The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women

This week, Salma sits down with Pakistani trans woman, celebrity makeup artist and content creator Ayman to talk about the extraordinary journey that led her to becoming the woman she always knew she was. As a child, Ayman had a recurring dream about a mysterious girl she could never quite see…until years later, after transitioning, she realized the woman she had been chasing was herself. Ayman opens up about growing up between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.; experimenting with femininity and makeup from childhood; being put on testosterone as a teenager in an attempt to make her more masculine; coming out to her family; losing their financial support and experiencing homelessness; surviving abuse and sexual assault; and eventually building a career and online community for queer and trans South Asians who had never seen themselves represented. At the heart of the conversation is also the grief of growing up without the unconditional love you needed from a parent. Ayman shares the devastating moment that changed her relationship with her mother forever, and she and Salma talk about what it means to grow up, grieve the mother you needed, and eventually learn to care for the child inside you yourself. They also talk about Islam, Hajj, family rejection and reconciliation, the hypersexualization of trans women, and why, at 36, Ayman still considers herself a virgin. For Ayman, sex isn't about marriage or purity. It's about finally loving the body she fought to make her own, feeling completely safe with another person, and knowing that sometimes, love simply isn't enough. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Special Guest: Ayman Syed Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Makeup: Ayman Syed Artwork: Rana Omar Social Media Intern: Noor Jehan Ansari Grants & Sponsorship Intern: Christina Saoud © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

What really happens in the Muslim Students Association? Was the MSA a place of belonging, or a place where everyone learned how to hide? In the podcast’s first-ever panel episode, Salma Hindy is joined by Rania Hannan and Noor Jehan Ansari to unpack the halal, the haram, and the VERY haram of MSA culture, featuring YOUR submitted stories. Each woman had a very different experience inside Muslim student communities: from finding friendship, belonging, and leadership opportunities to experiencing judgment, exclusion, and religious policing. This episode explores: gender segregation haram police marriage and flirting culture secret relationships sexual repression queer inclusion the wildly different standards placed on Muslim men and women. Rania felt judged and excluded from her high school MSA, lost her virginity to the MSA president, who gave her STDs while publicly preaching about how everyone else should NOT be having sex. Meanwhile, he was hooking up with multiple women and knew exactly how to sneak them into his house without the stairs creaking. This experience pushed her further away from the Muslim community, The most recent graduate, Noor Jehan helped rebuild her MSA after COVID. She navigated debates around gender and inclusion, and fought to create a Muslim community that actually felt welcoming, especially to queer Muslims, while facing reluctance from her university to provide Muslim students with resources. Salma grew up in a Muslim bubble, where your entire social world is Muslim and interacting with anyone outside of it is foreign. As an MSA leader, she went from trying to convert people on campus to watching everyone around her get married in their early 20s and wondering why she couldn’t do the same. Ten years later, she’s heard from some of those women whose lives she once idolized, and learned some of them regret the paths they took. Salma also unpacks what it’s like growing up in a Muslim bubble, when your entire social world is Muslim and interacting with anyone outside of it can feel completely foreign. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Associate Producer: Noor Jehan Ansari Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar Social Media Intern: Noor Jehan Ansari Grants & Sponsorship Intern: Christina Saoud © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

We are spilling the tea, honey! On the surface, this is the story of the guy Salma lost her virginity to. But it's really the story of what happened after she lost her family. A few months after taking off her hijab and moving to New York completely alone, Salma found herself in Dahab, Egypt, where she met a 24-year-old hotel owner who would unknowingly become the person she would lose her virginity to. In this episode, she shares the full story: the spontaneous one-night stand that became her first sexual relationship at 30, returning to Egypt at 31 on a mission to lose her virginity, and the emotional spiral that followed. But beneath the romance is something much deeper. Losing her family, followed by losing her virginity, cracked open a level of grief she didn't know she was carrying. Sex didn't just change her relationship to intimacy. It became the portal through which years of abandonment, religious shame, loneliness, and unresolved trauma came rushing to the surface. Looking back, she unpacks everything she couldn't see at the time: how complex PTSD, never having dated before, and growing up in a high-control religious environment caused her to confuse chemistry with safety, fantasy with reality, and attention with love. She also explores anxious attachment, "preemptive exclusivity," finally having penetrative sex after years of vaginismus, and the painful difference between what actually happened... and the story she was telling herself. This is one of the most vulnerable episodes of The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women yet because it introduces a version of Salma that only her closest friends have ever known: the insecure, obsessive, terrified romantic underneath the confident comedian. If you've ever fallen for someone's potential, mistaken chemistry for love, or realized the imprint of your father was shaping the partners you chose, this episode is for you. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar Social Media Intern: Noor Jehan Ansari Grants & Sponsorship Intern: Christina Saoud © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

What happens after the hijab comes off? In this deeply personal solo episode, Salma Hindy shares the year-long journey between deciding to remove her hijab and finally taking it off publicly. She opens up about the immense pressure she put on herself to do it before turning 30, the secret double life she lived during that transition, and the fear that she would lose everything that had defined her. She reflects on questioning her faith, navigating family expectations, announcing her intentions of removing the hijab for the first time on stage, and rebuilding her identity from the ground up. From discovering her natural curls for the first time to wondering whether she was even funny without the hijab, Salma shares what it felt like to perform stand-up comedy without the identity that had shaped both her life and her career for over two decades. She shares the late-night rooftop moments that changed her, the panic attacks before posting the announcement, why she kept wearing the hijab on stage after taking it off in real life, the backlash from her community, and what it was actually like to rebuild her confidence, sexuality, friendships, comedy career, and identity from scratch. Conservative communities often assume that leaving religion means your life will fall apart. Western society often assumes that leaving means instant liberation. The reality is much less glamorous. You start from scratch. You have to discover who you are without the safety blanket of the hijab as your identity. You have to figure out what you actually believe, how you want to dress, what your hair really looks like, whether you're still funny, how you want to date, and what kind of life you want to build. The non-traditional path isn't easier than the traditional one. It's just different. Instead of following someone else's rules, you now have to write your own. It doesn't automatically make you free. It gives you more choices, more uncertainty, and more responsibility. Every decision becomes yours. The reality is…you're probably not going to become a homeless heroin addict. You're probably not going to become Kim Kardashian either. You're just going to become yourself. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Associate Producer: Noor Jehan Ansari Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar Social Media Intern: Noor Jehan Ansari Grants & Sponsorship Intern: Christina Saoud © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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-Muslim men). Aisha shares her journey with pelvic floor dysfunction, painful sex, vaginismus, and the mind-body connection, including how trauma, anxiety, suppressed emotions, and inherited beliefs around sex showed up in her body. Despite living with vaginismus and other pelvic floor conditions, Aisha is able to have penetrative sex in ways that actually feel good. She talks about building a sex life rooted in communication, curiosity, and play, and how having a patient, loving partner helped her expand intimacy beyond pressure and performance. Unlike many women with vaginismus, Aisha’s husband puts absolutely no pressure on her, and that safety has been a catalyst for deeper intimacy and healing. Aisha also opens up about her miscarriage and the complicated relief she felt after months of excruciating pain during pregnancy. That experience led her to listen to and care for her body more deeply, and to question what motherhood could look like for her: alternate paths to building a family, becoming a motherly figure in other ways, or choosing a child-free future with her husband. Together, Salma and Aisha talk about religious deconstruction, sexual shame, pelvic floor healing, miscarriage, motherhood, marriage, somatic tools to regulate your nervous system when triggered, and the terrifying freedom of realizing that you can change your life. Whether it’s a relationship, a job, a friendship, a family expectation, or a version of womanhood you inherited, this episode is about learning to trust your body when it says: this is not working anymore. Listen to your f*cking body. She knows. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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, and transformative. Across multiple ceremonies led by facilitators, shamans, and complete chaos in the Sinai desert, Salma describes purging grief from her body, revisiting childhood wounds, confronting her relationship to men and “the male energy,” and uncovering disturbing patterns surrounding shame, consent, religion, and silence within Muslim families. The episode also explores the emotional aftermath of loss, creative collapse, romantic heartbreak, and the search for spiritual meaning during periods of deep isolation. This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, trauma, religion, mental health, plant medicine, and family abuse. It also somehow includes: Quran played during ayahuasca ceremonies, hot tattooed Egyptians, shared puke buckets in the desert, a Brazilian shaman threatening to cancel a retreat, a Taylor Swift ego death moment, and Salma sobbing over a 21-year-old while being held by a man who looked like he walked off the set of Gladiator. Proceed carefully. Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, marital coercion, family trauma, religion, mental health, and plant medicine. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 to her family twice - first through a handwritten letter, and years later again over the phone - this is a story about love, identity, and the cost of living your truth. Later in the episode, her partner Taylor joins to share what it’s been like navigating this journey together. A powerful conversation on love, belonging, and breaking generational patterns. To learn more about Spozhmi’s work, visit lovenaturally.ca HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Written By: Salma Hindy Edited By: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 the hijab was tied to much more than modesty. Salma reflects on growing up loving the hijab, the comfort and identity it gave her, and what began to surface when she started questioning religion, power, hypocrisy, and her own autonomy. She opens up about the first time she ever went out without it, the fear she carried around her father, the grief of disappointing her family, and the devastation that followed choosing herself. She also speaks to the beauty that still exists in her relationship to Islam, and why this story is not about rejecting her faith, but about being honest about what this journey has actually cost her. One of Salma’s most intimate episodes yet, this is a conversation about faith, identity, family, and the courage it takes to choose yourself - even when it changes everything. This episode is for the Muslim girls. I love you. HELP KEEP THE POD ALIVE FOR 2026, DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Associate Producer: Rania Harris Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Writer: Salma Hindy Editor: Luke Davis Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women, 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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, pleasure, power, and the way so many women have been taught to disconnect from themselves. Salma shares her full journey: from experiencing searing pain during her first sexual encounter, to navigating dilators, hookups, injury, and slowly finding her way to pleasure and confidence. Janelle breaks down why vaginismus is both physical and psychological, why so many treatments fall short, and how women can heal faster when they’re actually taught how to understand and trust their bodies. She shares that most of the women she works with are married . Many of them struggle in silence for years, unable to consummate their relationships. And yes, healing is possible for everyone: one woman was finally able to have sex after 16 years of marriage…in cowgirl! Janelle’s 5-step approach to healing includes: acknowledging fear and pain patterns, understanding and releasing the pelvic floor, guided dilation and tissue work, rebuilding confidence, and safely transitioning to penetration with a partner. This episode is for the Muslim girlies everywhere navigating vaginismus in silence - carrying shame, confusion, and pressure without the language or support to understand what’s happening in your body. You are not alone in this. There is nothing wrong with you. In the words of Dr. Janelle, “ your body is not broken, it’s bougie. ” Healing is possible for you, so long as you have an obnoxious amount of hope. Donate to our GoFundMe to keep the pod afloat for 2026: https://gofund.me/f646f3082 CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Associate Producer: Rania Harris Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha Writer: Salma Hindy Editor: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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. And when things started to feel intimate…she panicked. For the first time, she explores her avoidant attachment - not the anxious narrative she used to blame men for, but the part of her that burns things down when they get too good. She opens up about how she pushed away Joaquin (the only man in America she’s slept with), how she sabotaged her friendship with Didi, and how her nervous system (dysregulated, grieving, and terrified of real intimacy) made her mistake sweetness for danger. This episode includes excerpts from letters exchanged between Salma and her therapist as they closed two years of therapy together. It’s raw. It’s recent. And it’s the most honest she’s been about her patterns. She talks about: Growing up in dysfunction and confusing chaos for connection Why her avoidance shows up when things are going well, NOT during conflict Trauma bonding vs. true intimacy Sexual imprinting, jealousy, and nervous system dysregulation Celibacy after heartbreak and assault Learning to “stay” instead of explode The difference between chasing unavailable men and allowing real love to bloom Being the first woman in her bloodline to choose a life not structured around marriage Now, Salma is in uncharted territory: practicing slowness, living in her present reality in New York, and allowing a new connection to unfold without control, sabotage, or fantasy. This episode is a love letter to Joaquin & Didi. I’m sorry I lost you. Recorded February 16, the last day of The Year of the Snake. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Associate Producer: Rania Harris Writer & Editor: Salma Hindy Studio: 30 Irving Studios Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2026 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 through marriage. Despite being asexual and aromantic - and having no interest in men - she was taught that the only way out of her parents’ house was as a wife. What followed was a years-long attempt to do everything right: changing careers (from architecture to engineering to teaching) to appear more “wife-friendly,” tolerating constant scrutiny, and engaging in the arranged marriage process as an exit strategy rather than a desire. That path ultimately led to a breaking point when Fatima was GHOSTED AT HER KATB KITAB (Islamic Wedding) and then blamed by her parents, accused of wrongdoing, and subjected to even more control. It was then that she realized what so many adult children eventually learn: there is no finish line, no amount of obedience that guarantees peace, and no way to make your parents happy by sacrificing yourself. In this episode, Fatima walks us through the practical, financial, and emotional steps she took to move out of her parents’ house, including how she secretly saved money, planned her exit, managed guilt, and rebuilt her life afterward. Salma weaves in her own experience of individuation, grief, and the disorienting freedom that comes after leaving and rebuilding a life without parental guardrails. This conversation is for anyone who keeps asking, “How do I actually get out?” If this episode stirs up anger, grief, or urgency in you, that doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful. It means you’re waking up. This is a pillar episode of the podcast. If you listen to only one, let it be this one. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 following the assault: not anger that he crossed her boundaries, but sadness that he had left. She walks through the reality of sex clubs and sex parties beyond fantasy: leaving phones at the door, navigating explicitly sexual environments without pressure to participate, and choosing observation over access. Salma speaks candidly about vaginismus, bodily boundaries, two years of celibacy, and how her body understands trust long before her mind does. Despite what happened in Berlin, she still chose to attend a sex party in Beverly Hills a month later: a very different experience shaped by a consent assembly, brief but confronting eye-contact exercises, and an atmosphere built around communication rather than coercion. There was also the frivolous indulgence: getting her first STD test, watching a close friend have a threesome, rope performers, sensual complimentary massages, squirting competitions, kinky dungeons, queer kisses, and being offered lots of drugs (a sex-party love language). With humor, softness, and clarity, Salma explores the difference between sexual freedom and sexual obligation, what safety actually feels like in sexual spaces, why being in a sexual environment doesn’t mean owing anyone access to your body, and why wanting tenderness (even in the most explicit environments) isn’t naïve, but deeply human. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Ian Ritter Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Writer: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 growing up Berber (Amazigh) in a strict Moroccan household in Florida: from being punished for harmless physical contact with the opposite gender, to enduring violence and religious guilt, to getting into Yale, exploring his sexuality and cutting off his parents for his own survival, to eventually being disowned after coming out. Salma opens up about calling child services on her abusive brother-in-law, losing access to her nephews, and the real reason her family cut her off (hint: it wasn’t the hijab - it was her sexuality). She also shares her father’s iconic line, “Let’s just agree the gays are going to hell,” and her equally iconic clapback. Together they explore: how repression destroys entire generations Muslim queerness vs. white queerness whether you must abandon culture or family to live authentically what Islam actually says about sexuality the obsession with top/bottom labels vaginismus vs. bottoming fear indigenous Amazigh tattoo traditions breaking cycles of violence and shame finding chosen family and safer community the privilege and danger of “coming out” in MENA contexts This episode is a portal: painful, funny, deeply human, and radically liberating. It's a love letter to everyone raised on fear who is now trying to build a life rooted in truth. This episode is dedicated to Salma’s 17 nieces and nephews - she loves you no matter what. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Patrick Samaha Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 beaten and belittled, and a nervous system that learned to survive before it ever felt safe. Years later, after surviving addiction, rebellion, and trying to rebuild her life, Sara faced her second heartbreak: her siblings kicked her out, called her a “cunt,” turned their faces away from her, and left her estranged for seven years. Sara calls that day her crucifixion - the moment her entire family abandoned her. We talk about: surviving childhood sexual abuse; watching violence erupt daily in her home; EMDR, trauma healing, and nervous system recovery; being disowned and estranged by her siblings; losing her mother to heartbreak after divorce; addiction, double lives, rebellion, survival; and raising a child while reparenting her own inner child. Sara is the Arab daughter who refused to stay silent. The one reparenting her nervous system after a lifetime of flinching at yelling, and healing from the violence we were told to normalize. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 adult stardom, while navigating devastating loss - the sudden death of her older sister, her mother’s passing from cancer - and the complicated family dynamics of building a career her father chooses not to acknowledge. This episode dives into grief, bisexuality, exclusion, and power. Jasmine tears up imagining what her late mother might say if she could see her now, and reflects on feeling unwelcome in her New Orleans Muslim community throughout childhood, the waves of “coming out,” and why sex work became the first place she truly belonged. Unapologetically bold, Jasmine’s story is proof that what daddy doesn’t know can become your greatest power. And that every woman in our lineage has brought us to this moment…so that we may do whatever the f*ck we want. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Ian Ritter Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 what it means to navigate desire, boundaries, and shame in Muslim and South Asian households. Together, Salma and Aleeyaa cover it all: Why Muslim women have their “teen years” in their 30s The triangle of sexual health: health, rights, and pleasure Kissing as the most intimate act (even more than sex) Best and worst hookup stories (including a condom fail disaster) Why rejection feels existential and how to own your desire anyway The pressure of friends’ choices, hookup culture, and consensus-building How pleasure isn’t just sex, but a way of living Salma shares her funniest and most vulnerable stories: from sobbing after casual rejection to her best night of sex that didn’t even involve sex, while Aleeyaa reminds us that figuring it out IS the agency. Salma and Aleeyaa also talk about the role of friends : the sacredness of attraction, asking your girls to step back from someone you like, and learning how to protect and voice your own desire without shame. If you’ve ever been friendzoned your whole life, carried shame around desire, or struggled to balance sexual liberation with cultural expectations, this episode is proof that figuring it out IS the agency. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Ian Ritter Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 her first orgasm through Tumblr blogs, teaching herself piece by piece. Later, she earned a master’s degree in finance, only to leave corporate America behind to follow her curiosity into OnlyFans, Fetlife, adult conventions, and eventually the adult film industry. Today, three years in, she has over a million Instagram followers and 53M views on Pornhub. In this conversation, Sarah gets candid about the self-conversations that helped her shed guilt and shame and the way she’s built a career entirely on her own terms. She shares her philosophy that curiosity - not clout - is her compass, and why “the second prn feels like work is the beginning of my downfall.” We talk consent, boundaries, and risk, with Sarah’s refreshingly practical view: there’s always risk, in life and in sex, but each person gets to decide how much they’re willing to take. Highlights include: - How exploring the kink community shaped Sarah’s boundaries in porn - What happens if you change your mind mid-shoot - Sarah’s perspective on what makes sex sacred - Her experiences traveling to shoot - Why she loves staying single with a wide net of partners - Why she won’t perform acts that aren’t her kink - Her aftercare rituals - Her perspective on Mia Khalifa’s legacy - Whether the community will ever “take you back” after stepping outside its norms Plus: Salma admits to watching one of Sarah’s videos, and Sarah shares her wildest DM request. Salma also opens up about her celibacy and the fears she carries around sex. They also dive into the only moral regret in Salma’s career, and her dream of one day directing feminist porn. Sarah’s wish for other women is that they see her and think, “I can do whatever I want.” CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Ian Ritter Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 the kitchen, and even locked her on the balcony. Yet two days later, she found herself baking him lasagna and chocolate cake, caught in the grip of trauma bonding. When he later sued her for custody of their dog and won, and began pursuing defamation lawsuits against her, Hedya was left financially drained but still fighting to reclaim her voice. In this raw conversation, Hedya speaks openly about reparenting herself, navigating the push and pull of being Arab-American, and learning to reconnect with her body and self-worth after years of shame. Salma reflects on her own experiences with domestic violence growing up, as well as the heartbreak and frustration of watching a friend remain in an abusive relationship, and why society still struggles to support survivors unless they fit the mold of a “perfect victim.” Together, they unpack the messy realities of faith, family, abuse, and survival and the courage it takes to finally take your power back. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producer: Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Patrick Samaha Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 Why couples therapy doesn’t work without a foundation Being “relationship young” and learning through mistakes Why Yasmin insists Salma should never date a comedian (aka dating outside your lane) Small icks that don’t matter vs. real incompatibility How porn and swiping addictions wreck dopamine No more ghosting! And what to do instead Why you have to leave the house to meet people Yasmin’s rule: every married couple should introduce six single friends to each other They also get real about heartbreak, celibacy, high standards, and why marriage isn’t the goal, God is. Whether single, dating, or already married, Yasmin shares wisdom on how to build love rooted in integrity, faith, and joy. CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producers: Salma Hindy & Sara Hussain Cinematographer: Tomas Liebel Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

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 instead of helping, to being date-raped at 19 when her repeated “no”s were ignored. What followed was a decade of trauma work, divorce, and reclaiming her voice. Today, she roars her boundaries. Like on her most recent Muzzmatch date, where he tried to kiss her after she’d already refused twice, and she shouted, “No means no. Did you not hear me the first two times?” before he cartoon-drove off in fear. Together, Salma and Sarzana unpack the infamous hadith that says if a wife refuses her husband in bed, the angels curse her until morning. Salma reflects on how this teaching has been weaponized to manipulate women into non-consensual sex, while Sarzana explains how it disconnected her from her own body - even when she was eager, her husband questioned whether she was doing it for herself or just for God. The conversation spans father wounds, how patience from a lover can be the ultimate turn-on, and the radical power of saying no. Salma recalls learning the mantra “If it’s not a fuck yes, it’s a no” at sex clubs - and adds her own gospel: “If you don’t go down on women but expect them to go down on you, you can die.” And a message to Desi men everywhere from Sarzana: “if you want your wife to be a freak in the sheets, get out of your parents’ homes.” CREDITS: Host & Creator: Salma Hindy Executive Producers: Sara Hussain & Salma Hindy Cinematographer: Patrick Samaha Studio: 30 Irving Studios Editor: Salma Hindy Artwork: Rana Omar © The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women , 2025 Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy