Episodes

Which one of us has met a deaf Muslim? Chances are, very few, but it’s most likely because we aren’t creating spaces where we can, as Andaleeb Elayan, Executive Director of Global Deaf Muslim discusses today. We learn A LOT about accessibility and inclusivity and the most important pearl of the day from Andaleeb herself, “Your deaf child can do EVERYTHING except hear.” Treat them as such. ​For our podcast audience, please be mindful that the voice you hear is that of voice interpreter, Cheryl, ...

​Dilshad Ali shares a day in the life of a mom raising an adult child with autism, inspiring and teaching us today. Tune in to hear all the things we take for granted, and all the beautiful things we miss. Rather than perpetuate cultural behavior and silence around disabilities, we break the sound barrier for Muslim Americans to better support moms in the same position as Dilshad. We don't pity, other, ignore, and pretend disabled Muslims don't exist anymore! ​ ​Get inspired by Dilshad's mutiple...

We get a lot of SOS messages from queer Muslim kids and what better way to answer them than by bringing on Erum Rani, founder of Iftikhar Community, who shares her journey of coming out and what that meant mentally and spiritually for her. Hear firsthand what it’s like inside the mind and heart of a queer Muslim child before rejecting them, and how cultural taboos oppress the most important relationship they have: with Allah. Special note: Talking about something that the general Muslim communi...

Shenaaz Janmohamed of Queer Crescent joins us today to discuss her experiences as an LGBTQi+ person. Find out how that informs her exploration of and work towards social justice and equity. What do I do if my kid comes out? How do masajid make ALL kids feel safe? What is gender and what is sex? These are a few of the questions we discuss today. ​Tune in at 6pm EST on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple podcasts, or click the link in bio after air time. Links: Learn more about Queer Crescent: www.queercres...

Sameera Qureshi of Sexual Health for Muslims joins us today to discuss the effects of colonized gender-based fallacies have on Muslim sexual health and practice. Not only does she have comprehensive sexual education from an Islamic perspective online, she is keen on connecting sex as a means of spiritual fulfillment, “God-consciousness,” tawheed, within an Islamic context. Learn the difference between sex and intimacy, and maybe even redefine them! We are ALWAYS asked when and how to talk to ou...

Sadia Jalali, LMFT from Muslim Bliss joins us today to talk about how to develop ourselves before and during marriage in order to make it work. Gone are the days when marriage was the panacea for all things: mental illness, neurodiversity, land or money disputes, homosexuality.....marriage is a blessing but it's not a cure. In fact, there are so many cultural approaches to marriage that do not jive both Islamically, or for Americans raising Americans. Let's start approaching it with realistic ex...

We got a lot of flack last year for "getting too political" because white supremacy, fascism, and corruption aren't in our lane. Our argument has always been that as Muslim American moms, politics MATTERS to us because it directly affects our families and kids. From misguided counter violence and extremism to unbridled capitalism to straight up racism, Muslim Americans have suffered for decades in this nation, so we ARE in our lane. Mona Haydar @mostmona joins us on this episode to round out ou...

This month is all about hard things, and one of the hardest mommy jobs is taking care of medically complex children. Moms don't get a break to start, and these moms NEVER get to stop. How do we step up to be better sisters to them? How do we avoid avoiding the elephant in the room and normalizing different bodies and abilities and supporting ALL of our kids on this journey? Tune in to find out more from our role model of resilience Ashley Marshall @mommyweek. Links: Check out Ashley’s blog: htt...

"Would you be willing to come on a podcast and talk about that?" Zaiba asked Uzma almost 3 years ago about racial profiling of Muslim Americans by TSA. "Sure. What do I have to do?" Uzma had no idea what a podcast was, or that she could find them right on her smartphone! Find out our how-to's on getting started, podcasting (while staying friends), and how-to party on this with our giveaway we did live for our audience. This is our 100th episode alhamdulillah. Links: Web: www.mommyingwhilemuslim...

Trigger alert: child loss Abeeha Hassan joins us today to discuss the very recent stillbirth of her newborn. She talks to us about how she grieved her daughter and talks about normalizing it contrary to what most Muslim cultures permit in society. Her process of closure may seem familiar to someone else who has gone this journey alone and we are so touched that Abeeha chose to share her story with us. We pray a momsister finds comfort in knowing there’s someone sharing her story of loss and is ...

Shazia Siddiqi MA, LPC, ATR-BC of Let’s Art About It studio rejoins us today to talk about art therapy, a misunderstood or poorly understood therapeutic modality for trauma, anxiety, or depression. She’s here to explain the science behind it, and your co-hosts will share some of their experiences with art that accidentally healed them or their loved ones. Find out some easy ways you can use art therapy in your virtual school or homeschool schedule! We will use whatever we need to protect our men...

Summayah Poonah joins us today to talk about an important resource to assist our Muslim teens’ mental health needs. She is Head of Operations at Naseeha Mental Health, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting communities and individuals in their journey towards positive mental health and wellbeing. Did ya’ll even know that there is a hotline for Muslim teens to call or text a counselor 7 days a week no matter where they live? Yes, that’s Naseeha! Why is a safe space like this necessary,...

This year has brought a lot of changes we weren’t ready for, moms, and this episode brings on Dr. Saba Maroof, MD, a very busy psychiatrist whose work tripled as a result of the pandemic! She’s seen a lot and has had her pulse on the Muslim American psyche pre-pandemic, but there are some specific Muslim mental health needs she’s seeing arise as a result of the lockdown. Let’s address what the hang-ups are in the Muslim community, as well as without it, about mental health, address the burdens o...

Dr. Rukhsana Chaudhry comes on today to kick off our mental health series and gives us SO MUCH insight into our anxieties and how to deal with our kids’. Let’s face it: this pandemic has kicked our collective butts and we’ve seen changes in our kids and in ourselves we haven’t handled well all the time. We can do better by learning better, and when we do that, we MOM better. Learning to sit with discomfort to teach our kids how to do the same can hit childhood anxiety head-on. Dr. Chaudhry addr...

Zaiba and Uzma discuss the final stage of Kubler Ross’grief: Acceptance today. They skipped over bargaining for religious reasons! As Muslims, “acceptance” doesn’t mean lie down and relax. The work is NOT DONE! There’s much to do to keep the momentum going and to undo all the damage that’s been done to our nation in the last 4 years, and particularly to Muslim Americans. Local and state elections matter because of school curricula, zoning laws that determine when and if masajid go up, law enfo...

The next step in grief in this Part III of our election series is depression, which may feel worse today because it’s a holiday in pandemic, and it doesn’t look like what we’re used to. With social distancing protocols, many lives lost to this disease, and a third surge with no end in sight, we could dive right into depression, the next stage of grief, but today we choose gratitude. It’s not one of the stages of grief, so here we go replacing it! December will be our mental health series, so sta...

Since they couldn’t find a Muslim mom who voted for Trump, Zaiba recruited her husband, Zafar, to return to the podcast for this episode to help understand the 35% of Muslims surveyed by the Associated Press who said that they planned to vote for Trump--and probably did. It was CLOSE, y’all! Could the Muslim vote afford to be so split? What are the reasons that it wasn’t a landslide with 100% of Muslim Americans voting against the current POTUS? Zafar does a great job calming Zaiba and Uzma dow...

Dr. Hodon joins us today to talk about how to maintain pregnancy health during a pandemic when most of us are barraged with conflicting medical advice and everyone and their president wants to be the doctor giving it. While providing her personal story of losses after surviving COVID TWICE this year and losing her dad unexpectedly (to Him we belong and to Him we return), Dr. Hodon emphasizes that what worked for her is not medical advice to listeners; it’s her experience on how she recovered and...

Zaiba and Uzma ended up having to have a conversation about abortion, as well as their religious and feminist views on the topic. This is not a scholarly episode, rather a discourse between friends on personal, very individualized choices they would or would not make if they were faced with an unplanned pregnancy as Muslim American moms. To get an Islamic opinion on abortion, please talk to your favorite Islamic scholar. You can refer to our September episodes on female Islamic scholarship avai...

We continue our Women’s Health series by focusing on our spiritual health today with Zahra Aljabri, founder of Practical Muslim. She joins us on the podcast today to discuss developing our relationships with Allah SWT in order to strengthen what we have with our kids. She is a spiritual coach who reminds that motherhood is an act of worship and in itself is a way to gain closeness to Allah SWT. **** One of our biggest complaints is often feeling disconnected from God because of our daily human w...

Dr. Tayyaba rejoins us today on the podcast to talk about endometriosis, a condition that can cause pelvic pain in 10% of women in the WORLD, regardless of whether or not they still have periods. This affects quality of life and sometimes fertility, so it’s important to ALL of us. Special cohost Solat Zaidi shares her personal experiences with this condition and Dr. Ahmed gives us LOTS of facts, differentiating endometriosis from painful periods, which we are more familiar with. Sadly, we will ...

Let’s grieve Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week and talk about feminism as we end our month of Female Islamic Scholarship with Reem Shaikh. Reem is a graduate student at the Harvard School of Divinity who speaks to us about her singular path toward earning her position as a shaykha. Her goal is to provide the ummah with diverse voices in scholarship so that Muslim women don’t have their religion mansplained to them anymore. When women get and give information to each other, especially our most sacred...

Dr. Saadia Mian joins us today to discuss her unexpected journey toward memorization of the Quran, and love for it. As moms, we generally have the primary burden of Quranic study for our kids, but we lose our own relationship with it. Let’s talk about making it a daily practice using baby steps, and touch on how to make the Quran beloved to our kids as well. Dr. Mian’s 4 tips to get closer to the Quran are golden. Today we answer the relevancy and blessing of the Quran in Muslim American life. ...

Anse Tamara Gray, founder of Rabata, an online institute for and by Muslim women to educate themselves in Islam. She’s also an experienced mom who has a lot to share with moms about allying with their kids as part of their mothering. Mic drop moment 32:36 when Anse Tamara reminds us about the etymological relationship of the words “umm” (mother) and “imam” (one in front of whom we study, or leader), but on a lighter note at 44:15 “Anse Tamara: I am green beans!” Serious butterflies and chills in...