Main Bhi Muslim

EP40 - Paving her own road towards selfhood

This MBM conversation is with Safiya Bano, a resident of Golconda Hyderabad, who is a businesswoman and beneficiary of the non-profit, SAFA’s training and micro-finance initiative. Before being supported by SAFA, Safiya worked relentlessly for 20 years, starting from stitching shirt buttons to learning to make and sell washing powder. She has single-handedly supported the education and well-being of her five children, refusing to budge to a bad marriage and taking steps to look after herself and her children despite societal constraints and economic hardships. This conversation is a window to her life and story that showcases how sheer determination and grit to survive helped Safiya navigate life, but also in her own words, having faith in Allah and not dwelling on the past, has helped her take one step after another. Through SAFA, Safiya was able to get a small loan to start her own clothing business, which she hopes to scale with a bigger loan and better investment strategies over the coming years. About SAFA: * Website: https://www.safaindia.org/ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safaindia * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/safango Related MBM episode: MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam [https://www.instagram.com/shaziasalam/] || Music by Jupneet Singh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MHQWrbAtbM] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mainbhimuslim.com [https://www.mainbhimuslim.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

EP39 - Charting one's own path & building SAFA

This MBM conversation is with social entrepreneur Rubina Nafees Fatima who is the Founder & Director of Hyderabad-based non-profit SAFA. For nearly 20 years, SAFA has been instrumental in supporting economically and socially marginalised communities in Hyderabad, through education, skill training, livelihoods, placements, and community wellbeing initiatives. How Rubina decided to start SAFA and her journey up until then is what we discuss in this episode. From her early beginnings growing across different parts of the country, being raised by a progressive father, recognising the dissonance between her family’s values and societal norms, and sticking to her north star at every stage of her life. Now in her sixties, Rubina continues to dream towards expanding SAFA’s work and impact, and in her own words is ‘raring to go.’ This Women’s Day, do give this episode a listen. About SAFA: * Website: https://www.safaindia.org/ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safaindia * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/safango Episode notes: * To learn more about the Islamic story of Safa and Marwa - Following Haajar’s Footsteps to a Feminist Reading of Islam [https://daily.jstor.org/following-haajars-footsteps-to-a-feminist-reading-of-islam/] (Aneesa Bodiat, JSTOR Daily, October 2019) * Crossing the River Musi: The Identity and Agency of Women | Rubina Nafees Fatima [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmFFh3gqfxE] (TEDxHyderabad, April 2025) * Hyderabad: ‘Only 5% Muslims in Old City slums pursue higher edu’, says survey [https://www.siasat.com/hyderabad-only-5-muslims-in-old-city-slums-pursue-higher-edu-says-survey-2553444/] (The Siasat Daily, March 2023) * 37 percent of women are single bread earners for families of which 43 percent are widows, 22 percent are divorced and 37 percent are single women abandoned by spouses. * Hijab ban: Karnataka high court upholds government order on headscarves [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-60300009] (BBC, March 2022) MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam [https://www.instagram.com/shaziasalam/] || Music by Jupneet Singh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MHQWrbAtbM] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mainbhimuslim.com [https://www.mainbhimuslim.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

EP38 - Discussing caste-consciousness & inner lives of a community

This MBM conversation is with Aiman Haque, a Delhi based researcher and writer. Through her years of growing up, working and having family across different parts of the country, Aiman shares how language, caste, history and local cultures have shaped her sense of identity and belonging. We discuss how caste manifests within Muslim communities, especially during arranged marriage discussions or in the choice of words used to address certain sections of the community. We also discuss the value of understanding the inner lives of Muslim women, in order to truly address the needs of the community as a whole. Aiman also shares what it takes to have spaces that are caste-conscious and compassionate towards every person, and find ways to expand opportunities and sense of belonging in more ways than one. Episode notes: * Panel 5: Counter-Narratives to Majoritarianism | Counter-Narratives: The MHI Conference 2025 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nv0XN0GQnQ] (YouTube, Mariwala Health Initiative, April 2025) * The forgotten riots of Bhagalpur, In Pictures [https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2014/12/31/the-forgotten-riots-of-bhagalpur] (Javed Iqbal, Al Jazeera, December 2014) * Caste and social stratification among Muslims in India [https://www.amazon.in/caste-social-stratification-among-Muslim/dp/9350025477] (edited by Imtiaz Ahmad, Aakar Books, April 2018) * The political life of Muslim caste: articulations and frictions within a Pasmanda identity [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09584935.2023.2237417] (Shireen Azam, Contemporary South Asia, July 2023) * Kerala hijab row: How a dispute between a teen and her school became a state-wide debate [https://www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/kerala-hijab-row-how-a-dispute-between-a-teen-and-her-school-became-a-state-wide-debate] (Haritha Manav, The News Minute, October 2025) * The Indian development sector has got diversity hiring all wrong [https://caravanmagazine.in/communities/indian-development-sector-diversity-hiring] (Aiman Haque, The Caravan, January 2024) * Mental Health Is Political: Institutional Violence, Marginalisation And Mental Health Policies At Work [https://feminisminindia.com/2022/05/30/mental-health-is-political-institutional-violence-marginalisation-workplace-policies/] (Aiman Haque, Feminism In India, May 2022) MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam [https://www.instagram.com/shaziasalam/] || Music by Jupneet Singh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MHQWrbAtbM] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mainbhimuslim.com [https://www.mainbhimuslim.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

EP37 - Examining Muslim representation in post-colonial Hindi cinema

This MBM conversation is with Nadira Khatun, author of the book ‘Postcolonial Bollywood and Muslim Identity: Production, Representation, and Reception’. Through this book, Nadira traces the representation of Muslim characters within Hindi cinema in post-partition India, and how the socio-political and economic factors have contributed to varied representations across decades. We discuss the influence of Bollywood on our own personal upbringings, how cinematic representations contributed to the majoritarian perceptions of the Muslim identity and its interactions with us. From films like Mughal-e-Azam and Mammo to Gully Boy and Superboys of Malegaon, we talk about the evolution of Muslim characters and what would it take to make a movie with a truly effortless Muslim representation that does not fulfil any expectation or stereotype. We also discuss the many failings of Hindi film-makers in representing Muslim women - who were either exoticised or oppressed, leaving us with the hope that there is a whole world to cover when it comes to exciting possibilities in the space of truly bebaak representations. About Nadira Khatun Nadira Khatun is associate professor at School of Communications, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. She was visiting assistant professor at McMaster University, Hamilton from January 2021 to January 2022. She has contributed to academic journals and edited volumes on social media, Bollywood and Muslim identity. Her book tilted, Postcolonial Bollywood and Muslim Identity: Production, Representation, and Reception [https://india.oup.com/product/postcolonial-bollywood-and-muslim-identity-9780198891017] was released in August 2024 with Oxford University Press, UK. Email address of corresponding author: nadira.khatun@gmail.com [nadira.khatun@gmail.com] Episode notes: * ‘Exoticised, alienised, villainised’: A book looks at how Muslims have been portrayed in Hindi films [https://scroll.in/reel/1081541/exoticised-alienised-villainised-a-book-looks-at-how-muslims-have-been-portrayed-in-hindi-films] (Nandini Ramnath, Scroll, June 2025) * Ghettoisation, Crime and Punishment in Mumbai [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261890727_Ghettoisation_Crime_and_Punishment_in_Mumbai] (Abdul Shaban, Economic and Political Weekly, 2008) * Jain, Ranu, and Shaban, Abdul (1999). Socio Economic and Educational Status of Muslims in Mumbai. A Research Report, Submitted to the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission. Mumbai: Government of Maharashtra. * Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo123638330.html] (Edited by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen, The University of Chicago Press, 2021) * To Be Seen Whole: Blackness, Muslimness, and the Politics of Art [https://topibechwa.substack.com/p/to-be-seen-whole] (Topibechwa’s Substack, May 2025) * Links to certain films discussed in the conversation: * Mammo [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110449/] (1994) * Garm Hava [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073034/] (1974) * Mughal-e-Azam [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054098/] (1960) * Umrao Jaan [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083248/] (1981) * Pakeezah [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067546/] (1972) * Bebaak [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8991706/] (2018) * Dhadak 2 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13451410/] (2025) * Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241914/] (1989) * Gully Boy [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395469/] (2019) * Darlings [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14152140/] (2022) * Superboys of Malegaon [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28007064/] (2024) * Supermen of Malegaon [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1479380/] (2008) * Jawan [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15354916/] (2023) * Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1562872/](2011) * Coolie [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085361/] (1983) MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam [https://www.instagram.com/shaziasalam/] || Music by Jupneet Singh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MHQWrbAtbM] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mainbhimuslim.com [https://www.mainbhimuslim.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

EP36 - Nurturing a resilient future through faith, memory and community

This MBM conversation with Zara Chowdhary, author of the memoir The Lucky Ones - a survivor’s account of the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom. The book is a deeply personal story of Zara and her family whose roots and history are entwined within the soil and soul of the Indian subcontinent, but also the trauma that speaks through the family, especially the women across generations. Zara’s writing is intimate, visceral and soul-stirring, with each page offering truth and dignity to every relationship she writes about, evoking a deep sense of humanity that we most often refuse to acknowledge even within ourselves. We talk about that and many other things including the ways faith informs her interactions with the people and communities she chooses to be part of. About Zara Chowdhary Zara Chowdhary is a writer and educator in the US. She has an MA in writing for performance from the University of Leeds, and an MFA in creative writing and Environment from Iowa State University. She has previously worked behind the camera for studios like Red Chillies Entertainment, Vinod Chopra Films, Eros Entertainment and others. Her debut, The Lucky Ones, a first by any survivor of the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom, released in the US last year to critical acclaim. It was a PEN America finalist, and a Time Magazine Top Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Year, as well as a Best Book by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, People Magazine, Esquire, Electric Literature and others. In India, The Lucky Ones released in September 2024, and has become a nonfiction bestseller, winning the prestigious Shakti Bhatt Prize 2024, and currently long-listed for the Ramnath Goenka Sahitya Samman. Zara teaches creative writing and South Asian studies at the University of Iowa. MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam [https://www.shaziasalam.com/] || Music by Jupneet Singh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MHQWrbAtbM] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mainbhimuslim.com [https://www.mainbhimuslim.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]