Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground
Society & Culture
Farheen Raza: Unapologetic Modern Muslim Woman
This week I interviewed Farheen Raza, host of Authentic + Unfiltered with Farheen. Farheen is a Muslim-American community activist, radio personality, and mom of three from Texas. She is a fearless communicator, loud on social media, and active on multiple fronts.
Farheen grew up in the Boston area. She clearly remembers 9/11, when all three of the planes taken over by terrorists flew out of Logan Airport. Farheen described that feeling as “surreal." In Farheen's first year at a small Catholic college, the dean assigned a police officer to protect her when the anti-Muslim frenzy began. We talked about the way Islamophobia has further grown since the 2016 election.
“It’s bad already,” Farheen commented. “How much worse can it get?”
I asked Farheen what she likes about being Muslim. She said that a lot of the restrictions in Islam make sense...for example, refraining from pork and alcohol can make you healthier. The most challenging thing is being around people who see themselves as authority figures.
The most recent obstacle Farheen has overcome is surviving COVID. It took three attempts to get a correct diagnosis after she had back pain and what felt like a fever. She felt in pain all over her body and had no energy. Her husband was convinced she had COVID, but it wasn’t until he conducted the test that she got the positive diagnosis. After surviving COVID, she gets frustrated when people don’t take the pandemic seriously. As Farheen said, “It’s a time for us to be selfless. Unfortunately most people are being selfish.”
I was keen to ask Farheen about the movie “Cuties." When we saw people had condemned it as misogynistic, sexualizing children, and Islamophobic, we both had to see for ourselves. What critics do not understand is that Maïmouna Doucouré wrote this film in response to her shock at seeing a similar dance performance by young girls at a park in Paris. Farheen pointed out that while people want to censor this movie, Cardi B’s “WAP” is the top video in the country. Not only that, but we’ve normalized sexualization for young kids by supporting “Toddlers and Tiaras” and “Dance Moms.”
I highly encourage you to listen to Farheen’s podcast episode, when she delves deep into “Cuties” with author Soniah Kamal and Sumana Syed.
I enjoyed my conversation with Farheen and I'm glad she survived COVID-19 and is done with apologizing for being a Muslim! Read more about our conversation here.
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