Mommying While Muslim

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...

We continue talking about hard things, including writing and publishing on today's episode. There's a HUGE writers’ community on IG! AND there a lot of Muslimah writers out there with terrific stories and projects. How do they do it? Najiyah Maxfield of Daybreak Press is here to give us the scoop! Links: Submit your momstory for our anthology: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dxCQGrErKj9...

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 o...

"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...

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 wi...

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 th...

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...

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 ha...

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 d...

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...

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 o...

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 M...

Zaiba & Uzma discuss election results which, at the time of this recording, was not yet called, but was highly suggestive of results they did not expect. Why don’t they have cause to celebrate regardless of who is elected this year? This is a darker episode, with some sad reflections about what the turnout means in terms of the moral compass of America and who our real allies are. Conscience d...

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...

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...

Zaiba and Uzma talk about expected symptoms of “the change,” and what exactly that is and is NOT. Menopause and genitourinary syndrome of menopause are the topics of the day. Super exciting, right? It IS! If we aren’t in the neighborhood of these things happening to us, we can at least walk our moms through it for sure, and they certainly deserve it. If you love an older mom out there, share this...

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.  *...

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, d...

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 manspl...

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...

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 leade...

The author of the incredibly popular and much loved book Secrets of Divine Love, A. Helwa, joins us today to talk about her book and what it brings to our souls during these turbulent times. Her popular blog @quranquotesdaily inspires and reminds us of Allah SWT daily as we scroll through fashion and makeup on IG. Secrets of Divine Love is a motivational and inspiring guide to help experience the...

Umaima Jafri very own sister comes on to share her experience with single motherhood and the conspiracy of Counter Violence and Extremism that made her live this life. If you’re familiar with Free Ibrahim Now, you’ve heard about Ibrahim Muhammad and how the FBI held him for 3 years without trial with trumped-up terrorism charges and after strongarming him into a plea bargain, deported him this sum...

Hurunnessa Fariad of Sister Act podcast joins Zaiba and Uzma today to discuss how her marriage abruptly ended and under the most unique of circumstances. The video on this one is a must watch, so we’ve linked it below (YouTube) so you can see Uzma’s blooper. Poker face much? We talk about abandonment, women led households as a more common situation worldwide and in America, financial stressors, fa...

Dr. Aneesah Nadir, a lifelong social worker, professor, and director of the Islamic Social Services Association of America and attorney Zarinah Nadir join us today to discuss the paperwork we need to LIVE WELL. Their backgrounds in the law and social work are huge resources to our community and their experience is GOLD. We aren’t inviting death to us by getting our affairs in order; rather we need...