your favorite brown babes breaking down taboos and dissecting desi culture across the diaspoRA
Jeele Apni Zindagi with Kittu Pannu
Continuing our series on being queer and desi, the Femmedamentalists are joined by Kittu Pannu, a storyteller and educator who grew up in New Orleans and now lives in New York City. Kittu talks to Mehak and Faiza about what it was like exploring his sexuality and coming out as gay to his parents who are prominent members of their Sikh community. Also, brownie (pun intended) points if anyone can guess the movie reference in the title of this episode! Hint: we mention it during our convo!
Decolonizing Queerness with Gina Ali
Hi y'all! We're so excited to bring you this new series of episodes on queerness in the desi community! We're kicking it off with a fascinating conversation with Gina Ali, a queer Muslim therapist striving to create room for queer Muslims to challenge the status quo. Mehak and Faiza talk to Gina about what decolonizing queerness means, how she approaches her Islamic practice as a queer person, and challenging capitalist colonial nature of psychology (and you know, we stan an anti-capitalist qweeeeeen!). You can follow her journey on tiktok @gigistherapyworld.
Our next couple of episodes will explore the desi lgbtqia+ community so stay tuned for some more amazing and eye-opening episodes!
Own your fertility with brown girl infertility
Join Mehak and Faiza as we continue our conversation about women's reproductive health and do we what we do best: break down taboos and stigmas across desi culture. We sit down with the always amazing and inspiring Sayeda Abbas, founder of Brown Girl Infertility, about how her own IVF journey compelled her to create a space to diversify and build community.
be kind to your body with hina ahmed from kindbody
The Femmedamentalists are back again with a deeper dive into one of our most popular episode topics: egg freezing! We're joined by Hina Ahmed, VP of Clinical Operations & Physician Assistant at Kindbody, a clinic that offers comprehensive fertility, gynecology, and wellness services across the country. Hina holds our hands as she walks us through what to expect when you're expecting . . . to freeze your eggs.
Beauty in the Breakdown with suraj patel
This week, The Femmedamentalists sit down with Suraj Patel, attorney, activist, business leader, and lecturer on business ethics at New York University (shout out to the Violets!) who worked for President Obama. We discuss why he decided to run for US Congress in New York City TWICE and lessons learned from having the closest primary election in the 2020 cycle. Faiza also gets a quick education on what the whole GameStop controversy was about. Does she actually understand it now? She'll say yes but don't ask her any questions about it.
unbought and unbossed with jaslin kaur
Continuing our deep dive into law and politics, The Femmendamentalists sit down with City Council candidate Jaslin Kaur, who is running to be the first woman of color to represent District 23 in Queens on NY City Council. What's it like running a grassroots campaign? Why do organizers make the best politicians? And what's in the water in Queens that's churning our progressive candidates? Find out the answers to these and more on Jaslin's background, her decision to run, and what she hopes to accomplish as the first woman of color to represent her district.
civil legalese with sania khan
For our second installment of this season, we're continuing our civics lesson with Assistant Attorney General Sania Khan in the Civil Rights Bureau at the Office of the New York State Attorney General. We get into how the Civil Rights Bureau protects the state's citizens, suing the federal government, and what's next for the Muslim Bar Association of New York. (Also, if you ever have a secret, Sania Khan's your girl - we tried and failed to get her to spill the tea but she was a steel trap.)
hearing the unheard with zohran mamdani
The Femmedamentalists are back y'aaaaallll. This week, we sit down with Zohran Mamdani, Assemblyman for Assembly District 36 in Astoria, Queens (shoutout to Faiza's hometown). We discuss what it's like running for office for the first time, what being a progressive really means, and how you can get involved in your community.