WHY I TOOK MY HIJAB OFF AFTER 23 YEARS

FINDING MY IDENTITY AFTER HIJAB

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 [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 [https://www.instagram.com/thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen/] YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen [https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretSexLivesOfMuslimWomen] HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy [https://www.instagram.com/salma.hindy/] HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy [https://www.tiktok.com/@salma.hindy]

LISTEN TO YOUR F*CKING BODY!

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 [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 [https://www.instagram.com/thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen/] YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen [https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretSexLivesOfMuslimWomen] HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy [https://www.instagram.com/salma.hindy/] HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy [https://www.tiktok.com/@salma.hindy]

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO ME ON AYAHUASCA

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 [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 [https://www.instagram.com/thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen/] YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen [https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretSexLivesOfMuslimWomen] HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy [https://www.instagram.com/salma.hindy/] HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy [https://www.tiktok.com/@salma.hindy]

FROM AN AFGHAN ARRANGED MARRIAGE TO A 10-YEAR LESBIAN LOVE STORY

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 [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 [https://www.instagram.com/thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen/] YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen [https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretSexLivesOfMuslimWomen] HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy [https://www.instagram.com/salma.hindy/] HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy [https://www.tiktok.com/@salma.hindy]

WHY I TOOK MY HIJAB OFF AFTER 23 YEARS

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 [https://www.instagram.com/thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen/] YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen [https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretSexLivesOfMuslimWomen] HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy [https://www.instagram.com/salma.hindy/] HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy [https://www.tiktok.com/@salma.hindy]