It's that time of year again! Ramadan Mubarak to all of our listeners around the world. We hope your month has gotten off to a great start. A special shout out to those living far north of the equator, as here in London our daylight hours are expanding far beyond what our producers are used to.

Hena is a Rotary International Global Grant Scholar and Masters student at the London School of Economics. She's from Dallas, Texas, and she was born and raised Muslim. She is the first woman we have profiled on the Hijabi Diaries who does not wear a hijab.

Hena tells us stories of her time growing up as one of three Muslim girls in her public school track (one of the other girls was her sister), developing her own private devotion to Islam in her young adulthood, and navigating the culture of London mosques during Ramadans past and present. Hena studies Social Policy at LSE, and looks forward to a career working on political campaigns.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

Raabiyah has been an activist for as long as she can remember. The first time her mother brought her to a protest against the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people, she remembers asking why they were going. Her mother told her that these were Turkish people, like them, who were being mistreated in their home country, and that their mistreatment could not be ignored. Raabiya talks to us about the situation in China. She discusses her journey to taking a leadership role, in university activism, for the first time. Raabiya created and continues to develop the KCL4UYGHUR campaign and club at King's College London. Find them on Twitter.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

Welcome to a series of special episodes of the Hijabi Diaries! Over the coming months, we will be bringing you a series of interviews from our sisters in London, England, in the UK. If you are a listener, a practicing Muslim, identify as female, and would like to be interviewed for the podcast - please contact us(!) at [email protected].

Chifa is a performing artist from North London. She recently went through a year of growth and transition, in which her faith grew enormously. She tells us about this growth, and shares her feelings about hijabi representation in media and advertising.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

In this Part II of Autumn's story, we talk about her journey to converting to Islam, which started amongst the company of good friends in her teenage years, and continued into adulthood as she began to discover who she was. Autumn also talks about ways prejudice has impacted her life, and how she deals with it when it does.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

During this episode we meet Autumn, who tells us about her work as an early childhood educator. She talks about the hurdles she sees many kids facing as they grow, including ones that seem pre-determined based on their race and their family's socio-economic situation. Autumn speaks about the innocence of young minds, and how their youth presents an opportunity to instils life-long values of kindness, respect for diversity, and an open acceptance of differences.

This is one of two episodes featuring stories from our friend Autumn.

Later in the episode, we hear a short, hilarious story from our friend Abi. Abi told this story, of prejudice, community, and resilience, at the Ivy Tech Storytelling Series: On Race live storytelling event, in 2018.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

This is the only episode of the Hijabi Diaries that doesn't involve a profile on a Muslim woman. During this episode, we take a break from our regular programming to speak with a former Supreme Court clerk, now a Law Professor at the IU Maurer School of Law, Ian Samuel. Samuel talks to us about the recent upholding of the Trump Administration's travel ban by the 2018 US Supreme Court, with a particular focus on its predicted impact on Muslim Americans. This travel ban will limit travel and immigration from 7 Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East. Samuel discusses the parallels that can be drawn between the case of Trump v. Hawaii (the case associated with the Travel Ban), and one of the most infamous Supreme Court cases of all time, Korematsu.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in partnership with the Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia. Aubrey Seader is our executive producer, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin and co-producer Anna Maidi. Music heard on the podcast includes Baraka Blue's "Love and Light." Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes. Learn more the Hijabi Diaries at www.hijabidiaries.com.

Today on the podcast, Sherry shares some thoughts about her transformation from a shy young Egyptian-American girl who felt totally alienated in a culture so often suspicious of Arab people, to a woman determined to stand in her own power, make her own decisions (from what to wear, to what to listen to, and when to speak her truth), and let no one look down on her or her hijabi sisters.

We also have the story of two friends who teamed up with an amazing cast of collaborators to make music for children and their families. Dena El-Safaar and Maggie Olivo talk about the release of the new BloomingSongs album, on July 14th, 2018, and about the music video for El-Safaar's original song "Ya Sadiqi" (Oh, my friend!).

For more on the Hijabi Diaries, visit our website at www.hijabidiaries.com.

Today on the podcast, we have a story of love. It's a story of growth and of coming of age. It's a story of two people coming to understand themselves better, and of them both finding a way back to loving one another, even if they don't totally understand each other's choices. It's also, more simply, the story of a father and a daughter.

A warning that this episode deals with issues of addiction, depression, and anxiety. It also makes mention of an attempted suicide. These themes may not be suitable for all ages, so if you are listening with children we ask you to use your discretion. For alternative episodes of the Hijabi Diaries that are more suitable for children, visit our website at www.hijabidiaries.com.

In this episode of the Hijabi Diaries, Abi shares her updates from the field in her Ramadan Diaries 2018 (which you can also access on our website, www.hijabidiaries.com), which share what Ramadan is like for this hijabi, teacher, and mother of three. 

Also, we talk with Anna Maidi, our co-producer, about how motherhood changed Ramadan for her. Anna hasn't observed the Ramadan fast in 7 years as she's given birth to and nursed her three sons. She finds it hard to accept God's mercy for her inability to carry out his commands, even though she understands that as a new mother the Qu'ran exempts her from participating in the Ramadan fasting. 

Religious Studies scholar and Indiana University PhD candidate Dale Spicer talks to us about the origins of Ramadan, why fasting is such a popular activity across many world religions, and about the medical community's interest in the benefits and detriments of fasting. 

Credits:

The Hijabi Diaries is Produced by Aubrey Seader, with help from WFHB News Director Wes Martin.

Aubrey Seader hosted this episode.

The Hijabi Diaries is produced in association with The Openhearted Campaign to End Islamophobia.

The newest episode of the Hijabi Diaries, "Upstanders and Up-standing," was originally created in April of 2017, and reflects on the effects of the 2016 Presidential elections on local Muslim people, as well as the rise in hate crimes following the election, and how Hoosiers across the state are taking their neighbors' safety into their own hands (and sometimes with them into state-level legislative sessions).