Guess who I saw in Toronto!

Brothers and sisters, Assalam Alaikum, it's good to be back. Season 6. We're here. And before I say anything else, I just need to say what called Rabbi Zidney Alma Ahmed you. Gave me that look. Guys, welcome back to. Good. To be back, should we address the elephant in the room? I don't know as you're not saying anything's changed.

Everything's changed. Why is it always elephant? Why can't it be like the lion? Ahmed has to say. Yeah, I like it, man. I hope you guys like it as well. Very traditional old vibes. And we thought, yeah, we're getting old now, so we need to age with this thing, yeah. Which about martial laws getting younger?

At this point. Do you know what it is? The game has changed. I think you know who you look like. You know those Iranian Medahan, the short line. Mahdira Soli. Since that's the one. But no, it's good to be back, guys. Hope you guys have had a good break. Do you know Hamdallah, like for the last few months we've been saying we're working on a lot of changes with the set, with productions, with the shows.

So it's good to be back and good to be with you here today. We're just going to kind of like really briefly introduce where we've been, what we've been doing, and just to kind of get the ball rolling the set. So for those who don't know, yeah, Samosa has been working hard on it. What's the inspiration? What are we doing here?

What we're looking at? Is it like cafe vibes or? Full back story. I don't even know what the back story is, to be honest. But I think over the past four years we've been in the podcast, we sort of came out first with the what would you say the original set was? Like a neon rainforest? Yeah, the RGB vibe, but I think over the past three years there's been so many new productions which have I, I felt like have, I wouldn't say copied our style, but maybe like taking inspiration from our style and I, I wanted to like back away from it.

I know. I see adverts right now on booking podcast spaces. They. All on the same now. And they all. Look like aftermath. Nothing to do. I think when we started it was like a fresh idea back then, five years ago. Also podcast, everyone wants to start a podcast now, you know what I mean? Which is cool and you know, we encourage it for to anyone and obviously within the shower while it's good, but.

I think our position as afterwards we want to be leading, we don't want to be like everyone else. Charlotte, do you know what it is? So like we obviously there's an ancient Isfahani vibe here, but at the same time we're we also want to bring in like our Western culture. Yeah, I think we've spent like, especially me like in the whole graphic design scene, we, we sort of got bored of the simplicity, minimalistic, all of that stuff. And it, we, we sort of like started doing this traditional stuff nowadays as well.

And I wanted to implement that in here. So I think what worked best is like what, what what we've gone for here, which is like the, well, like you said, the Asfahani traditional calligraphy bazaar sort of vibe. I actually got one of our friends to help me with this brother Eunice, who works a lot alongside us and he he has a lot of these bits and bobs that you see on set at home.

So I was like, Eunice, I need a towel here. I need AI, need a, he gave me these things. But on the trumpets and the teapots, what are these, these bits and bobs? They made like a huge difference in this. OK. Let me ask you guys what what are your favorite items on the set say? Let me start with you.

The chair. The. Chair how comfortable I am I took my shoes off you. Know the problem with these chairs it's like Ahmed said, you you feel guilty wearing shoes on the set now I. Took on my shoes last time. That's when you think about it. It's just a studio in it. It's not that idea you. Know I think every item complements the entire set.

Yeah. It's perfect and I I told Ahmed I messaged Ahmed privately like 3 days ago. I said Ahmed, I'm scared, that's why. Ahmed had a talk with me. Had a breakdown. He's like, listen, you need to make sure say that at least have you on the set. Well, I was very worried about the outcome and. I think over time we'll adjust more things here and there until we're fully satisfied with it.

But even as it is now, it's beautiful. There's a lot of people who put a lot of work into this. Yeah, yeah, for. Sure, if we want to go through names, I can't name everyone, but it's like St. Watson, help us build the chairs. Hyder Wahidi was here. He painted the room from scratch. Brother Emir Mahash.

Brother Emir Sadiq Amar Oka Abusi, my little brother came along one day, St. Mohammed Khazir, who we're going to start a new series with him soon inshallah as well. I don't know if there's anyone else I've missed, but there's so many people and it's it's taken a lot of people and a lot of time to put all of this together.

So. So these 8 individuals that you named, are any of them married? Oh my God. I don't think any of them are. Wow. In particular. No, these guys, some of these guys, some of these guys are like half our age. So we need to not half our age less than young. So it. Took eight to 10 men to put this together. Hamdullah.

That's amazing. Notice it's the commitment and dedication this is for for the Imam of our time and our biggest aspiration is that one day we are able to give this to him and to make it for him and belongs dedicate for him and this is. Ready to have Emma? Slack was the one on the set with him. Michelle Long.

That would be nuts. Episode 313. That's too. That's too far, bro. Yeah. No, but OK. But you didn't give me that. OK. You said the chair. Yeah. These are like built from scratch. Notice that Mustafa got these are actually wood from stairs. Like stair. What do you call it? Yeah. These are stanisters, yeah.

So he built with the team, built them, and then got these cushions separately. OK, what's your favorite item on the set? Can I just interject? I really like the colour scheme. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I was worried why? Mainly not because of the layout, but the colours. I was like, you know, the branding we have is like green, purple, white, you know, we've. Given Hasib to rebrand the the the graphics and he's like, I don't think you should step away from the green and the purple. Recommendations to keep?

It he hasn't sent it over to us yet By by the time this episode releases, yeah, we'll have the everything, the new intros and the new logos and all of that. Guys, if you are listening right now, drop in the comments. What's your favorite item on the set? What's your favorite thing on the set? Is there something you really like? Is there something that catches your attention the most? Maybe you don't know what something is or says. My own favorite item on the set is, I don't know if you guys can see, but I like, I really like these. What do you call it?

The Vintage project, The vintage projectors, All the Vincents. How did they let me order it? Remember really send in the group as I gotcha ordered the. Shadows, the wall lights, there's so many beautiful things that came on our boss picture. There's so many beautiful items here, said what's? Tell me the story about this called anakaya which you're saying at the beginning. Play of the Book.

I saw it in Men in Yeah and. Then women in is a. Smila Rahmad Rahim says what called the rugby? Is it near Alma? The translation to that is we asked Allah to increase us in knowledge. I was in Turkey and we were buying some calligraphy pieces for my house. Then I came across this and I was like, you know what? This is the most beautiful verse we can have an aftermath rib because collectively this is all on this journey in Charlotte to increase our knowledge.

And it was the most simple thing. And I sent it to the WhatsApp group and you were like, yeah, bring your, bring it. And I was seeing it there really well. It's. Beautiful now that you've and it's a. Reminder actually. It's a good reminder for the did you? No, I didn't even break up. I just thought the calligraphy looks nice.

That's what no boys. Perfect for the podcast trying to gain El man matter. Of fun, Charlotte. OK, let's move on, guys, because we don't want to spend too long this season before we get to that. This season, everyone at home, we're going to try and take into account all of the feedback you've given us, strong topics, relevant topics, topics which are current and also timeless.

So it's important to be able to do that. In the last, let's say, six months, we've met so many, so many supporters and watch of the viewers from kind of around the world, in the UK and overseas as well, who've supported the work we do. And Hamdallah have been able to engage with us and share their feedback.

Yeah, yeah. We've got some distractions behind the camera, but we want to hear from you. So drop in the comments below and let us know what you want to hear, what you want to see, who you want to see on the podcast this season. And we'll do our best to Charlotte to make it happen, boys. As of what we've got supporting such a long list to get through, by the way, what today? No, just generally, yeah.

Topic and. Stuff that we want to do this week before. Endless. It's endless and. Then throughout the season. So a week ago, yeah, we got back from Toronto for the Omar conference, which was amazing. Hamdallah, we had a great time and thank you to everyone who made it happen and who came to to drop by and visit us. And the team said what?

How did it happen and what did we do there? What didn't we do handle? I think we had the opportunity to firstly meet with so much people, those who have been. Literally. If I'm not mistaken, there was over 5127 attendees in the home of conference. That was that was the figure I saw on the screen, if I if my mind recollection is correct. But the most beautiful thing I had was interacting with those who have been listening to us over the years because we always look at our analytics.

Canada is always like in the top five be on Spotify, Apple, even Instagram. You know, the recent episode we just released on on YouTube would say most of our sister Zara Alawi where we discussed pink cherry Islam. If you go to the countries most listen, Canada is #3 OK. So yeah. So like I didn't know we had that big of an audience that TuneIn we can week out to the extent they all knew we were on the season break.

So usually when you interact with people, they say things like ah, Mashallah and good, keep up, etcetera. But they were all very particular with this. Well, not even when the season starting again, so that that that going to show me that Mashallah people are actually tuning in and the work that we do here is benefiting and it's, you know, reaching out and to the right audiences.

That was for me on a personal level, But as as a team, we were able to handle our, you know, deliver a workshop. We were able to hold a live podcast with two olamar alongside sister Sahara Al Halloween, have a stall network with people. There was so much yeah. So much yeah. There's a lot to mention We.

Did a podcast yeah on on as you said, pink cherry Islam, TikTok, imams, gender roles and kind of disputes and liberalistic kind of society we live in. That was the same as fuck 'cause we need sister Zahara Alawi, which is out now. You guys can TuneIn and watch that. We also did a podcast with Shekhar NASA, excuse me, Shekhar Zar NASA which is also online. That was on following Islam on autopilot and kind of blindly following religion, which is also online. So go and check, check that out, share it with your friends and family.

Yeah, it was a great time, Hamdullah. Hopefully we can be back again in the future, whether it's there or somewhere else. And yeah, man, it was, it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. So it watched over. What was your highlight in Toronto? Bro, we got so much sunnish Toronto. I was there like a week before you guys Yeah so I was attending the sheet of voice semi finals.

The the turn out for that was unbelievable in itself. Like I think the the the community in Toronto, they really appreciate like high level production. Mashallah the community there already does high level production. Like I met guys from both JCC and Rasul Youth, all amazing. Amazing, amazing guys.

Beautiful. Guys, they, they took us out. We, we met so many new people there and I can, I can firmly say that everyone's there like family to us now. A. 100 percent, 100% Too many, too many people there. And I don't even think we gave them enough appreciation while we were there, we were so busy. It felt like we've known them for years. Yeah, some.

Just in those few hours that we spent together, yeah. And then them alone, they do amazing majorities productions more lead in their centers. And then for them to see like the London guys there doing share voice and then meeting people like us after Madre War, we met the likes of Mehdi Hassan there, Ose Aman Ashwan, who also like are involved with these things actively. They really appreciate our the the hard work that people do. And I think I think that was the highlight for me. Nice, nice.

It was great. It was really good. OK guys, let's move on. Of course we are in the days of Fatima, and it is a season of mourning and grief for us all. And of course we have, you know, the three narrations at the time of recording. We are approaching the second narration as as as of right now. And of course, generally we reflect on the legacy and the lessons of say the Fatima Zarah Salam Alayhi. At the same time, we recognize that Say the Fatima stood out as someone who empowered both men but especially women, while maintaining her hijab.

In the day and age we live in now, hijab is under attack. Hijab has always been under attack. It's always been scrutinized, villainized as well. But in secular society, it has become such that people will say hijab is incompatible. Hijab is an obstacle to growth or development of society. And most recently of which in Azerbaijan. Yep, which we all know about and you guys at home would have heard about in Azerbaijan.

For those who are unaware, where you have a majority Shia population, hijab has become through. Without explicitly being worded as such, but anything which is seen as an obstacle to secular development in society has been barred and disbanded from being allowed in the educational system, specifically schools. Hijab has become the victim of this. So you're now having detainees, people who are being imprisoned, people who are have been taken by unknown figures and there's no contact with them.

There's mass protests in Baku, but also around Azerbaijan and a huge, huge implication on the local region. So for example, in in Turkey, you're seeing, you know, other one and a lot of the ministers talk about hijab, the importance of hijab, as well as, of course, online using protests where we are in London at Azerbaijani Embassy, you're seeing protests in different cities around the world.

I want to ask you guys, firstly, how do you feel when you see what's happening to our young sisters and our mothers in Azerbaijan and how it's affecting them and more So what can we do here? Some people say, well, it's irrelevant to us, like, you know, Azerbaijan is so far removed from our lifestyle, we don't know anything about what happens there. What can I do here?

Enough said much Taba, if you want to go first. But this reminds me of the first episode. I was on the podcast as well. Yeah, Hem, hem. You got asked me about hijab. No, You know how it makes me feel. Yeah. I mean, we've had the opportunity to be blessed to be raised in the UK. Like I always compare societies in different parts of the world and I always feel wherever I travel and I come back to London and I said not to belittle any community, but when I came back to London, I was telling my family I was like Hamdullah, we were raised in London.

Because I feel like we have a higher standard when it comes to like modesty and social hijab and things like this. But in particular, seeing what's happening in Azerbaijan is, is heartbreaking because I always look at the stories and I, and I recall and remember I have daughters, I have sisters, I have a wife and all of these things when it comes to hijab, it's like it's part of our DNA. So when they are affected, when their governments are trying to crack down on them wearing it in certain places, be it in, I don't know, in the banks, in the courtrooms, at school, educational settings, in the workplace, it hurts because I, I, I always feel like, what if that's like my sister and I see them as my sisters.

What, like when I see those clips, they're crying, they're upset, and they're being denied education just because they want to be obedient to our last panel. What Allah ultimately was it. People would wish they would pray. They are raised in societies where there is a hijab ban, so they have an excuse not to wear it. But you see little children, little girls going to school and they want to wear it and they refuse to enter. Without it, they can just take off simply and walk in. We see it happening in Austria, we see it happening in France, but no, in Azerbaijan.

You have little girls at the ages of my daughters, by the way, refusing to remove the hijab. That makes me so proud, proud of them, proud of them. And it gives me hope that there is this love for hijab still alive today when we look at society and the whole world's attacking our sisters. Take it off so you can, you know, be empowered and achieve and build a career for yourself.

No, they are the biggest examples that education does not limit limit you with or without the hijab. On the contrary as well. The irony is, is that they they argue that hijab is a barrier to progressing educationally. If you just look at hijab in and of itself, the concept of hijab, forget the physical yeah, let's go.

Hijab in and of itself is 1's protection over themselves. And that means everything, their mind, their body and their soul. So to not corrupt your mind means to fill it with good and to absolve it of anything which is damaging or harmful or whatever. And that includes educationally for our young sisters who wear hijab, they themselves.

And you've seen so many of these videos, 11 amazing sister. I don't know, you must have seen that video, She says. Have I ever brought dishonor to the school? Yeah, I ever brought shame to the school, I think. I showed this. Is I've got straight A's, have I ever done anything wrong? She said that by me wearing my hijab, have I not been able to perform and bring bring honour to to this institution. And the fact that this is even a topic of discussions is is crazy.

I can't understand it. And these are people who will still say we're Muslim. We just don't want but they're secular Muslims, which is toxic and that's a cancer. Unfortunately, commandment of Allah's panel to Allah is wajib. You know, whether we practice, whether we don't, that's, you know, let them figure that out themselves, as long as you don't bar someone or stop someone else from being.

You're also crazy. We post, not us. Someone posted a video from the aftermath panel in Toronto where where Zahra Ali was saying never tell a sister, just take off your hijab if you're not wearing it properly. And the the response is that that video got where it was Muslim sisters attacking her for saying that.

It's like I don't want to wear my hijab. Don't don't tell me whether don't advise me on wearing it or not. So Muslim sisters. Yes, and the the the comments are filled with it as well. Ajit. There were you get. You get like there were. There were ladies who were commenting basically saying I quote.

There was someone who I remember commenting a piece of cloth doesn't bring me closer or further from the religion. And of course there was then a lot of back and forth and dispute and whatnot. Ultimately, I feel like you know who I asked, I can't remember who it was. I asked someone once. I was like, how do I teach hijab to my daughter when she gets to that age or even before that?

How did you start introducing this and his response to me, I think it was a scholar. He said to me it was a scholar. I remember he said to me, don't talk about the veil from young talk about modesty, the concept of modesty, protecting oneself, having and or do you say shut up, like having shame of yours over here, higher, higher. And as a man, you have clear.

So like these kind of things are things which I think symbolically people don't understand that the hedgehab represents this. They've been taught about the headscarf, but not about what's the reason or the symbolism of that headscarf. So maybe we need to have. You know what this whole thing exposes, by the way?

The hypocrisy of those who share woman life, freedom. Yeah, 100%, yeah. And if you look around the world, they talk about and they always mention Iran and Afghanistan and my body, my body, my choice. This is exactly the reaction that the sisters who get attacked for wearing hijab are saying. They're like, we we stood by with like everyone who gets oppressed. Yeah, right.

And now all of these guys who pretend were pretending to do activism. Yeah, now they're. This is my point. It exposes that it was never about freedom. Never. It was never about, you know, giving the women the choices. Like they're fighting for the calling out the to wear or not to wear the hijab, right? Because now we're seeing this playing out and they're not talking, they're not protesting, they're not going in the street. I don't know if you've seen half of them are stupid. They go naked in the street and start protesting in Paris and as well as Belgium and Germany, all these places. But what I want to know from these people, why do you want? Why do you want our Muslim sisters to be undressed? That's what I don't understand.

It's. Like it's a culmination, it starts with different things. Hijab. Hijab on the head? Hijab is the game then. It starts with, you know, change the way you dress and change the atmospheres you sit. It's like, what? What do you want from our sisters? You. Know it's it's a collective issue and it's a combination of multiple things.

One is the fact that pop culture and the civilization generally that we are in idolizes and celebrates women who dress less or expose themselves more and puts them on a pedestal. So that could be celebrities, singers, actresses, anything like that. And then beyond that as well, there's a narrative which is pushed by like bigots basically to say, well, if you see someone dressed like this, then they must be backwards. The former Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, he once came on TV and he said Muslim women are comparable to post boxes and bank robbers because of niqab.

And that was at a time where it was. He's stocking the fire of Islamophobia in the UK. This is in the UK. We're now talking about an Islamic country which is majority Shia. That's the. You have more Azerbaijanis ethnically in Iran than in Azerbaijan and you have Turkey. You know, Turkey and Azerbaijan, they say it's as if they're one state in two nations. Yeah, right.

Or one nation in two states or whatever. They have this notion Turkey and Azerbaijan are like sibling countries, right? And Turkey in themselves are like, you know, confused by this. I mean, it's a huge issue. I think the only thing I would say from my end and to kind of wrap up from my end for our sisters who wear the hijab, you are the pride of our community.

You are the backbone of our families and our societies. And never give up, never stop. If anything, use it as a springboard to prove you're worth more because you are worth more than anyone else or any everything else. Those sisters who are on the hijab journey, may Allah reward you, guide you and always protect you.

And those sisters who are already observing full time hijab, may Allah make it easy for you and allow you to continue on that path. However, don't stop. Go out, get your education, proof to people who think you can't get a job in a position where people think she can't achieve that, you know, while she's wearing hijab.

Yeah, Go and do something which shows the world that Muslim women and particularly Shia women can bring pride to not just our community, not just the Omar, but to society at large. Because ultimately we are the followers of Minimal Minim Ali Salatu Salaam. If we are the followers of a minimal Minim and the followers of say, the Fatima Zahra Ali Salatu Salaam, then we will do our absolute best to perform the highest in every single category in every industry of society and show people that we are people who take performance seriously.

You know, and Dunya, and of course, ultimately for Akala, this is what we stand for. So don't ever let it drag you down. And of course, if you've got ideas in the comments for all of us, how we can support the cause, support our sisters, share it with each other because this needs to be done at the bare minimum.

We should be sharing the protest posts, you know, we should be sharing stuff on our social media. This is the bare minimum on Instagram stories, on TikTok, you know, with our friends and families, you know, very. Similar cases what we're seeing in halach as well, so I don't know too much about it. So hardly smiling the.

Jafferi Law. The Jafferi. Law is is women are fighting for their rights to their daughters. Yeah, crazy. I think this needs a maybe someone who've a bit more experienced in the topic to discuss this, but it just shows that women in in our home countries are still fighting for their rights. But, you know, just, I think just two minutes on this Jafari law thing. I think for Iraqis being living in Iraq, majority Shia country, the fact that you can apply the Jafari law in your marriages and child custody and women's rights, there's no problem with that.

If you live in Iraq and you say you are Shia and you have a problem with the Jafari law, you got a problem with God. Yeah, honestly, how can you be Shia? And now you know, we lived how many years under Saddam and Malone? Yeah. It doesn't make sense. And we were like, we want our rights, you know, we're a Shia majority country want to want to be, you know, ruled by the Quran and the Sunnah of Rasoolallah and the teachings of the albeit and I have a problem.

Why why they have a problem now, but but I just two or three things. The majority of the arguments happening is based on marriage, which is, for example, women, they feel like when they get divorced on the Jaffrey Law, they don't get rights like they do in the UK, for example. So what are they comparing it to?

They're comparing it to secular societies and societies that have no religion in essence. But the Jaffrey law protects the religion. It's within the Sharia, like there's no way coming out of it. And by the way, from what I understand it, when you do get married in Iraq, you can choose whether you want it done on the Jaffrey law or on the Hanifi law or on the Democratic Republic of Araq law.

So you can choose by the way, but once you commence that marriage on Jafari law, anything that happens after it is based on Jafari law, the child custody, the divorce, the rights for the husband and the wife, etcetera. So the people have a problem today with Jafari law and Harak A Shia then I Shia understand. But if you are a Shia and you got a problem, whether you got a problem?

With God, ultimately the, the, the, the underlying thing here is education. So whether it's education, Azerbaijan or in Iraq or in the UK or anywhere else, without education, society lacks oxygen. You know, people have no literacy. You are the oxygen. Have you ever said you, you are? Until Nefes won't tell Howa.

Until Nefes say. Mujtaba what? The rest of the words until shames went to boa. Sorry, I've heard. It it's beautiful. Yeah, Yeah, man. But education is everything. Education is everything. And I think it's. And it goes right to what can. Say cyclic, wouldn't it? But obviously the elements and this is something we should all inshallah work on. All right, guys, I think we should call it a day. Yeah.

It's been a good intro, you know? Idea just because I'm one. It's a fame in episode. That's a fame in 28. Minutes 39 because. It's a it's a teaser to what's going to be upcoming in Season 6. I think there's a lot. There's a lot, a lot of ideas. Mashallah, Ahmed. Talks a lot so. I'm the guy who's trying to end you. Go you, carry on in it.

Start talking about you. Know we were in the Toronto podcast and he mentioned something about talking a lot. You talk a lot. No, no, no. I said something. I said something about talking a lot or something. And I looked at the other way because I knew he's thinking, oh, it's so funny, man. Your wife that looks at you like Ahmed looks at Ali.

Yeah, straight get say what's about wife I need? To print on a T-shirt. All right, guys, inshallah we'll be back next week. I'm looking forward to the season. I hope you are all as well. We've been trying for a long time. We've already lined up our first few guests and first few topics which are going to be really cool.

So, but look, we still want to hear from you. We've got a long season ahead of us. It's going to be cool, hopefully. Donate, Donate. Become a partner. This cost a lot. This is like in the. Aftermathweb.com/donate. Donate They come 5 LB five pound a month one partner £10.10 dollars $5. Cancel your subscription. Anything it helps makes?

Subscription. Anything you support us with guys goes back into the production and allows us to do stuff around the world with high quality production. Or call your partners. And inshallah, hopefully guys will be. Lucky it's not charging us to edit. All right, boys. That's it. Next week, catch you.

Next week, Charlotte, take care.

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