A Jihad for Love

James Woods

RLS 101

Prof. Dippman

A Jihad for Love Review

A Jihad for Love is a very enlightening documentary that gives the viewers a chance to see into the lives of gays and lesbians that have to deal with their religion and their sexuality. This film also gives explanations on why homosexuality is rejected by Islam and why people see it as wrong. This film does an accurate job of being unbiased and nonjudgmental; it gives a bunch of different opinions and thoughts about the topic without picking sides. Through this film you get to hear different individuals explain their struggles with Islam and their sexuality, it also shows you some of the things they go though and obstacles they overcame or are going through currently. A Jihad for Love is a great film for those who know little to nothing about homosexuality in Islam, It does a great job of explaining both sides and educating the viewers about the religion at the same time.

There are many different struggles shown in this film, there were struggles of being driven from their home town, facing prison time, or just gaining religious acceptance. In this film we are told of a story where a man was facing 3 years of prison time and was raped while in jail. Luckily he was able to escape and gain refugee status in Paris, France. All of the individuals in this film struggle with gaining religious acceptance and justifying their actions. Some of the people in the film believed that they could change the feelings that they have for the same sex and some tried changing. One man tried getting married to a woman and thought that would help change him and in the end he still felt the same and eventually got a divorce. A woman portrayed in this film feels that she should be punished for what she was doing but in her religion there is no punishment for lesbians since there is no penetration. She believed that if she completed the Hajj that she would be able to change her habits although it was difficult because a...