The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women

Your body is talking to you right now. But what happens when your body gives you an answer you weren’t expecting? In this episode, Salma sits down with “Aisha,” a Muslim woman in her early 40s who grew up trying to be the perfect “good girl” while carrying years of religious shame, sexual conditioning, and chronic pelvic pain (which she first noticed when she started having sex with white, non-Mus...

In this deeply personal solo episode, host Salma Hindy shares what really happened during six ayahuasca ceremonies in Egypt: including visions involving family trauma, religion, sexuality, heartbreak, vaginismus, emotionally unavailable men, and the hidden emotional pain carried through generations. What begins as a spiritual exploration slowly turns into something far more unsettling, healing, an...

This week on The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , Salma sits down with Spozhmi, an Afghan-Canadian woman, to share her journey of discovering her sexuality, falling in love with her partner of 10 years, and choosing herself in the face of cultural and familial pressure. From being taken back to Afghanistan for an arranged marriage… to secretly building a relationship with a woman… to coming out...

For years, this has been the number one question she’s been asked: Why did you take the hijab off? In this deeply personal solo episode, Salma finally shares the full story, five years later. This wasn’t one decision made in one moment. It was a long, painful, complicated unraveling shaped by heartbreak, therapy, faith, isolation, family pressure, and the slow realization that her relationship to...

Vaginismus is curable. And it’s not something that should take years. In this episode, Salma sits down with pelvic floor physiotherapist and “Vagina Rehab Doctor” Janelle Howell to unpack the truth about sexual pain, healing, and what it actually takes to feel safe and connected in your body. What starts as a conversation about vaginismus quickly opens into something much bigger: shame, religion,...

In this deeply personal solo episode, Salma reflects on the two heartbreaks that changed her life (one romantic, one a friendship) and the painful realization that she was the one who ended them. Two years ago, after losing her family, moving 19 times, living in survival mode, and spiraling through manic travel, chaos, and sexual hunger, Salma met two people who were sweet, sensitive, and safe. An...

What does it really mean to “obey your parents”? And what happens when obedience becomes suffocation? In this pillar episode, Salma is joined by an anonymous guest, Fatima, for a deeply honest conversation about emotional enmeshment, delayed adulthood, and what it actually takes to cut the cord. Fatima grew up in a close-knit Arab Muslim family in the U.K. where independence was only acceptable th...

In this solo episode, Salma Hindy recounts attending a sex club in Berlin, where a man violated her and then tried to disappear - only to be confronted months later, unexpectedly, at a comedy show in New York. She reflects on what it meant to call him out publicly on stage,  reclaiming a sense of power she didn’t realize she’d lost. She reflects on the first feeling she noticed immediately followi...

Comedian, writer, and actor Tarek Ziad becomes the first Muslim man (and first queer man) to join the podcast. Like two besties at a slumber party, Salma and Tarek honestly and hilariously unravel everything their communities tell them to hide: queerness, shame, corporal punishment, disownment, religion, sexual repression, and the long, painful road toward loving yourself. Tarek shares his journey...

TW: SEXUAL, PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL ABUSE From the outside, Sara’s life looked like a dream: a respected gynecologist father, a big Gulf family, religious prestige, and the illusion of stability. Inside, it was a battlefield. At five years old, she was molested by her father - the same man who later walked her down the aisle. Her childhood was chaos: screaming, bloody domestic fights, a mother be...

Jasmine Sherni is the daughter of a Pakistani Muslim father and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother. Often bullied as a “fake Jew”, Jasmine is an adult performer who went viral after her first Bollywood p*rn scene, becoming the representation so many people had been waiting for. With over 34 million views on P*rnHub, Jasmine shares her journey from strict-dad households to BDSM stages, from ICU nursing to...

Nobody loves overthinking sex more than Muslim women in their 20s and 30s trying to make up for a stolen teenhood. This week, Salma sits down with California-born Pakistani-American Aleeyaa for a raw, hilarious, and soul-baring conversation about sex, rejection, and agency. From learning about sex in a USC classroom to carrying the weight of “no sex before marriage” since age 12, Aleeyaa unpacks w...

Doppelgängers Salma Hindy and Sarah Arabic (who share the SAME 9/11 birthday) finally sit down face-to-face to talk about everything sex. Sarah grew up in Baghdad with no sex education and a family that never spoke about periods, pleasure, or intimacy. After moving to Dubai for college, she found freedom in her dorm room, exploring porn as an unexpected form of sex education. At 18, she discovered...

What happens when the person you love turns out to be violent, racist, and determined to ruin you? This week, Algerian-American comedian Hedya joins Salma to share her shocking journey of falling for a man who seemed like home after years of family tension and cultural expectations, only to find herself trapped in a cycle of abuse. During the pandemic lockdown, he pushed her, dragged her out of th...

What really makes love last? And how do you find a partner when family, community, and faith are all part of the puzzle? In this episode, Salma sits down with her older sister and mentor, Yasmin Elhady: comedian, lawyer, community leader, and one of the hosts of Hulu’s Muslim Matchmaker . Yasmin has matched over 58 couples and shares her expertise on it all: The 3 things every relationship needs W...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of rape, alcoholism, domestic violence, and abuse. Please listen with care. This week, Salma sits down with trauma-informed divorce coach Sarzana Zafar - divorced twice (because once is boring) - to unpack the father wound and consent. Sarzana shares her journey from growing up with an alcoholic father in a Muslim community that judged and shamed...

For the Love of Sex: Lover Girl with a Body Count of 100+ This week, Salma sits down with Yasmine, a Karachi-born lover girl who has lived, loved, and - by her own account - slept with half of Dubai. With a body count well over 100, Yasmine opens up about her wildest experiences: from sex parties, kinks, and threesomes (including one she literally walked out of mid-session), to discovering the hea...

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Sexual Coercion Iranian-American Sasha got her first period because of 9/11 (yes, really). Growing up in the Midwest to a cultural - NOT religious - family, her life became a crash course in contradictions: purity rings and sex-ed teachers calling girls “hoes,” a mom who said virgins are chocolates in fancy wrappers, dating a man she wasn’t attracted to for three y...

Growing up Pakistani-American in a conservative Muslim household, Hina learned early that her body was something to hide, police, and feel shame about. From a traumatic first period experience and relentless bullying, to chronic friend-zoning and a lifetime of sexualization, she spent decades feeling like sex was a party she’d never be invited to. In this raw and powerful conversation, Hina opens...

Palestinian comedian Maysoon Zayid waited until marriage to have sex (at 33 years old). Then life came at her fast. In this raw and hilarious conversation with Salma Hindy, Maysoon opens up about the emotional rollercoaster of her romantic life and how living with cerebral palsy shaped her journey. From dating a Broadway River Dancer, to enduring miscarriages and finding relief after divorce, she...

From early childhood experiences, finding out about sex, vaginismus, first experiences with girls, fantasy boy crushes, celibacy to Ayahausca and beyond, Salma Hindy shares her entire sexual journey and the intention of this podcast.  GUEST CALL OUT. Anonymity guaranteed. If you would like to be a guest on this pod, please email thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen@gmail.com with a short synopsis of you...

Find out about Salma Hindy's FIRSTS First exposure to Sex Ed First time truly learning Sex Ed First time having sex and losing virginity First time learning about Vaginismus Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy