Sahar Pirzada is the Director of Movement Building at HEART To Grow, a national nonprofit advancing sexual health, reproductive justice, and support for survivors of gendered violence in Muslim communities.
In this episode, Sahar joins Salma for a conversation about the sex education Muslims actually need. She shares her own journey entering marriage with little sexual knowledge, experiencing years of painful sex before discovering she had vaginismus and a physical condition requiring surgery, and eventually healing through pelvic floor and sex therapy.
Sahar also opens up about terminating a deeply wanted first pregnancy after discovering severe chromosomal abnormalities, navigating abortion through her faith, and finding support from Muslim scholars, imams, therapists, and an abortion doula. Together, they unpack the stigma around abortion, miscarriage, STI testing, premarital sex, and the assumption that teaching Muslims about sexual health somehow “encourages zina (fornication).”
They also discuss sexual abuse in Muslim communities, how the default in our communities is to disbelieve survivors, teaching children consent and the correct names for their body parts, and why protecting one another’s sexual health can be understood not as a departure from Islam, but as a communal responsibility.
Your sexual health is an amanah.
Plus: Salma calls out her own hypocrisy and admits she judged Sahar when she first saw a hijabi woman, Sahar explains why sex shouldn’t hurt, and they may have accidentally invented the hottest date imaginable: getting STI tested together.
This is the penultimate episode of Season 2! One more to go. 🥹
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For more information on Heart:
https://hearttogrow.org/
https://www.instagram.com/hearttogrow/
https://linktr.ee/HEARTtogrow
https://www.youtube.com/@heartwomengirls1584
CREDITS:
Host & Creator: Salma Hindy
Executive Producer: Salma Hindy
Videographer & Sound Engineer: Patrick Samaha
Written By: Salma Hindy
Edited By: Salma Hindy
Studio: 30 Irving Studios
Artwork: Rana Omar
Social Media Intern: Noor Jehan Ansari
Grants & Sponsorship Intern: Christina Saoud
© The Secret Sex Lives of Muslim Women, 2026
Instagram: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen
YouTube: @thesecretsexlivesofmuslimwomen
HOST'S INSTAGRAM: @salma.hindy
HOST'S TIKTOK: @salma.hindy
