Challenging the Westernised portrayal of queer Muslims as victims and exploring how the two identities can be reconciled.
“When was the last time you saw a Muslim person laughing or smiling on TV?” asks Diego Garcia, a researcher whose career involves exploring the lives of Muslims in the LGBT+ community.
It’s a rather simplistic question, but a crucial one – in the Western world, Muslims are often portrayed in a negative light. But when queerness is part of the mix, what could that life look like?
In this mini-documentary, Jordinna Joaquin searches for answers in the stories of Amani, Jasmine, and Aryam, three queer Muslims from unique backgrounds and professions. They shared with us their joy, their struggles and how they navigate queer Muslimhood.
The narrative is that being queer and Muslim contradicts each other and that these identities exist exclusively in a binary; this video serves to break this singular view on Islamic faith and sexuality, dismantling the misconception of a universal experience.
Featured image by Jordinna Joaquin