Me & My Muslim Friends

Our final episode of our Changemakers season is with Sarah Ahmed — a psychotherapist and CEO of Leena, a national mental health practice that addresses the unique needs of communities of color across Canada. She can be found sharing her expertise online @thepoctherapist through her popular accounts on Tiktok and Instagram.

Today, we’ll be talking to Sarah about why having access to therapists of color is so important, how her own background informs her approach and supports her clients, and the importance of community for healing trauma.

Joining me in the co-host seat is my childhood friend Samia Zitawi, who is Palestinian American.

This season we’re featuring Muslim Changemakers—people whose work has had an extraordinary impact in our community and beyond. And I’m so excited to share our conversation with outdoors enthusiast Ambreen Tariq. Her mission is to encourage Muslims and people of color to experience the natural world. She’s the creator of the wildly popular instagram account Brown People Camping and author of the children’s book Fatima’s  Great Outdoors.

My co-host is Dr. Ali Jaffry—a Raleigh-based optometrist and someone who also happens to love travel and camping.

This season on Me & My Muslim Friends, we’re featuring conversations with Changemakers. And on this episode, we’re sitting down with Kashif Shaikh, philanthropist and co-founder of the Pillars Fund. We’ll talk about the characterizations of Muslims in TV + film after 9/11 and how Pillars is backing Muslim filmmakers and writers in an effort to change the narrative.

On this episode of Me & My Muslim Friends, we chat with Ronnie Malley, a Chicago-based musician and playwright whose work often focuses on the untold stories of Muslims. We’ll find out how he became a master of a traditional instrument called the oud, how Muslim slaves influenced the blues, and how his Palestinian heritage shapes nearly every part of his storytelling. We’ll also talk about his more recent work on the soundtrack of the Netflix series Mo, which features comedian Mo Amer.

My co-host is friend Aina Khan, who is a journalist with AJ+.

This season we’re featuring Muslim Changemakers—people whose work has had an extraordinary impact in our community and beyond—and I’m so excited to share our conversation with Melanie Elturk. Melanie is the CEO of Haute Hijab, which she founded in 2010.

We’ll talk about the inspiration behind her work, the joys and challenges of building a major business, and how Haute Hijab has transformed access to modest wear in the United States.

Joining me in the co-host chair for this episode is my childhood friend, Salma Ibrahim.

Today’s guest is someone I’ve been SO eager to have on the podcast. Her name is Sameera Qureshi, and she is a therapist and founder of Sexual Health for Muslims. Her approach to sex education, therapy, and health is grounded in the Islamic framework and the Islamic understanding of the soul.

Unfortunately, most Muslims don’t have access to a comprehensive sex education growing up. We’ll dive into the consequences of that, and we’ll talk about some of the most common issues Sameera hears in her counseling practice.

Join host Yasmin Bendaas and her friends as they chat with Muslim changemakers on the joys and challenges of making a difference in the Muslim community and beyond. From philanthropists to CEOs, our Season 4 guests have built their visions for change from the ground up. Listen to new episodes of Me & My Muslim Friends starting on May 1, 2024. Whether or not you have a Muslim friend, you'll find one here.

In the final episode of our Faith, Ritual and Spirituality season, we explore Islamic practices around death. Friend Tasbeeh Othman shares her experience helping with ritual washing of the body before burial and Dr. Hamdy Radwan joins us to explain Muslim funeral rites along with the age old question: What do we believe happens to us when we die?

In this episode we discuss the fifth and final pillar of Islam: Hajj. Friend Yosef Nofal joins to share his personal experiences of the holy pilgrimage and Dr. Youssef Carter, Professor of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, examines the spiritual meaning of going through Hajj rituals.

In this episode we discuss the third pillar of Islam: charity. Duke University professor Dr. Mona Hassan joins us to discuss the religious requirements and context behind Islamic giving while Ahmad Quqa of Edward Jones brings a financial advisor's perspective to making halal investments.