I want to empower us, women, to stop actually buying into all the perceptions that are put on us.

We are told, you know, we don't have sexual desires or we have very low sexual desires.

We are told we are the reasons we are fitna to men.

And we need to stop the propagation of these perceptions about us, especially Muslim women.

In addition, which is more important, we need to stop believing them.

Because see, if we don't believe this as individuals, we can actually go on and move forward.

The problem is when we personally believe well.

Sexually empowered women and pious women are not mutually exclusive.

You're listening to Unsween and Unfilter the podcast,

episode four of season three. The topic of intimacy in Islam is a conversation that may at times come laced with shame and stigma. In today's episode, I sit down with Nohal Shugari to dismantle the

misinformation surrounding this while also educating women about their rights, the power of no in a marriage,

and diving deeper into what is Haram versus Halal.

How did we deviate so much from the days of our prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, when it comes to seeking knowledge and empowering ourselves in terms of intimacy in Islam?

How have we allowed a wall of shame to be built around this very discussion while also allowing it to become halal overnight when someone gets married?

This may be the first time, but hopefully not the last time, I'll have this conversation where we dive deep into sexual intimacy from the perspective of our faith.

Oftentimes, we avoid discussing the topic of sex and intimacy due to cultural ills, but this is truly a disservice to our omma as well as Islam, which empowers women as a whole.

I'm excited to be joined by Noha today, who is a licensed marriage and family therapists who will help us answer the many questions we all have, especially the ones we may be too shy or too

imperious to ask. Moving past the birds and the bees talk, I wanted to finally understand

the rights we have in Islam when it comes to being emotionally and physically intimate with

our significant other. Some of the topics Noha addresses are the differences in sexual

desires between

partners, what is deemed to be absolutely haram, and what comes with the difference of opinion,

...