Muslim Women are Everything with Dr. Seema Yasmin

American Muslim Project

Disease sleuthing. Ebola poetry. Doctoring. Naps. On this eclectic third episode of AMP we are joined by our first British Muslim living in America, Dr. Seema Yasmin. Author of the recent book (with illustrations by Famida Azim) Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure, she likewise seems to do just about everything.

As the daughter of immigrants that bounced between a very insular, traditional paternal family in the English Midlands and her mom’s university world in London, Seema witnessed from a very young age that Muslim women could look and love and live all sorts of ways.

“Fueled by a lot of nos,” she was the first in her family to go to med school, worked as a doctor in East London, moved Stateside to enter the U.S. epidemic intelligence service, and then tackled journalism school, right as ebola was arriving in Dallas. Today she’s the Director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative, examining the spread of misinformation and disinformation about health and science around the world. (How apropos.)

As much as she’s dispelled falsehoods about COVID and other diseases, she’s also working to combat misrepresentations about Muslims. Born of an angry Tweet over people’s shock at Muslim women achieving great things, her latest book is a beautifully illustrated profile of extraordinary Muslim women—some Western, some Eastern, current and historical, young and old.

Given how few Americans say they know any Muslims and that even reputable media can perpetuate Islamic stereotypes, Seema is fighting for representation and proper inclusion, even choosing some women for the book with very different ideologies than herself.

In addition to detailing Muslim Women Are Everything and reading Asad’s favorite passage aloud, we reflect on women choosing to cover themselves, or not, and how their bodies are policed. Naturally, the current pandemic and related misinformation is discussed. And we introduce you to Generation M, a progressive group of young, affluent Muslims balancing modernity and faith, at the helm of which are young women.

This episode was recorded in December 2020. Follow Seema on Twitter (@DoctorYasmin) and find her book Muslim Women Are Everything here. Learn how to separate facts from fiction when it comes to health in her brand-new book appearing in 2021, Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them. And stay tuned for her debut poetry collection, If God Is a Virus, based on her reporting on the Ebola epidemic from West Africa.

Learn more about Fahmida Azim, illustrator of Muslim Women are Everything here.

American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.

Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble

Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt

Music by Simon Hutchinson

Hosted by Asad Butt

Follow us on Twitter (@AmMuProj) or Instagram (@american_muslim_project/)

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