, I include the experiences of many of my Somali family members, but not my own.

The piece also states that when I came out to my family, I “felt pushed away by the Somali community.” Astoundingly, I asked the reporter to say that I was rejected by some Somalis — not all of them. I have not had a blanket experience of homophobia from Somalis (or Muslims, for that matter). I conveyed to her that these are complex and nuanced experiences — ones not easily summed up by a reporter on a deadline with a tight word limit. The multiplicity of reactions from straight Muslims — including outspoken LGBTQ allies and supportive Muslim families — is not captured in the article.

Beyond my personal story, I feel that the article paints the Muslim LGBTQ community as somewhat of a novelty. Why should our gathering be described as a “somewhat surprising event”? Why should the existence of LGBTQ individuals be any more surprising in Muslim communities than in other communities? The reaction is connected to the Islamophobic notion that Muslims are backwards and intolerant.

The author also writes that, “(Many folks said that they face Islamophobia from inside the mainstream LGBTQ community).” But why the parentheses? Islamophobia is not an aside. The LGBTQ movement is led by and serves primarily white cisgender gay men. The implication is that the specific ways in which homophobia intersects with other forms of oppression are peripheral. I find this to be a core reason why LGBTQ Muslims have chosen to gather — to build a community and a movement in which our experiences are valued as central. Islamophobia not only impacts our lives within the mainstream LGBTQ community, but in mainstream American society as well.

I am also frustrated by the title of the article: “At Muslim LGBTQ retreat, attendees try to reconcile their faith and sexuality.” When I was coming into my sexual identity while attending university, I was not struggling to reconcile those things nor did I question whether Islam had a place for me. The title also does not capture the breadth and depth of reasons why this is an event that I have now attended three years in a row.

The reasons I attend the retreat are community, activism, and spirituality. I feel blessed to belong to the LGBTQ Muslim Retreat family, and now the Queer Muslims of Boston family, especially since I have felt — like many others feel — like I’m the “only one.”

At the retreat, we challenged each other on issues of privilege and oppression and worked to create an inclusive community. This past year I attended an illuminating workshop on religious diversity within Islam that challenged my own ignorance about Shi’a Muslims and last year a white antiracism caucus was held. Some workshops over the years have focused on building activism skills such as community engagement and coalition building. Others emphasized spirituality and theology.

I have found that often stories about LGBTQ folks, especially those of color, focus on the sensational negatives — the rejection, the depression, etc. Maybe these are the parts of our collective story that editors believe will tug at the heartstrings of their readers. But as I shared in an email to the reporter, I believe “the core of why the retreat should be highlighted, is that it’s a site of positivity, strength, and inspiration.”

Islam is a vibrant religion with a rich history of questioning and debate. It’s a faith with a multiplicity of interpretations and lived manifestations. It provides believers from all walks of life with an example — the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) — who challenged the status quo in his society, upset traditions and norms, and pursued the betterment of the world while loving God fiercely. It’s a shame that the Washington Post article didn’t see the Muslim LGBTQ community in that dynamic light.

By Kaamila Mohamed

Mosques for all genders and beliefs

navigatethestream — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 07:51:01 -0500

Mosques for all genders and beliefs:

14 June 2013

By Rahila BanoBBC Asian Network

At a meeting in a basement in north London, the evening prayer led by a woman has just finished.

Those present are now involved in a discussion on Islam and why people choose to stay with it, despite the negative press it gets.

It is the initiative of a group of Muslims who want to open alternative mosques in the UK that would allow men and women to pray side-by-side and welcome gay people.

The Inclusive Mosque Initiative (IMI) was set up in November last year.

Its UK co-ordinator Tamsila Tauqir said: “We want to offer Muslims an alternative space in which they can pray and meet.

“We will not discriminate against anyone, they can be Sunni or Shia, straight or gay, people with families and people without.”

The IMI said women could also lead the prayers.

“Start Quote

The Koran is not going to change”

Imam Adnan RashidHittin Institute

Many mosques still do not allow women to partake in communal Friday prayer because they either do not have the room or believe in segregation.

Imam Adnan Rashid, from the London-based Islamic think-tank The Hittin Institute, said: “The orthodox values of Islam are very clear.

“Muslims already believe in things that have been established for them for centuries and they are not going change.

“The Koran is not going to change, the prophetic position is not going to change. Muslim thinking and practices are not going to change.

“So I don’t know what the point of this mosque is.”

The BBC contacted Islamic groups which represent institutions and places of worship in the UK, including two of the largest - The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB).

They both declined to comment.

The Lancashire Council of Mosques, which represents about 60 mosques, also failed to respond.

And the new movement has received a mixed response from worshippers.

‘Distracting for men’

Outside a newly-built mosque in Blackburn, Lancashire, Mohammed Shahid said: “I think it’s not right for men and women to go to the mosque together.

“It can be distracting for men, some are not good with women, so women should pray at home.”

His friend, Shazad Khan, said: “I don’t think homosexuals should be allowed in to the mosque, they are not Muslims. How can they go for prayers?”

Ali Noor said: “I think it’s a good idea, it promotes equal opportunities especially for the disabled. Provision should have been made for them a long time ago but it hasn’t.”

‘Issues with patriarchy’

At the IMI meeting in north London nobody wants to be named for fear of repercussions from the community.

But one Muslim man said: “We have issues with patriarchy in the mosques, whereby even if women are allowed in they are not given any representation.

“They have to speak through a male figure which I don’t think is Islamic or fair.”

“Start Quote

We want to show the mainstream community that we are not all extremists”

Tamsila TauqirIMI UK co-ordinator

Asked if he thought the movement would ever gain mass support, he said he hoped it would act like a beacon.

He said if people realised there was an alternative then they would move towards it and even if they did not go to IMI, he thought that other mosques would be affected.

A practising Muslim student in her 20s said: “No-one is here to set the rules about how you should live.

“It’s a lot about how you understand the text and you can come to any conclusions about Islam yourself, without having to go to an imam or a community leader.”

International mosques

Although they have a small following in the UK, it is part of a growing global network with sites in Srinagar in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

They also have support networks in the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Sweden. Their ultimate aim is to set up a network of international mosques.

Ms Tauqir knows that their actions could be seen to be provocative.

She said: “In some people’s view it is controversial. For us what we are trying to do is to create a space that is welcoming.

“We want to show the mainstream community that we are not all extremists, we are a variety of people.”

"‘Ayb, the word for shame in Arabic, which is closely linked to what is deemed morally wrong by..."

navigatethestream — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:58:51 -0500

“‘Ayb, the word for shame in Arabic, which is closely linked to what is deemed morally wrong by society, is commonly used in everyday conversation in the Arab world. When children are told that their behavior is ayb, they learn early on that that behavior is censored by the outside world, which is not forgiving of moral violations. The anxieties around violating social norms are often less attributable to the behavior being haram¯ (a sin or religiously forbidden) as to the fear that it will lead to kalam al-nas¯ (what people will say) and therefore public reckoning. Certainly in my mind as a child, I was far more afraid of ayb’s immediate consequences of kalam al-nas¯ than of God’s wrath upon me. Asifa Siraj, in her study of Muslim gay men, finds that many men were not concerned with committing a religious sin, despite their identification with Islam; what prohibited them from coming out to their families was that they felt their parents would be concerned with what people would say and in particular what the extended family would think.”

- Dina Georgis; Thinking Past Pride: Queer Arab Shame in Bareed Mista3jil

(via isqineeha)

yes good this

(via strawberreli)

{TW: discussion of suicidal thoughts} At Muslim LGBTQ retreat, attendees try to reconcile their faith and sexuality

navigatethestream — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 10:34:01 -0500

{TW: discussion of suicidal thoughts} At Muslim LGBTQ retreat, attendees try to reconcile their faith and sexuality:

By Emily Wax and Nikki Kahn, Published: May 30

There was speed dating, a talent show and a baby naming.

But there was also a locked Facebook page. And a strict rule: Attendees should not disclose the retreat’s exact location.

That’s because the 85 people who gathered in the Pennsylvania woods over Memorial Day weekend had come from 19 states and three countries for a somewhat surprising event: a three-day LGBTQ Muslim and Partners Retreat.

Some wore T-shirts that read, “Muslim + Gay = Fabulous.” They prayed. They attended workshops about pioneering progressive Muslims. Ever heard of Isabelle Eberhardt, a.k.a. Mahmoud Saadi, a convert to Islam who challenged gender norms at the turn of the 20th century?

And they held discussions on struggling to reconcile their faith with their sexuality, and their sexuality with their faith. (Many folks said that they face Islamophobia from inside the mainstream LGBTQ community.)

At the retreat, women and men prayed side by side, rather than in separate quarters as is customary. Some people found potential partners. Others wept in workshops when they talked about their family’s reactions.

Under a blue sky, the final prayer took place on Monday. A woman was allowed to lead both the call to the prayer and the prayer itself.

“At the end of the retreat, many people spoke of feeling like they were finally home, among family,” said Tynan Power, 42, a co-chair of the retreat.

This was the third such retreat, and it was sponsored this year by the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, founded in January to address the needs of LGBTQ Muslims. Another sponsor was Muslims for Progressive Values, a Los Angeles-based group formed in 2007 that parallels, to some extent, Unitarian Universalism and Judaism’s reform movement, and which has nine chapters across the country and abroad.

The Washington Post was invited to attend — the first media organization to be given access.

The question of where to pray

Bre Campbell

Bre Campbell sat rail-straight in a red and gray flowing skirt, pushing her long red and brown dreadlocks off her neck. She’s 27, lives in Detroit and is a convert to Islam. She also identifies as transgender, male to female. Campbell talked about how it’s often hard to be transgender at a mosque, which segregates men and women.

A few gossipy women at her place of worship have tried to figure her out. “Bre, you know, you shouldn’t pray at the mosque when you have your period, right?” she recalled some of them asking.

Yes, she would answer, she understands.

She didn’t want to tell them that she was transgender, partly because it was personal and partly because she realized they might ask to her to pray on the male side of the mosque.

“Not everybody is willing to have that conversation,” she said. “But I feel, God doesn’t make mistakes. I can be myself and keep my faith.”

She converted to Islam last year because she felt that the Baptist religion in which she was raised was anti-gay marriage and anti-gay in general.

“I would go to the church, looking for solace, and I would come back feeling even more hurt,” she said.

She realizes that some Muslims aren’t comfortable with gay and transgender people.

Sometimes, she said, she feels like she’s leading a double life. By day, she’s a well-known LGBTQ advocate, who counsels the African-American gay community about HIV testing at Wayne State University.

But at the mosque, she at times feels “forced back into the closet.”

Still, she liked that Islam focused more on God and that she could cover her hair and wear modest clothes and not be ogled for being different.

“I could just be a human being,” she said. “I could just be Bre.”

The Immigrant Experience

Kaamila Mohamed

Over a lunch of corn on the cob and barbecued tofu, 23-year-old Kaamila Mohamed recalled how her family fled Somalia’s civil war to neighboring Kenya.

They moved to Fairfax County and she attended Brandeis University as a sociology major. That’s where she first was able to express what she couldn’t put into words during her childhood.

“I am bisexual and queer,” said Mohamed, who has a lip ring and a bow tie under her giant puffy crown of hair and works in Boston with the Theater Offensive, an LGBTQ creative organization. “I was able to find the language to talk about what I was feeling.”

She told some of her family about her sexuality soon after college. Almost immediately, she felt pushed away by the Somali community, especially those who deny that there is even such a thing as being Somali and gay.

“To be a refugee is incredibly hard, and sometimes immigrant communities tend to cling to the most conservative aspects of their tradition and culture back home because they feel those traditions may be lost,” she said. “But what surprised me was that some people rejected me so fully. For a while, I felt like I was the only queer Somali.”

When she came to the retreat last year, Mohamed was in a deep depression and felt completely alone. But she connected with both older and younger LGBTQ Muslims.

“I was meeting all my Internet heroes in person,” she said. “I was really needing the support of this particular family at a time when I was feeling alienated from my own blood family. The retreat made me realize that I really wasn’t the only bisexual, queer Muslim.”

When she went back to Boston, she kept up with the people she met at the retreat. They started to meet every month for pot-luck dinners and formed Q-Mob, or Queer Muslims of Boston.

“Sometimes,” she said, “you have to create your own family.”

Overcoming suicidal thoughts

Thouheen Alam

Wearing black pants, a black shirt and a black tie, Thouheen Alam draws cheers from those attending as he walks through the wooded trails.

“When I first came to the retreat two years ago, I was really insecure. I barely talked to anyone,” said Alam, a 20-year-old college student who lives in Somerville, Mass., and is a Bangladeshi-American.

This year, Alam is able to share his story.

By the time he was in the second grade, Alam knew he was gay and suffered from intense shame and anxiety about his feelings.

Then the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks happened, and his classmates started hectoring him about being Muslim.

“Friend of Osama,” the children taunted.

He also feared that Muslims in the community would find out he was gay and judge him.

“On the one hand, I was bullied at school for being a Muslim,” said Alam. “On the other, I was worried my parents and other Muslims wouldn’t accept me for being gay.”

By the time he was in the seventh grade, he was contemplating suicide. One year later, he said, he sought help at Cambridge Hospital.

“I had a fight with my sister. She knew I was gay and I thought she would out me,” he said. “I had all these thoughts that my parents would deport me or call the imam. I was completely isolated. I wasn’t in touch with any other gay Muslims. I was too scared to go and look on the Internet.”

He eventually met a therapist who set him up with a mentor. The mentor, also a gay male, told him about the LGBTQ Muslim retreat.

“I had found a real sense of community,” he said.

The Role Models

El-Farouk Khaki and Troy Jackson

On a bench amid the retreat’s forested trails of maple and gum trees sit the Elders. The younger gay Muslims flock to them, affectionately calling them “uncles and aunties.”

They’ve lived through the early years of the gay movement, when people worried about being out, Muslim or not.

El-Farouk Khaki — 49 and born into a Tanzanian family — now lives in Toronto and works as an immigration lawyer specializing in expanding Canada’s refugee protections on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender. His partner is Troy Jackson, 43, who is a professional singer and also assists Khaki in his law office. The couple spent hours talking with the younger Muslims.

“We felt like many of the young people who were kicked out of their homes, felt abandoned and they took us on as their family,” Jackson said, recalling the conversations. “There was almost this big sigh of relief, since at the retreat there is no one there to judge them.”

Many also expressed a stomach-churning fear that upon returning home, “they would have to go back into the closet.”

At the retreat, Khaki functioned as a “raqueeb,” which in Arabic means a traveling companion, serving as a mentor, available to talk to anyone at any time.

“A lot of people at the retreat live very isolated lives. These kinds of spaces are about creating healing,” said Khaki, who is studying at the University of Toronto to be a Muslim chaplain.

About 20 years ago, Khaki recalls, way before social media and the popularity of the Internet, he founded Salaam, a support group for gay Muslims in Canada. He gathered a phone list of 100 LGBTQ Muslims, including some in the United States.

He shut down the group when he got a death threat from a Muslim organization after he wrote about being gay and Muslim in an article for a University of Toronto newspaper.

“A lot of people were interested in joining the group, but they weren’t able to do anything,” he said. “I thought, ‘One person does not a movement make.’ So when I got the death threat, I just thought maybe it was not the right time.”

Ten years later, another iteration of Salaam was born, and in 2003, Khaki organized a Canadian version of the Pennsylvania retreat. In 2009, he helped start the Toronto Unity Mosque along with Muslim activist Laury Silvers. The mosque allows women and men to pray side by side.

“Shame is so passe,” said Khaki. “For me, its really going back to the spirit of Islam. I tell young people and everyone, Islam is organic, it’s dynamic and breathes into you and you breathe into it.”

The Artist

Yusef Bornacelli

With his thick black-rimmed glasses and Spider-Man bow tie, 22-year-old Yusef Bornacelli likes to describe himself as “a dapper, artsy-type guy.” He is originally from Venezuela, now lives in Northampton, Mass., and is transgender, female to male.

A Muslim with a mohawk, he laughs as he doodles a swirly arabesque logo for the retreat, just for fun, on one of the workshop’s giant sheets of white butcher’s paper.

“A transgender Muslim male and unapologetic,” he adds.

While some of those at the retreat are shy, Bornacelli is all about using his art and poetry to spotlight his identity.

The retreat inspired him, he says, to start the process to become — perhaps — the world’s first transgender Muslim prayer leader.

“I thought I was the only transgender Muslim out there,” he told some of those he met before taking the stage at the talent show to perform his slam poetry:

“I have a kuffi on my head and steel-toe boots on

I have holes in my face, I want tattoos, I smoke cigarettes, I drink beer, I pray Fajr and forget to say Bismillah at times when it’s best to be said

I blast music from my headphones that’s just guitars wailing and men shouting in Arabic ’bout the wrongs they’re facing in a country that’s not theirs to call home anymore

I am a Muslim man by no standard definition and am in fact a deviation.”

MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE LGBT MELTING POT- Talk with Documentari

navigatethestream — Wed, 29 May 2013 22:03:11 -0500

MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE LGBT MELTING POT- Talk with Documentari:

Red Summer an independent artist has graced many stages from California to New York but home is Chicago and the stage of POW-WOW. This amazing woman is a mother, daughter, poet, publisher and activist. Wearing many hats she has traveled internationally to England, France, Spain, graced our neighbors Cuba and visited the motherland Africa with her words and passion for poetry. She has introduced high school and college students to her world and many are excelling and are grateful to Red. Red has produced her second documentary about Muslim Women in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca which is completed and is coming too cities near you. In the LGBTQ community there is a melting pot, as love knows no color, gay does not either. Visiting the melting pot in the LGBT community CWT4REAL will begin with this documentary it is the words, dreams and fears spoken from Muslim woman who struggle with so many labels that society has placed on them and each with its pros and cons. They are born woman, black children, reared in the Muslim faith and are lesbians (woman loving woman).This documentary showcases the heart and passion of RED to make sure that the LGBTQ community is educated to all in its community’s cultures and struggles. It lends itself to making sure we know our family and this is where, love, respect, knowledge and acceptance begin. Get the inside story on the making of the documentary and stories about Muslim Women in the Gay community through the lens of RED SUMMER and voices of five brave Muslim woman. Call in 347-215-8985 10:30 est, 9:30 cst, 8:30 mtn and 7:30 pst. Press 1 to speak and show RED love.

Pakistani women Rehana Kausar and Sobia Kamar marry in Britain's first Muslim lesbian partnership

navigatethestream — Mon, 27 May 2013 09:45:00 -0500

Pakistani women Rehana Kausar and Sobia Kamar marry in Britain's first Muslim lesbian partnership:

Two former students from Pakistan are believed to have become the first Muslim lesbian couple to marry in a civil ceremony in Britain.

Rehana Kausar, 34, and Sobia Kamar, 29, took their vows at a registry office in Leeds earlier this month before immediately applying for political asylum, it was claimed.

Relatives of the couple said the women, who studied in Birmingham, had received death threats both in the UK and from opponents in their native Pakistan, where homosexual relations are illegal.

During the ceremony the couple reportedly told the registrar that they had met three years ago while studying business and health care management at Birmingham, having travelled to the country on student visas, and had been living together in South Yorkshire for about a year.

Ms Kausar, originally from Lahore, also holds a master’s degree in economics from Punjab University.

“This country allows us rights and it’s a very personal decision that we have taken. It’s no one’s business as to what we do with our personal lives,” she was quoted as telling the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury newspaper.

“The problem with Pakistan is that everyone believes he is in charge of other people lives and can best decide about the morals of others but that’s not the right approach. We are in this state because of our clergy, who have hijacked our society, which was once tolerant and respected individuals’ freedoms.”

Homosexual sex is illegal under Pakistani law. There are also no laws prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation.

In recent years in Britain, some Muslim gay and lesbian couples have opted for a nikah, an Islamic matrimonial contract, which is officially the reserve of heterosexuals. These services, conducted in Arabic with additional duas – prayers – are not recognised in the UK unless accompanied by a civil ceremony. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in the Islamic faith and the notion of same-sex marriage is abhorrent to many Muslims.

A relative of one of the women told the Sunday Mercury: “The couple did not have an Islamic marriage ceremony, known as a nikah, as they could not find an imam to conduct what would have been a controversial ceremony. They have been very brave throughout as our religion does not condone homosexuality. The couple have had their lives threatened both here and in Pakistan and there is no way they could ever return there.”

Ruth Hunt, deputy chief executive for Stonewall, said: “There is a very cautious step towards social visibility for some gay men in Pakistan but lesbians are completely invisible. Pakistan is not necessarily a safe place for couples to be open about their love.”

The Home Office said it was unable to confirm any details about their political asylum request.

Click here to support Help with housing by Abz MK

navigatethestream — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:20:37 -0500

Click here to support Help with housing by Abz MK:

handmeabeer:

I am a Muslim, queer, Pakistani woman, hoping to continue my academic career at Smith College this September. However, unforeseen circumstances have derailed that plan. My parents have an arranged marriage set up for me that is fast approaching. I have moved out and am hoping to go stay on my col…

Hey tumblr, I can’t believe its reached this point but I really need your help. I don’t really have anywhere to stay and I need to find a way to stay on Smith College campus for the summer. I cannot stay with my family anymore and I’m trying to raise money to pay for summer housing as I figure out if I can even afford to attend college this September.

Bahr Breeze: {TW Rape} yes, I'm queer and I love God

navigatethestream — Sun, 26 May 2013 12:00:49 -0500

Bahr Breeze: {TW Rape} yes, I'm queer and I love God:

bahrbreeze:

Every time I touch a religious book, I cry. Every time I see someone else cry, I cry. I cry from the innermost chamber of my heart. My body spasms as it struggles to keep my heart from flying to escape the pain. Why am I crying so hard. Why am I feeling so hurt?

I feel that too much has…

Gay Muslims: Fighting the Oxymoron

navigatethestream — Sun, 26 May 2013 05:31:01 -0500

Gay Muslims: Fighting the Oxymoron:

Muslims across the Arab world recently participated in Moroccan-based Aswat magazine’s anti-homophobia campaign, “Love for All.” To honor International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17, Aswat put out calls for Muslims to submit pictures of themselves holding signs condemning homophobia. In speaking of the motivations behind the campaign, Aswat writer Maher Alhaj noted that, “We [LGBTQ+ Muslims] are humans like others, we exist everywhere and we deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated within the fabrics of our societies like all other groups in society.”

While there are doubtless bounds and leaps to go concerning the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in different societies, the steps being taken now are still meaningful.

occupiedmuslim: So I was invited to be in this TV interview...

navigatethestream — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:28:35 -0500

occupiedmuslim:

So I was invited to be in this TV interview with Building Bridges [an interfaith program] and after two weeks of going back and forth, the night before I get this email canceling it because I don’t believe in tolerating LGBTQIA hate.

Alhumdullah.

Help Fundraise for the LGBT Muslim Retreat!

navigatethestream — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:42:17 -0500

Help Fundraise for the LGBT Muslim Retreat! :

Fundraising for the Retreat for LGBTQ Muslims & their Partners continues. The retreat still needs $1,500 to reach our goal & the retreat starts in two days!

If you can give (any amount, small or large), please do.

Your donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law, as the fiscal sponsor for the Retreat, Muslims for Progressive Values, is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.

Click through to the link to access the paypal button

"Historically, some European men who came into contact with the Middle East both fantasized about and..."

navigatethestream — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:00:59 -0500

“Historically, some European men who came into contact with the Middle East both fantasized about and denounced the closed-door sexual lives of Middle Eastern men and women, especially homosocial spaces and same-sex relations. European women, on the other hand, sought to save their Oriental “sisters” whom they viewed as oppressed by their religion and Oriental men, as elucidated by Harvard Professor Leila Ahmed in her book, Women and Gender in Islam. These attitudes toward Middle Easterners continue to this day, an example of which can be found in the movie Circumstance whose relatively positive public reception in the West arises from this conformity to Western Orientalist imaginaries, whereas the movie Facing Mirrors disrupts and challenges the hegemonic and Orientalizing narrative of Iran’s sexual and gender minorities, and is thus ignored and excluded from the cultural and artistic public domain”

- Queer and Trans Subjects in Iranian Cinema: Between Representation, Agency, and Orientalist Fantasies by BY SHIMA HOUSHYAR of the Ajam Media Collective (via Dylan Digits)

Queer and Trans Subjects in Iranian Cinema: Between Representation, Agency, and Orientalist Fantasies

navigatethestream — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:14:34 -0500

Queer and Trans Subjects in Iranian Cinema: Between Representation, Agency, and Orientalist Fantasies:

by SHIMA HOUSHYAR

Queering Iranian Cinema

The concept of a queer Iranian cinema may sound contradictory or impossible, but that is exactly how one would describe Facing Mirrors(2011), the first movie to feature a female-to-male transgender main character that has been written, produced, and screened in Iran. Directed by Negar Azarbayjani and produced by Fereshteh Taerpour (two cisgender female filmmakers), Facing Mirrors features the storyof the unlikely friendship between the upper-class Adineh (“Eddy”), a pre-op transman in Tehran struggling to escape from the grips of his transphobic father, and Rana, a modest, devout, working class woman who ferries passengers in order to pay her imprisoned husband’s debts and secure his release.

This film has won numerous awards and nominations in over 64 different LGBTQ and international film festivals around the world – most notably the Special Jury’s Crystal Simorgh Award at Iran’s 29th Fajr International Film Festival and the Outstanding First Feature Award at San Francisco’s 36th Frameline Film Festival. It has also received rave reviews from Iranian film critics and audiences around the country.

Facing Mirrors (2011) Official Movie Poster

Although the transgender identity is legally accepted in Iran, it is not often visible in popular culture. The legal acceptance began with a fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini in 1978, which laid the groundwork for the current legal regime dealing with trans issues. Today, not only does the government recognize transpeople, but it also financially supports those who cannot fully afford hormones and sex reassignment surgeries through charity grants, and more recently, by mandating that insurance companies cover the full cost of the operation.

The surprising aspect of this story, therefore, is not the positive response from both critics and ordinary moviegoers in Iran, but rather a lack of coverage by mainstream Western press of such an internationally successful movie. It would seem that a movie about transpeople in Iran would be an instant headline-grabber, especially when one considers the plethora of news reports, op-eds, and airtime devoted to criticizing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s horrid record of human rights violations, particularly when it comes to the rights of women, minorities, and lgbtq folks. Indeed, another recent movie, Circumstance (2011), written and directed by Iranian-American female filmmaker, Maryam Keshvarz, which chronicles the love story of two female Iranian teenagers – Atefeh and Shireen – trapped between a repressive government and an unaccepting society, was immediately picked up by mainstream media. It generated multiple articles, reviews, and critiques, including an interview on AfterEllen.com, a popular US-based lesbian pop culture website.

The lack of mainstream coverage of Facing Mirrors in the US stands in stark contrast to the widespread media attention given toCircumstance, which is a direct result of the Orientalizing effect of the Western gaze on Middle Eastern subjects. Historically, some European men who came into contact with the Middle East both fantasized about and denounced the closed-door sexual lives of Middle Eastern men and women, especially homosocial spaces and same-sex relations. European women, on the other hand, sought to save their Oriental “sisters” whom they viewed as oppressed by their religion and Oriental men, as elucidated by Harvard Professor Leila Ahmed in her book, Women and Gender in Islam. These attitudes toward Middle Easterners continue to this day, an example of which can be found in the movie Circumstance whose relatively positive public reception in the West arises from this conformity to Western Orientalist imaginaries, whereas the movie Facing Mirrors disrupts and challenges the hegemonic and Orientalizing narrative of Iran’s sexual and gender minorities, and is thus ignored and excluded from the cultural and artistic public domain.

Oriental Objects of Circumstance

According to the Iranian-born US-raised first-time director of Circumstance, Keshavarz, the inspiration for making the film was a lack of movies in Iran “or the Muslim world” that dealt with the issue of women’s sexuality. This claim could not be farther from the truth, as there are a plethora of movies in the Middle East and North Africa, let alone South and East Asia that deal specifically with issues concerning women, sexuality, relationships, and domestic problems, such as Caramel (2007), The Girl in the Sneakers (2001), The Circle (2000),The Last Supper (2002) and many more.

Circumstance (2011) Official Movie Poster

Shot in Lebanon, Circumstance often appears inauthentic to an Iranian audience about whom it purports to speak. From the actors’ thick American accents when speaking Persian (for most of them grew up in the suburbs of America) to the natural and urban scenes of Iran to the characters’ costumes and house decorations, there are many instances of disconnect between what the movie portrays and the reality of Iranian life. For example, during a scene when the two girls’ car is stopped by a police search patrol, the girls scream “Comité!” – a term literally meaning “the Committee,” referring to the so-called morality police in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, comités have long ceased to exist and the so-called “morality police” is now referred to as gasht-e ershad or the “Guidance Patrol.”

In addition to the many technical mistakes, the movie has also been criticized by Iranian lesbians and feminists for being extremely shallow and resembling a stereotypical exotic Orientalist fantasy rather than showing the reality of lesbian life in Iran. According to Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, an Iranian feminist activist, the film incurred the wrath of a number of Iranian feminists and lesbians, because it failed to show the realities of marginalized lesbian women in Iran. It is imperative to note that Circumstance was not meant to speak to audiences in Iran, but its main interlocutor was a Western audience in the United States specifically. Indeed, when Abbasgholizadeh claims, “squeezing sex and the government’s suppressive violence and similar subjects is intended to make the film more exciting,” she is touching upon the long history of using Middle Eastern (queer) bodies and sexualities to satisfy Orientalist fantasies of the Euro-American spectator.

Atefeh and Shireen love scene in Circumstance

Historically, many Europeans who came into contact with the Middle East have often fantasized about the “behind the veil” life in the Oriental “harem,” which has come to symbolize the hidden sexual lives of Middle Eastern women. “In Circumstance, the audience is witness to that very same gaze and objectification of women’s bodies,” writes Leila Mouri, an Iranian women’s rights activist, journalist and Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University. It is this un-veiling of the hidden lives of queer Middle Eastern women in order to serve men’s pleasures and fantasies that reduces them to mere objects of gaze and consumption for a Euro-American audience.

The greatest weakness of Circumstance is the lack of subjectivity of the two protagonists, Atefeh and Shireen. From the portrayal of a slow-motion erotic belly-dancing scene to the alcohol, drug and sex-filled underground Tehrani parties, Atefeh and Shireen are shown as mere (queer) sexual objects as opposed to subjects of their own destiny. Indeed, the movie’s byline in the official website proudlyproclaims in bold letters: “Freedom is a Human Right.” However, in the movie, the Iranian (queer) woman’s struggle for social and political freedom is reduced to drinking, attending parties, playing loud music and cursing the “Mullahs.” Even though this desire for social freedoms is important, its shallow portrayal in the movie simplifies and overshadows the larger social, political, and economic struggles of Iranians, and renders their political agency and complex analyses of their social and political plight invisible. For the Western audience, however, the Orientals never possessed any agency to begin with, and thus, can only exist as mere victims of circumstance.

Reflections in the Mirror

The lack of subjectivity in Circumstance is contrasted by the strong and complex characters of Facing Mirrors. When the protagonist Eddy’s transphobic father discovers his intention to acquire a passport and leave the country, he tries to lock Eddy up; however, Eddy escapes with some money and a backpack on his shoulder, which puts him on the path of meeting Rana. In the movie, instead of being treated to the stereotypical images of the oppressed Oriental woman, one is confronted with scenes of defiance, resolve, compassion, and complexity. For example, when the “Guidance Patrol” stops Eddy and one of his female friends while driving, instead of screaming, Eddy defies the police officer and tries to (unsuccessfully) pass his brother’s driver’s license as his own. This scene offers a glimpse into the complexity that often marks the space for defiance and negotiation between Iranian youth and the state security apparatus. Eddy’s “tough-guy” attitude is, however, tempered by his softness and his pain and loneliness are revealed in a potent scene of crying in the bathroom.

Rana and Eddy share a meal and their dreams on the road in Facing Mirrors

Rana, who is devout and comes from modest means, has her own moments of defiance and struggle. She reveals that, as a young girl, one of her dreams was to learn to drive and be able to stand on her own feet. However, instead of being reduced to a helpless victim when her husband is sent to prison, she defies her overbearing mother-in-law (who doesn’t believe in women driving), and sets out to realize her dream by driving passengers in order to make enough money to care for her son and pay her husband’s debt. Instead of objectifying women and queer bodies to serve Orientalist fantasies, Facing Mirrors shows the resilient and resourceful nature of Iranian women and gender minorities whose struggle for freedom and survival is made possible by exercising their agency. These scenes offer a more complex depiction of what liberation means for the marginalized of society, and it flies in the face of the single narrative of helpless victims trapped under a repressive regime presented by mainstream Western media.

Disrupting Orientalism

The fact that Circumstance has captured the imagination of straight and queer Western mainstream audiences whereas Facing Mirrorshas received little media attention in the West reveals volumes about the cultural power of the Orientalist imaginary. Additionally, the lack of mainstream coverage of Facing Mirrors in the United States is juxtaposed with the overabundance of media attention toward the film in Iran where the film has been the subject of debate and appraisal since its release.

Even though Facing Mirrors did not receive its official permit to be screened in Iranian theaters until October 24th, 2012 – almost a year-and-a-half after release in international film festivals – film critics, journalists, bloggers, and state-sponsored news agencies in Iran began commenting and reporting on its laudable success worldwide almost immediately. It has also been the subject of much debate in Iran’s online blogs and news sites where many young Iranians discuss social, cultural and political issues of the day. This film was even screened at Mofid University in Qom, an extremely religious Iranian city known for its seminaries and education of clerics. After a panel discussion with the producers and actors of the film, the Islamic seminary students and professors praised the movie for portraying therealities of transpeople’s lives in Iran. This is a testament to the fact that despite restrictions and problems of censorship in Iran, the public sphere is still open to debate and discussion of a variety of topics, including those pertaining to sex and gender.

Shayesteh Irani (Eddy), Ghazal Shakeri (Rana), Fereshteh Taerpour, Negar Azarbayjani, and Dr. Kariminia, a professor at Qom Mofid University and an expert on trans laws at a panel discussion on Facing Mirrors and issues facing transpeople in Iran.

The greatest success of the movie, however, is in the fact that it has forever entered Iran’s social, cultural, and political public space where it has inserted a thought-provoking and relatable narrative of queerness in the public imaginary, and addressing a social taboo in consequential ways that Circumstance could never have done. With its humanistic and yet complex storytelling, Facing Mirrors is able to not only touch the hearts of its audience, but it also manages to explore the viewers’ own preconceived notions about transgender people in a manner that is not moralistic or heavy-handed, while truthfully portraying the reality of being trans in the context of Iran’s society and culture. Unlike Circumstance, Facing Mirrors has the power to confront, challenge and continue the process of uprooting prejudice in Iranian culture, and potentially open up the public space for discussing other taboo socio-cultural topics in the future. Facing Mirrors is, in fact, queering the exotic image of the Oriental subject for a Western audience, as it humanizes Iranians and contextualizes their struggles.

Unfortunately, the mainstream Western culture considers such complexity as antithetical to its Orientalist narrative of oppressed Muslim women and queers in need of saving. Therefore, a movie such as Facing Mirrors finds itself as an oddity in the Western cultural and public space where such nuances are rendered invisible or, at best, ignored. Indeed, Facing Mirrors not only sheds light on Iranian social issues, but it also holds up a mirror of reflection that exposes and disrupts Western Orientalist imaginaries, and paves the path for a new and complex understanding of the Middle East.

vaginashavefeelingstoo: It’s cool when non-Muslims are totally supportive of Muslim queerness, but...

navigatethestream — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:26:06 -0500

vaginashavefeelingstoo:

It’s cool when non-Muslims are totally supportive of Muslim queerness, but please, you gotta realise saying things like “if Allah was gonna do that to you and make it wrong, He’s an asshole” is so not helpful or supportive.

Like, show me support but don’t insult my deity or my prophet or my faith.

Is that so hard?