The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women

Salma Hindy
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Podcast discussing the secret sex lives of Muslim women. Hosted by Salma Hindy

  1. MAR 30

    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 YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

    55 min

  2. MAR 23

    EVERYONE DESERVES BUTTERY SEX (VAGINISMUS IS CURABLE)

    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

    1h 11m

  3. FEB 23

    HOW I LOST TWO SWEETHEARTS WITHOUT MEANING TO (HOW I BROKE MY OWN HEART)

    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 connectionWhy her avoidance shows up when things are going well, NOT during conflictTrauma bonding vs. true intimacySexual imprinting, jealousy, and nervous system dysregulationCelibacy after heartbreak and assaultLearning to “stay” instead of explodeThe difference between chasing unavailable men and allowing real love to bloomBeing the first woman in her bloodline to choose a life not structured around marriageNow, 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

    53 min

  4. JAN 13

    GET THE F*CK OUT OF YOUR PARENTS' HOUSE

    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

    1h 9m

  5. 12/17/2025

    I WENT TO A SEX CLUB LOOKING FOR A HUG

    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

    54 min

  6. 11/25/2025

    THE GAYS AREN’T GOING TO HELL, DAD. (From Corporal Punishment to Queer Liberation)

    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 generationsMuslim queerness vs. white queernesswhether you must abandon culture or family to live authenticallywhat Islam actually says about sexualitythe obsession with top/bottom labelsvaginismus vs. bottoming fearindigenous Amazigh tattoo traditionsbreaking cycles of violence and shamefinding chosen family and safer communitythe privilege and danger of “coming out” in MENA contextsThis 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

    1h 13m

  7. 11/17/2025

    NERVOUS SYSTEM ON FIRE (Molested by Father, Crucified by Siblings)

    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 “c**t,” 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

    55 min

  8. 10/27/2025

    WHAT DADDY DOESN’T KNOW…BOLLYWOOD SEXY BABY (JASMINE SHERNI)

    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

    1h 12m
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4.9
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Podcast discussing the secret sex lives of Muslim women. Hosted by Salma Hindy

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