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 30s
• The triangle of sexual health: health, rights, and pleasure
• Kissing 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 anyway
• The pressure of friends’ choices, hookup culture, and consensus-building
• How pleasure isn’t just sex, but a way of living

Salma 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, 2025

Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen

YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen

HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy

HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy