A revered small-town imam faces a crisis of faith when he must choose between upholding the values of his mosque or protecting the safety and spiritual belonging of a trans man congregant.

Director’s Vision for ‘Witness’

Since immigrating to the U.S. from a Muslim country and coming out as trans, I have been seeking a sense of belonging. Trying to find a home-mosque to pray in as a trans person has been a painful journey of rejections and heartbreak. There aren’t enough spaces to feel safe and embody the sacred. We often feel the need to abandon our own faith, in order to live honestly in the world.

When I eventually went into a mosque and decided to pray in the men’s section as a CIS-passing man, at first I felt like I was deceiving my community by being in a room that I would not be welcomed if they were to know my true identity. But prostrating with those men that looked like me and shared some of my history and language was one of the most transformative moments of feeling an embodiment of safety and home here in the U.S. – in a country that is not mine and one that has never felt easeful or restful to be in except for when I was accepted and treated as family in that prayer hall.

This film addresses the exclusion and alienation that queer people in the Muslim community face in places of worship. It is a re-imagining of what happens if my experience could change the values and rules of such an established sacred place of prayer. I specifically chose to write this film from the point-of-view of the CIS-gendered Imam Mustafa as a more accessible way for the audience to feel empathy for someone with my labels. In this story, it is not our trans muslim character that needs to change, but our religious leader, Imam Mustafa, that does.

My team for this film has helped me see that stories like mine matter. They’ve given me hope for community and belonging.