The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women

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, 2026Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'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, 2026Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'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 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, 2026Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

A candid conversation about escaping parental control and the hidden mechanics of delayed adulthood. They discuss being asexual and aromantic within a marriage-first culture. The episode maps secret planning, saving, and the logistics of moving out. It also explores the messy grief, anger, and somatic relief that follow reclaiming independence.

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, 2025Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'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 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, 2025Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

TW: SEXUAL, PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL ABUSEFrom 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, 2025Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy

Jasmine Sherni, half-Pakistani, half-Ashkenazi adult performer and former ICU nurse, shares her path from strict households to viral Bollywood fame. She talks about grief and family tensions. Conversations cover BDSM, bisexual exploration, finding chosen sisterhood online, and how visibility became power.

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 30sThe triangle of sexual health: health, rights, and pleasureKissing 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 anywayThe pressure of friends’ choices, hookup culture, and consensus-buildingHow pleasure isn’t just sex, but a way of livingSalma 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, 2025Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'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 normsPlus: 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, 2025Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenYouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomenHOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindyHOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy