The Village Auntie herself, Angelica Lindsey-Ali, joins us to discuss the importance of owning your sexual health and finding spaces to explore issues around intimacy, pleasure and womanhood.

GUEST: Angelica Lindsey-Ali, @villageauntie, is a community scholar whose research interests include the West African roots of African American Islamic identity and the role of sacred sexuality within West and East African cultures. She is a certified sexual health educator has been working in the field of public health for the last 15 years and has been providing 1-on-1 support to women for 20+ years.

This week, we talk about what it feels like to be recognized in public and the special brand of online vitriol that is reserved just for women. Plus Dalia Mogahed chats with us about whether the costs of being a Muslim woman with a public profile outweigh the benefits and shares what motivates her to keep going, despite the backlash.

Guest: Dalia Mogahed, @DMogahed, is the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, where she leads the organization’s pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. She is a frequent expert commentator in global media outlets and international forums. With John L. Esposito, Dalia co-authored the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think and was appointed to President Obama’s advisory council on faith-based and neighborhood partnerships in 2009. Dalia’s 2016 TED talk was named one of the top TED talks that year. She is also the CEO of Mogahed Consulting.

When you’re looking to get deeper in your faith there a lot of options out there from meditation to yoga to spiritual retreats, how do you navigate it all? Reoccurring guest Joshua Abdul Haqq (aka Ikhlas’ husband) comes on the show to talk about his forthcoming podcast, “Three Stations of the Deen,” and why he decided to take up the spiritual path (tariqa). Makkah’s nephew, Tariq, also comes back on the show to share tips on how to maintain your Qur’an study.

To mark the halfway point of Ramadan we check in on how we’re doing on those #RamadanGoals and chat with actor, comedian, and writer Ramy Youssef about how his Ramadan has been going in the wake of the release of his new Hulu show Ramy, what his hopes are for show, and the challenges and opportunities that we face when trying to tell our stories.

Ramadan Mubarak! To kick off this year’s series, we reflect on the last decade of summertime fasts and our girl Samira Abderahman joins us to talk about Black Iftar, why she created it and the importance of leaving room for Black joy in Ramadan.

Ikhlas and Makkah chat about how Muslims talk about Muslims, how Hollywood talks about Muslims and have Besheer Mohamed, Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center, to tell us what the data says about Muslims. What we’re looking to find out: what’s really good for the ummah?

We list our favorite films from 2018 and filmmaker Nijla Mu’min comes back on the show to chat about her debut feature film “Jinn” and we play a game of movie trivia.

Guest:

Nijla Baseema Mu’min is an award-winning writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities. Her debut feature film, Jinn, won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2018 American Black Film Festival and was acquired by Orion Classics.

We come up short on Friendsgiving invites so we play a game of friends trivia instead. Action item: call a friend you love today. 

Is there any reason to still believe in our political system? Mohamed Gula and Aysha Ahmed of Emgage USA join the show to answer this question and more. We discuss our favorite civic engagement commercials, why representation matters, and what fictional characters would have our votes.

Guests:

• Aysha Ahmed is the Programs and Operations Specialist of Emgage USA. In this role, she she manages organizational operations and develops programming for local Emgage USA chapters. Previously, Aysha worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and for the Ohio Democratic Party.
• Mohamed Gula is Executive Director of Emgage Virginia, where he builds community-based civic engagement programs that serve the Virginia Muslim community. Mohamed previously served as an Organizer in Ohio for the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and with Organizing For Action (formerly Obama For America).