Being Transgender, South Asian & Muslim - with drag queen Asifa

On this episode of Masala Podcast, we explore what it means to be transgender, South Asian & Muslim.My guest is Asifa Lahore, Britain’s first out Muslim drag queen. Asifa is a well-known drag performer and TV star. She’s constantly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be LGBT, South Asian and Muslim. Asifa featured in Channel 4’s groundbreaking documentary Muslim Drag Queens in 2015. She has also been the face of Channel 4's 2016 diversity campaign, 'True Colour TV'.On the podcast, we talk about Asifa’s journey of first coming out to her traditional Muslim parents as gay and then later coming out as trans and transitioning into being a woman. She talks about balancing her life within the LGBT community as well as being a Muslim. We also discuss the traditional Hijra community, one of the oldest transgender communities in the world and their place in modern India.Asifa's journey into the spotlight has been a deeply personal one through which she discovered her transgender identity and continues being a voice for intersectional Britain. MORE ABOUT ASIFA LAHORE: Insta: @asifalahoreTwitter: @AsifaLahoreYouTube: http://bit.ly/2X4zzMY Contact: https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/asifa-lahore The Spotify award-winning Masala Podcast is a show for South Asian womxn, where we talk about all those things that we’re NOT supposed to talk about in our culture. Sex, sexuality, sexual identity, periods, menopause, mental health, shame, sexual harassment and many more taboos. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY PLATFORM SOUL SUTRAS Website: https://soulsutras.co.uk Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soul_Sutras Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulsutras/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoulSutrasNetwork/ Click here to join the Soul Sutras newsletter:https://soulsutras.us15.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ddd9c3fdfeb58cecbc5d8a6b2&id=99fbec55d9Producer: Hana Walker-Brown Multi-Award-Winning Documentary Maker www.hanawalkerbrown.com Music Credit: Sunny Robertson @sunnyrobertsonmusic  Mentioned in this episode:Inspiring feminist memoir Bad DaughterBad Daughter is my story of going from Mumbai’s slums to New York’s Billboards, with a healing stopover in Kerala. But it’s your story too. It doesn’t matter where you come from, it doesn’t matter what happened to you. You still get to have the life you want. That's the message of this book. My memoir Bad Daughter is deeply personal. I talk about growing up in poverty. I talk about my father’s violence, my mother’s murder. I talk about how I turned my pain into power, navigating mental health, sexuality, spirituality & patriarchy. If you’re looking for a book to move you and inspire you to change your own life, buy this book on Amazon: https://shorturl.at/TDC7g. Or buy directly on my website: https://baddaughter.co.uk/about/ Bad Daughter is an essential feminist book, this inspirational memoir is for every woman who wants to break free. This powerful memoir is a reminder that the courage to be your authentic self can transform your own life – and the lives of those around you.