Imam Muhsin Hendricks

Maha & Maryam: Maha and Maryam are Arab lesbians who are re-united on camera in the heart of the Arab world. Lovers for three years now, they met online on a website for Arab women, Bint al Nas. Both have survived brief and abusive marriages and can only share their love for each other in private. Their families, one Moroccan and the other Egyptian, would never understand the love they hold so deep. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels with Mariam from her home to Paris to meet Maha. In the teeming streets of Cairo, as they meet after six months, Maha and Maryam go on a shared journey of search and discovery. In the heart of the old city, under the shadow Islam’s most prestigious center of theological learning, Al-Azhar, they discover an old bookstore where they find a copy of the Fiqh al Sunnah (The Laws of the Prophet). Hidden in it are two entire pages that the condemn their love. In the heart of an ancient mosque in the Citadel area they discover beautiful Islamic calligraphy as they declare their impossible love for each other. Both make plans to go on the Hajj together, knowing well that Islam won't allow them to take the difficult journey without male companions. For Maha and Maryam, Islam remains the center of their existence and we see them pray and ask God for forgiveness, as they realize that the fulcrum of their beings is also their biggest source of condemnation