Why I Started The Niqabi Diaries Podcast
Assalamu alaykum. For those of you who don’t know me already my name is Samar and I’m the founder and host of The Niqabi Diaries Podcast.
I’m also an African Caribbean convert to Islam for about 20 years now and I’ve been wearing the niqab for about 13 years.
How time flies subhanAllah.
I sometimes get asked why I started a podcast about Muslim women who have experience in wearing the niqab. I almost feel like there’s a scrutiny about my reasons for doing so.
Am I trying to say that all Muslim women should veil their faces?
Do I think that niqabi Muslimahs are better than non niqabis?
Or maybe I’m trying to create some exclusive group only for niqabi Muslimahs and no one else is allowed?
In fact it was none of those things. It was something that came about by coincidence. I hadn’t originally planned to start a podcast. However the theme of it came as the result of experiences and observations that I’d had over the years as a revert Muslim.
I had noticed and was pretty tired of seeing little to no representation of sisters who wear the niqab. To make it worse most of the time a niqabi was seen it was in a negative light. To show Islamic extremism, to show how Islam oppresses women or when talking about niqab bans.
In the Muslim community I had experienced many kinds of stigma against niqabi sisters before I myself started wearing it and then after wearing it myself.
I must say that the most painful or saddest of moments as a niqabi were due to the misconceptions about it by fellow Muslims.
Being called a few anti Islamic names in supermarkets or having people bump into me pretending that they couldn’t see me because my face is covered never bothered me much at all. I just pity them for their ignorance and bad manners, they are non Muslims, I don’t expect them to know better.
But the Muslims?
And the Muslim women especially?
I expect more. I expect the best because that’s what Allah expects from us. From one sister to another there should be an understanding or at least a willingness to understand each other.
So in the year of 2019 just before Ramadan I was given the opportunity to present my own live radio show on what was then called Newcastle Fast FM. I felt the need to do something different from previous years that I had been a host for the sisters segment.
As I stood in the Islamic centre it dawned on me that I was the only niqabi sister there. It wasn’t a big deal for me being the only sister wearing the niqab but I realised that it was in fact an opportunity to do something different. I had something special with those sisters at the Islamic centre in that they never made me feel like I was different from them because I was wearing the niqab.
With this in mind I thought it would be beneficial to base my live radio segment on the sisters who wear the niqab and their stories.
The objective being that by them sharing their stories and reasons for wearing the niqab that hopefully others in the Muslim community would come to an understanding of niqabi sisters and hopefully bridge some of the distance existing between those who wear the niqab and those who dont.
It was really that simple.
I wanted other Muslims in the community to see that I wasn’t the only friendly niqabi out there. I don’t believe that niqab makes you more or less friendly. I believe that it can act as a mirror to your internal self.
So for example if you carry arrogance inside you and you believe that you are better than others then when you wear it you will believe that even more.
And if you are someone who feels self conscious about being different then you will likely feel more so when wearing the niqab.
Of course all of these perceptions of ourselves can change but the point is that inner work needs to be done in order to change them. The niqab is just an outer garment.
So by the end of Ramadan 2019 I was truly inspired to keep going with what I had started. I had been blessed with being able to interview Naima B Roberts during Ramadan, it had been pre recorded so I used that as my first official podcast episode.
I also had further support from Asiyah Umm Ammar and Khadooj Abyssinian, two sisters that I had met online after reaching out to them for interviews during that Ramadan who were very encouraging of me to take it to the next level.
So I organised myself on YouTube, all major podcast platforms and set up my social media accounts and here we are today. Halfway through season 3 of the podcast and still going strong alhamdulillah.
I’ve been blessed with being able to speak to more than 120 sisters from all over the globe. Almost 40 countries and almost 30 different ethnic backgrounds. Born Muslims as well as reverts from all walks of life.
No two sisters have had the same story so far. Just goes to show we don’t all fit the same mold as women, whether Muslim, niqabi, hijabi or not.
The Niqabi Diaries is a podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of the Muslim women who have experience wearing the face veil.
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