Latina Converts

My friends Lynn Zitawi and Sarah Derris were just toddlers when 9/11 happened. We talk about how they learned about 9/11 and navigated the realities of growing up Muslim in a post-9/11 world—including facing bullying at school, 9/11 “guilt” and the aftermath of the War on Terror.

Three friends join me on our last episode for Season 1: Nida Allam, Mohammad Alsalti, & Abdullah Dorgham. But this date is really where the conversation on Muslim American identity started for us — 9/11, when we were sitting in our elementary school classrooms — and both our worlds and the world forever changed.

Guests Farris Barakat and Belal Ali discuss the emotional and personal consequences of wars in Syria and Iraq, their parents’ home countries.

Guests Kathia Guerrero and Shirley Puente are Mexican and Peruvian converts to Islam. We talk about the Latina convert experience as a whole, including what brought them to Islam, how their family took their decision, choosing hijab, and finding community.

On this episode of Me & My Muslim Friends, guests Eiman Ali and Nigel Edwards discuss the black Muslim experience, including their experiences of racism within the Muslim community. Whether it’s going from a black woman to a black woman with hijab, or the challenges of an interracial marriage, we take it on in this conversation.

Get a taste of what we talk about on this season of Me and My Muslim Friends, from the experiences of Latina converts to dealing with wars in our parents’ home countries. Grab some tea and listen in. Our stories might be yours too.