On the show this week, I'm talking to researcher, brain health trainer and parent coach, Taiba Bajar about her book, Unlock Autism. Taiba has developed a unique seven-step action plan to helping unlock a child's potential within 12 months. Taiba's son is autistic, and upon receiving his diagnosis, she went on a mission to do everything in her power to help her son, manage his autism and help him to thrive. In this episode, we talk about the treatment of autism in the NHS, rewiring the brain, South Asian experiences and so much more.

Taiba Bajar is an award-winning researcher and licensed brain health trainer. With a seasoned background as a corporate professional and parent coach, she holds two science degrees from the University of Bristol with a background in neuroscience.

Taiba founded Autism Brain Empowerment, a successful parent coaching business following her journey as a parent to her autistic son. Drawing from her professional expertise and personal experiences, Taiba equips parents to guide their children in reducing autism symptoms, unlocking their potential, and fostering their leadership in the world.

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On this week’s episode, I’m speaking to Saima Mir, journalist and crime novelist, author of The Khan, and its sequel, Vengeance.

In her books, Saima introduces us to Jia Khan. A successful lawyer, her London life is a long way from the grubby Northern streets she knew as a child, where her father headed up the Pakistani community and ran the local organised crime syndicate. Often his Jirga rule - the old way - was violent and bloody, but it was always justice of a kind.

In her books, Saima explores morality, humanity, family, kinship, community, patriarchy and the unfair expectations placed on women. She explores what people are forced to do to survive, and the grey lines between right and wrong.

Saima Mir is an award-winning journalist and writer. She has written for The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, and worked for the BBC.

Her work appeared in the anthology, It’s Not About the Burqa in 2019, and The Best Most Awful Job in 2020. Her novel The Khan is being published by Point Blank and is due on in January 2021. The Khan has been optioned by BBC Studios.

Saima is a recipient of The Commonwealth Broadcast Association World View Award, and The K Blundell Trust Award. Saima’s work has been longlisted for The SI Leeds Literary Prize, and The Bath Novel Award.

Her screenplay Ruby & Matt has been optioned by Rendition Films

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On this week’s episode, I’m speaking to Susan Muaddi Darraj about her new novel, behind you is the sea, s set in Baltimore and follows the stories of a Palestinian American immigrant community. It is a tender, sweeping novel of a family grappling with so much – loss of identity, struggling to exist in a country that is so hostile towards them, strained family dynamics, love, difficult marriages, parent-child relationships and so much more. Behind you is the sea is a story of a Palestinian Christian community, and Palestinian Christians face huge erasure and genocide as the war on Gaza continues well into its seventh month.

Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award-winning writer of books for adults and children. She won an American Book Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. In 2018, she was named a USA Artists Ford Fellow.

Susan Muaddi Darraj’s short story collection, A Curious Land: Stories from Home, was named the winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, judged by Jaime Manrique. It also won the 2016 Arab American Book Award, a 2016 American Book Award, and was shortlisted for a Palestine Book Award. Her previous short story collection, The Inheritance of Exile, was published in 2007 by University of Notre Dame Press. For children, she has written numerous YA biographies, as well as the Farah Rocks chapter book series, the first to feature an Arab American protagonist.

Her new novel, Behind You Is the Sea . The book was published in the USA in January 2024, and will be releasing in the UK in early June.

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On this week’s episode, I’m talking to Vanessa Chan about her debut novel, an absolutely mesmerising story set across two timelines: 1930s and 1945 in Malaya – what Malaysia was called before independence. It is a story with four different perspectives, following the decision made by one woman to become a spy for Japan, and the dreadful consequences that befall her family and country, afterwards.

Vanessa Chan is the Malaysian author of The Storm We Made, a national bestseller, Good Morning America Book Club Pick and BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick. Acquired by international publishers in a flurry of auctions, the novel, her first, will be published in more than twenty languages worldwide. Her other work has been published in Vogue, Esquire, and more. Vanessa grew up in Malaysia and is now based mostly in Brooklyn.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do think about leaving a review, and like, subscribe and rate wherever you listen to this show :)
Come connect with me on social media - I'd love to chat:

www.instagram.com/readwithsamia
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This week, I'm talking to Ishi Robinson, author of the delightful novel, Sweetness In the Skin. In this book, we meet the absolutely wonderful character of Pumpkin, a teenage girl trying to make her way in the world and be true to who she really is. The story is moving and wholesome, while tackling some darker issues including colourism, classism, abusive and absent parents, strained family relationships and so much more.

Ishi Robinson is a Jamaican writer living in Berlin. Her first published work was a short story in the national newspaper when she was eleven years old. Since then, she’s written opinion pieces and short stories of fiction for various publications in Kingston, Toronto, Rome, and Berlin. SWEETNESS IN THE SKIN is her first novel.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do think about leaving a review, and like, subscribe and rate wherever you listen to this show :)
Come connect with me on social media - I'd love to chat:

www.instagram.com/readwithsamia
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This week on the show, I’m talking to Jassa Ahluwalia about his book and memoir, Both Not Half. Both Not Half is a poignant exploration of Jassa’s own heritage – Punjabi and English – and other forms of identity including faith, class, gender and sexuality. Jassa reminds us that we are never fractions of an identity, but always whole, in a myriad of beautiful, overlapping, confusing but empowering ways.

Jassa Ahluwalia is a British actor, writer, filmmaker, and trade unionist. Born in Coventry to a white English mom and a brown Punjabi dad in 1990, he attended school in Leicester and was raised in an extended family environment. He spoke English in the playground and Punjabi with his grandparents and spent various summer holidays in India. He came to prominence as Rocky in the hit BBC Three series Some Girls, followed by starring roles in Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders.

Jassa created the hashtag #BothNotHalf to explore mixed identity in light of his own British-Indian heritage. His TEDx talk on “How Language Shapes Identity” has clocked up over 170k views, and his BBC One documentary Am I English? won an Asian Media Award in 2022.

Both Not Half is publishing on 16th May 2024 in the UK. Get your copy here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5890/9781788708319

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do think about leaving a review, and like, subscribe and rate wherever you listen to this show :)
Come connect with me on social media - I'd love to chat:

www.instagram.com/readwithsamia
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On the show this week, I'm speaking with Reem Gaafar, author of the novel, A Mouthful of Salt. This book is a really stunning, powerful story of a community in the north of Sudan, struck by calamity and loss. The book opens with a devastating scene of a boy gone missing and presumed to have drown, and the panic and grief in the wake of his search. Reem explores so much in this novel, including motherhood, the power of education, othering, community structures, tribalism and so much more.

In this episode, we talk about all the themes Reem writes about, and the current war in Sudan, which has, at time of recording been going on for over 1 year. The war has led to millions of people being displaced, with nowhere to escape the violence, and over 18 million people are experiencing extreme hunger. As a trigger warning, we also talk about some sensitive issues including FGM, infertility, death, loss of children and trauma. If you don’t feel comfortable hearing about these issues right now, please do consider listening to another episode again and perhaps revisiting at a time that is better for you.

Reem Gaafar is a writer, physician and filmmaker. Her writing has appeared in African Arguments, African Feminism, Teakisi Magazine, Andariya and 500 Words Magazine, among others. Her short story ‘Light of the Desert’ was published in I Know Two Sudans (Gipping Press UK, 2014) where it was awarded an Honourable Mention. Her short story ‘Finding Descartes’ was published in Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices (HarperVia, 2023). A Mouth Full of Salt is her debut novel and Winner of the Island Prize 2023. Gaafar lives in Canada with her husband and three sons.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do think about leaving a review, and like, subscribe and rate wherever you listen to this show :)
Come connect with me on social media - I'd love to chat:

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This episode is a special bonus episode with scholar, writer and translator, Shaimaa Abulebda, from within Rafah, in Gaza.

Shaymaa’s family home in east Khan Younis brings together her 8 married siblings, and for her nieces and nephews, it is their grandparents’ house.

Shaimaa has lived through the second intifada, and all the aggressions on Gaza since 2008 until this curren ongoing genocide.With dreams of getting a PhD in literature, Shaimaa looked forwad to a bright future. She was lecturing at the Islamic University of Gaza, which has now been destroyed.

Since October 7th, Shaimaa and her parents have been displaced three times and are now living in an over-crowded refugee camp in Rafah, where there is no food, clean water or electricity.

Shaimaa is currently raising funds so her and her parents can leave Gaza and find safety in Egypt first, before thinking about what could come next.

You can donate and support Shaimaa and her family here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-evacuate-shaimaa-and-her-parents-from-gaza-o

In her own words, Shaimaa has described the extensive stress, pain and pressure on the people of Gaza, the way in which everyone is losing weight and strength due to forced starvation, how nobody can clean themselves properly, and how Shaymaa’s short term memory is being impacted every single day.

I invited Shaimaa onto the podcast so she can share her story, and we can hear first-hand what life is like in Gaza, both today but also in the years that Shaimaa grew up.

Due to a lack of strong internet connection and a quiet space, this episode has been put together from separate recordings, and Shaimaa recorded her story during the night from a refugee camp. While listening you might hear some sound disturbances and hear background noise: war planes, drones, and other people.


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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do think about leaving a review, and like, subscribe and rate wherever you listen to this show :)
Come connect with me on social media - I'd love to chat:

www.instagram.com/readwithsamia
www.instagram.com/thediversebookshelfpod

Support the Show.