Director: Jeevanandhan Rajendran
Duration: 00:02:55; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 22.324; Saturation: 0.097; Lightness: 0.286; Volume: 0.125; Words per Minute: 105.552
Summary: People’s Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Saud Akhtar, a member of the Bangalore Panch, discusses his verdict vis-a-vis the testimonials heard. Mr Akhtar speaks as an Indian Muslim, talking about the relationship between Islam and homosexuality. His talk highlights his belief that the queer community must be accepted by society, rather than reviled.
Good afternoon, all. I am not here as a religious speaker. I was feeling myself very very unfair to be sitting here with all the learned leaders here. But then I will share common man's perspective as a person believing in a particular religion which say every individual is same and violence in no form is acceptable. As a young boy, sometime back, I used to see, these people as somewhat very special. I know they are special, because they attract attention wherever they go. Because I saw my friends and other people in the community staring at them or taunting at them, teasing them. So I think, may be they are special. But then, it was very conflicting within myself, when I go back to my religion, it says, everybody is equal. And then I see these people as special. So, it was somewhat conflicting. And then I started asking people from the religion itself. They say, no, everybody is equal. Now, being in this sector for a long time, I think, its mostly, everybody is equal, whether straight person or trans-sexual or trans-gender or anybody else. And now I believe that these people are not special, they are common people. They are human beings. And as a common man, as a person following Islam, I think, its time for us also to start practicing preach. We preach that everybody is equal, but when it comes to practicing, we often discriminate people with odd sexualities. And as such, Anjali very rightly pointed out, its not about secluding them or keeping them at bay or having special status for them, but then yes, we have sermons on each Friday and then the religious leaders there can share that everybody is equal and specially taking the names, trans-genders, eunuchs, everybody is equal and not straight man or straight woman.
action plus
aids
akhtar
bangalore
care
coalition
education
hiv
homophobia
islam
panchayat
people
resistance
rights
stigma
verdict
Bangalore
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Saud Akhtar, a member of the Bangalore Panch, discusses his verdict vis-a-vis the testimonials heard. Mr Akhtar speaks as an Indian Muslim, talking about the relationship between Islam and homosexuality. His talk highlights his belief that the queer community must be accepted by society, rather than reviled.
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