# What if it's Not a Gender War? | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek

**Author:** Dr. Tesneem Alkiek
**Series:** Real Talk Series
**Published:** 2025-12-11
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/iikVtcF4TAo
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/what-if-its-not-a-gender-war-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek
**Topics:** Allah, Faith, Family & Community, Marriage

## Description
Marriage is weighed down by so many expectations. His rights, your rights, cultural norms, social pressure, mahr debates, Islamic rulings… how do you even begin the conversation without getting overwhelmed? In this episode, Dr. Tesneem Alkiek and host Qaanitah Hunter unpack the topic of marriage...

## Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction: Questioning Gender Roles in Islam
- 1:23 Historical Perspectives: Women in Islamic Scholarship
- 3:35 Challenging Misogyny: Contextualizing Hadiths
- 7:29 Modern Reflections: Correcting Misinterpretations
- 15:11 Vision Beyond Gender
- 16:34 Standpoint Theory and Gendered Experiences
- 18:32 Challenging Misogynistic Perceptions
- 24:24 Empowerment and Attitude Shift

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Tasneem, why does it feel like all shuyukh and Islamic scholars are men?

**[0:20]** You know, I had this awkward encounter where this young girl asked me, is there a reason why all talks on Islam are given by men? It's definitely not the first time I've heard that before. I think we need to have a real talk about this.

**[0:48]** Why is Islam all about men? It's not. It's not. And that question really loses sight of the amount of contributions women have had to Islam over the past thousand plus years. Were scholars of the past misogynistic?

**[1:03]** I think that's exactly where our line of thinking takes us. Islam is defined by men. Men are inherently misogynistic. Don't cut that out and take that on social media, right? And in the process, then the assumption that even Islam being defined by men isn't inherently problematic, right?

**[1:19]** Let's start with muddying our understanding of that question itself. Let's play a game. I'm going to share a quote with you. Guess who said it? If the Prophet of Allah (ﷺ), he saw you women today, he would not let you go to the masjid.

**[1:35]** Why? Background context, because of how you dress and how you act and nope, the Prophet of Allah, you would have been prevented just like the women of Bani Israel would have been prevented. Who said that? A man. A man said that. That's immediately what we think. Of course a man would have said that, right?

**[1:52]** That's exactly what we assume to hear. And I love using this example because it was none other than Aisha (رضي الله عنها), who said this, right? And it's ironic, right? Because Aisha, we think of like super uber pro-women scholar and she was everything like

**[2:07]** that. But she also said, had this quote, right? It's fascinating to me because it starts to sort of like tweak your understanding of who wants what for who, right? Is it men that want good for men only? Is it women that want good for women?

**[2:24]** Now let's start to muddle our understanding. Ironically for us, several scholars respond saying, whoa, whoa, whoa. Male scholars? Male scholars. You've got Ibn Hajar, you've got Ibn Qudamah, Imam Malik, and all different ways basically come back and say, you can't really make her statements law.

**[2:40]** Like we got to follow the Sunnah. She's just commenting maybe on a group of women. But you can't make that law. Like these men are coming back and saying, no, no, no, you can't prevent women from going to the masjid. And I think that's fascinating because that just sort of like flips the conversation on its head.

**[2:56]** And it makes me think that like some of the strictest teachers I've ever had were women. Like some of the most difficult opinions I've ever heard came from women about how I dress, about how I talk, about how I act. And it makes you think like, what does it mean for men to be defining the law?

**[3:18]** What does it mean had women defined the law? Like let's just sort of like muddle the waters here for a second. So Tasneem, not all men are out here to get us. Is that it? You guys can cut that out and put it on social media. Yes, of course not.

**[3:33]** Not all men, shocker, are out to get us. But do you have other examples than this example of Aisha? So like the examples that I want to give, like I want us to start thinking about how we bring our assumptions to the conversation, right?

**[3:49]** There's something called the hermeneutic of suspicion. The idea that our assumptions are going to color the way we even understand a hadith or an ayah or the tradition itself, right? I'll give you an example. There's a hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ), who says, I did not leave a greater

**[4:06]** trial for men in this world than women. Specifically he uses the word fitnah. The biggest fitnah for men is women. What's your raw reaction to that? Women are inherent seducers.

**[4:22]** Women are bad for men. Exactly, right? That's the immediate impression. If I read this hadith with no other context, because all I've heard throughout my life is that men are X, men are, you know, whatever. We've had these negative experiences, they're real experiences.

**[4:40]** But I have sort of like this negative assumption towards the tradition itself, right? I'm assuming that it's misogynistic. I'm assuming it has that male bias. I come across a hadith like this and I'm thinking, of course this is the case. Of course, like, women are described as a fitnah.

**[4:56]** And it's actually fascinating. There was a quote in, it's an academic book. And it uses this hadith. And it's like, look, this is proof. And it goes on like this really long paragraph. And I always quote the paragraph, you know, when I have the book in front of me.

**[5:12]** But basically, look, this is proof that women are the, in Islam, are the greatest moral evil. And they're pitted against the good that is man. And it was like this whole binary of now men represent good and women represent fitnah and

**[5:28]** evil and a test. And it became like this whole sort of, like the entire religion became this assumption that of course, like it was like this affirmation of this bias that they had. And it's frankly infuriating. It's frankly infuriating, right?

**[5:44]** Because you know why it's infuriating? I think of a hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ), who says, Beware of entering upon women in seclusion. And specifically, al-hamu. Al-hamu are in-laws, brothers-in-law, cousins-in-law who are male.

**[6:03]** Basically, your male in-laws. Specifically you watch out for them. They are like death. Al-hamu al-mawt. Right? They're not- Dead by in-laws. Dead by in-laws. The next movie title. It's not just your fitnah. You are so dangerous.

**[6:19]** You cause death. Have you ever heard that hadith being used in that context? Have you ever, like we don't take that lens, that hermeneutic suspicion and read this hadith and think to ourselves like, man, man, you just cause a lot of trouble, man. You're always up, like, take it, stay home, man.

**[6:35]** Right? And Imam al-Nawawi, like he's commenting on this hadith and he's explaining like the presence of male in-laws is akbar fitnah, like it's akbar fitnah, it's even a greater fitnah than so and so and so. So there's this acknowledgement that in this case, men are described as a fitnah and a fitnah

**[6:53]** even worse than just a fitnah, you're death. And so, for me, my issue is, things are taken out of context. Believe me, I know well. Can we agree that it happens all the time? It happens all the time.

**[7:08]** Okay. I've heard this hadith, I've heard this hadith, it's like, this is why you need to stay home, this is why you shouldn't do X, Y, Z, like, I've used it, I've heard it like that. But I've never heard, and I agree, we should be at the forefront of changing those conversations and not allowing that to happen, right?

**[7:24]** We don't want to allow the misuse of a hadith for sort of other reasons. But at the same time, I don't want that as a woman to color how I understand hadith, to increase my bias or my negativity towards the tradition, because I had a negative experience

**[7:44]** how people use it. But Tasneem, you can't tell me it's all bias. It's not all bias. It's not all bias. And I'll give you an example. Longest ayah in the Qur'an is about business contracts. If you do a business contract, and you need witnesses, you call upon two men.

**[8:00]** And if there's not two men, what do you do? You do one man and two women. One man and two women, right? Now, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, he's a magnificent and huge scholar in our tradition, tafsir scholar specifically as well. He comes and comments on this verse.

**[8:16]** And he says, well, this is obviously the case because women, by the nature of their physiology, their bodies have more moisture and coldness in it. And that allows them, that makes them more prone to forgetting.

**[8:31]** But Islam never said this. You know, in fact, that comes from Hellenistic philosophy, Greek Hellenistic philosophy. You'll find that there? You'll find that there. That's exactly the science that was there. And it's like, whoa, no, this is factually incorrect. And in fact, we're not even taking into consideration this opinion, right?

**[8:51]** My argument is we need to sort of be more intentional about how we extract this information, right? We need to be surgical in dissecting the tradition, where I can comfortably go and say this is absolutely incorrect. And we're not even playing these, like, we're not even entertaining this idea, right?

**[9:09]** But you have to bear in mind that there are problematic viewpoints that are, you know, geared against women. Absolutely. But what I think is different, there's no doubt about that, right? I'll give you another example. Ibn Daqiq al-'Eid.

**[9:24]** He writes this whole book about all the different fiqh opinions, the sort of the legal rulings around various hadith. One hadith goes on talking about, one of the discussions goes on talking about, like, what's the procedure for cleaning if a baby urinates on you?

**[9:40]** If it's a baby boy, the process is slightly easier. Why? Well, one of the, this is some of the reason. He writes this. He's right. He's explaining some of the reason behind it. Well, it makes sense that it, to clean a baby boy who's only nursing his urine in an easier

**[9:56]** manner. Why? Because while statistically speaking, baby boys are born more frequently. And you know what? Like, we are technically, we naturally incline more towards baby boys. Like, people love baby boys more. Therefore, we're more likely to carry them.

**[10:13]** Therefore, they're more likely to urinate on us. And it should be easier to, like, that was the explanation. I'm reading this. This is nonsense, right? I can, like, I'm going to now sort of, like, move past this. Going back to what you said, the problem is our instinct is, like, done with the tradition,

**[10:29]** done with hadith, done with everything. That's not going to get us anywhere, right? There's so much the tradition offers. To come back and say, like, well, I'm not really interested in it because I found a problematic opinion. So what do you, you just, you look at the opinion in the face and you just keep moving?

**[10:45]** Is that it? Absolutely not. You acknowledge that this is incorrect. You make your argument and you cite stronger evidence. And that's the case that we can make. Tasneem, that's exactly what we're seeing today. Yes, it is. But you know what inspires me?

**[11:01]** I'm inspired by Aisha (رضي الله عنها), God bless her. Right? Same person who said the hadith in the beginning. Because her legacy is so holistic. After the Prophet (ﷺ) passes away, there's a genre of literature,

**[11:16]** well, a practice in real life, where the companions would correct one another. So if they heard someone issuing a ruling that was contrary to what the Prophet (ﷺ) would have issued, or if they're saying the Prophet said X, Y, Z, and he didn't say that, they were very stern about correcting one another.

**[11:33]** For rightful reasons, right? To preserve the legacy of the Prophet (ﷺ). Now Aisha (رضي الله عنها) played this incredible role in this process. It's known as istidrakat, right? Her correcting of other companions. And there's a couple that relate specifically to women. And it just says so much about her.

**[11:51]** And it's so affirming to what we're experiencing today. Word gets around that the companion Ibn Amr is telling women that after they do the ghusl, or as they're doing it, in fact, that women need to wash all of their hair.

**[12:07]** And in order to do that, they have to unbraid all of their braids and get like every single piece of hair wet. And Aisha (رضي الله عنها) knows very well, for women at the time, how difficult it is to unbraid your hair and to like have all of your hair loose for ghusl.

**[12:25]** And so she goes around and she responds to Ibn Amr and he's like, word has it that women are being told that they need to, undo their braids, why don't you go ahead and just tell them to shave their heads? Just shave your head at that point. It's so complicated, inconvenient. Just why bother, right?

**[12:40]** We love a sarcastic woman. Right. And the sarcasm is just absolutely hilarious, right? But she corrected him. Like that's not how, what I was doing ghusl with the Prophet (ﷺ). The Prophet (ﷺ) never told me to do that. Like this is how you do ghusl, right? Because it would have been really difficult, right? It would have been really difficult, right?

**[12:57]** So she hears that and she corrects him, right? With like little spices, little sarcasm. Another example, you have Abu Huraira (رضي الله عنه). Abu Huraira's got a couple of these examples. We'll share one, just one. But I mentioned that he has a couple of examples of specifically like gender-related hadith

**[13:15]** for a reason. I'll get to it in a second. Abu Huraira is going around and saying, there are three things that break your salah. If one of these three things walk in front of you when you're praying, it breaks your salah and you have to repeat it. All right, let's play a guessing game.

**[13:30]** A donkey. Okay. A dog and a, drum roll please. Another animal? No, a woman. What? A woman, right? And Aisha (رضي الله عنها) hears this and she gets visibly upset. Shabahtumuna bil kilabi wal hameer, really?

**[13:46]** You're comparing us with dogs and donkeys? Really? Like that exact same feeling that we would all have hearing that hadith, right? That's not what the Prophet (ﷺ) says. And then she goes on to correct him. And like, it's so validating because it's some of the same sort of like hadith or opinions

**[14:04]** taken out of context that's like thrown online today. And you're like, what in the world? And Aisha like lived that like reaction that we all wanted to have. It sometimes can get very discouraging. It can get very discouraging. So sometimes, maybe that's why the sarcasm is a part of it, right? Because it keeps you going.

**[14:19]** Like, oh gosh. Yeah, oh gosh, like not again, right? If I was Aisha (رضي الله عنها), she's done this multiple times. This is not like a one or two off, right? Because she had like absolute proximity to the Prophet (ﷺ). She knew best. Absolute proximity. She narrates over 2,000 hadith. You have all of this stuff, right? She about any person should have been discouraged.

**[14:37]** But what I find incredible, like take the example of Abu Huraira, who has multiple instances. Abu Huraira in like feminist circles is labeled very negative things, right? He is labeled, just for the sake of clarity, misogynist, right? And I think it's fascinating that Aisha (رضي الله عنها) herself was able to see the long-term vision.

**[14:59]** Before she passes away, she requests that Abu Huraira, when she passes away, to lead her janazah. And to me, I think that's what's missing in our conversations today. Like we have the things taken out of context. We have the very like reactive expressions and reactions because, I mean, they deserve reactions.

**[15:17]** But what we don't have is the vision of Aisha (رضي الله عنها) who saw past like the gendered element of this. Like there was no gender war because it was these men coming out and saying these things. Like she recognized, listen, there's truth. There's Allah and there's His Prophet. There's the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

**[15:34]** That allows me to understand what I'm going for. I have access to that knowledge. I'm going to use my authority, my knowledge, my scholarship to correct people. But that's not going to get in my way of my brotherhood and sisterhood, of my vision of a community, of my vision of discovering the truth with all of us in it together.

**[15:55]** Aisha had proximity to the Prophet, she had all the right to be confident. She could have just dismissed everyone. Absolutely. I could have been like, what are you talking about? I was the wife of the Prophet. I know best. I know best, but she didn't. Like she took the time to educate people. She put in that effort that people, like a lot of people don't want to put in.

**[16:15]** And that's inspiring to me. So then how do I find that middle ground? So what we don't want to do is go to the other extreme. Which is what? And that's what I hear a lot where it's like men can't tell me what to do. Men can't say anything, right? They can't?

**[16:30]** They can't. That's a good reaction, right? There's something called standpoint theory, right? You might not know the name, but it's a lived reality for a lot of us. Part of the idea behind this theory is that as a woman, I experience the world in a very unique way to my gender.

**[16:50]** And as a result, I have access to knowledge that no one can understand, and especially men. Break that down for me is that no one else can have an opinion about my lived experiences because they're not a woman. That's exactly it, right? Okay. And what does that mean? A man absolutely can't tell me what to do and how to dress and all this kind of stuff.

**[17:09]** Let me like add my disclaimers now. I'm the first person to say we have a problem with hyper focusing on dress, on Muslim women dress. It makes me think of like how we describe people who are religious in our community. Tell me you haven't heard this, right? If you're a man, it's like, oh yeah, he prays. If you're a woman, yeah, she wears hijab.

**[17:24]** And I'm like, okay, like how does that work, right? I think that's so bad. I hear that every time. It's like, oh, is he a good guy? Like, yeah, yeah, he prays. Is she a good girl? Yeah, yeah, she wears hijab. I'm like, oh, hijab is important. I will be the first to say hijab is extremely important.

**[17:40]** But there is a hyper focus. There's a hyper focus, okay? Let's get that out of the way. On the same team, right? I remember back in the, like, we were sort of at a college event. There was like a Muslim, like a discussion amongst the Muslim students on campus. And one person, she said, she wasn't married at the time.

**[17:57]** She was like, my husband can never tell me what to do and how to dress and all of this stuff. And she said it so passionately. And I remember thinking to myself, like, my husband can never tell me what to do or how to dress. Like, he can never relate to me. And I think that's the other extreme. Like, I can advise men.

**[18:12]** I can call out men. I have access to Qur'an and Sunnah. I can advise my husband, right? I can guide him to what is the truth. And the same thing goes for my husband. Like, if there is something that knowledge is accessible to both of us, then shouldn't he advise me to the truth?

**[18:28]** Like, shouldn't we be in this together where he wants the best for me and I want the best for him? But do you know why that notion exists? Because there is this perception that men define Islam to serve themselves. So, it's like, don't tell me how to dress. Don't tell me anything. Because anything you say to me is to serve your interests.

**[18:46]** That's the rebellion, if you like. Absolutely. And I'd like to think that at this point, I've been able to sort of poke at this idea. Like, why is that the assumption, right? And this whole question is sort of filled with these assumptions, right?

**[19:02]** And I think that, like, it's important. We need to ask. We need to prod. We need to push back. We can inherit our actions' legacy and call out, right? I'm not rejecting any of this stuff. Again, I'll be at the forefront doing that. But sometimes I feel like the conversation shifts where we assume when we talk about the tradition,

**[19:21]** we talk about hadith, we talk about our understanding of ayat, that we're living in some type of vortex and we're not influenced as well by our own biases, right? I can tell you al-Razi was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy and I'm going to take out his opinion on, you know, women's physiology because that's simply incorrect.

**[19:38]** I can tell you Ibn Daqiq was influenced by social expectations that men have a better liking to boys, right? But, like, in the process, I feel like we think that we are neutral readers, approachers to the tradition. Like, we don't have any biases whatsoever.

**[19:54]** A hundred years from now, I can look back and think to myself, like, wow, I was really influenced by 21st century ideals and morals and that was a terrible way to interpret that hadith. That was a terrible way to interpret that verse, right? And so I think some of this, some of this requires sort of stepping back, recognizing we don't operate in a vortex either.

**[20:14]** But we all have access to the Qur'an and Sunnah. We all need to try, we all need to put in that effort and recognize that everyone's trying their best. Scholars of the past, right, the assumption that scholars of the past were misogynistic, like, we need to recognize that they were trying to get to the truth just as we're trying to get to the truth, right?

**[20:32]** We could just say they were misogynistic full stop. I give them the benefit of the doubt. Okay, then what, right? I think that's the important question. We just toss out the tradition? Like, I think if anyone has not studied Islamic law or has, like, let's just entertain Islamic law for a second.

**[20:48]** The amount of work it took to be able to provide the principles, to be able to, like, collect the hadith in certain, you know, according to subjects, the amount of work that it took to interpret, to offer, like, collective insight on these things,

**[21:05]** it's not a simple matter. Like, it's always like black and white, like, let's just toss out the tradition. Do you understand the amount of beneficial work that you can find, even in a scholar who might have a very clear quote that's misogynistic? But then how do you stop this persistent culture of presenting Islam as if it's misogynistic?

**[21:26]** Because something has to give. Something has to give. And you know what? That's on it to me, it's on it to you, it's on it to anyone who has the ambition to pursue Islamic scholarship as a woman. Because I think that- But I didn't create the problem. You didn't create the problem, but you know what? There's a lot of problems in this world, and we all have to step it up, right?

**[21:44]** Yeah. We all have to push ourselves. I see a problem, it doesn't matter if I create it or not. I'm trying to contribute to the solution, right? Like, I'm inspired by Aisha (رضي الله عنها) and I want to be that person. I want to be that person who calls out things that are problematic. I want to make that difference.

**[21:59]** I want to make that change. But I'm not going to let that get in the way and I feel like I get stuck in this sort of victimized mode. Like, oh my God, men are misogynistic, therefore, what's the point? I can never try. They run everything. Then what? No, but I get you. But you are discounting a lived experience of people feel like they are isolated from faith

**[22:19]** because the gatekeepers of faith are men. So, it's not about wanting to do more. It's not about changing the status quo. It's actually about saying, I can't even get through the door. I think we need to be creative.

**[22:35]** You're giving us a lot of homework here. I'm giving you a lot of homework, but I'm very motivated. And take the sort of energy, the aura in the air, Kanita. I'm pushing it through the wind. But listen, like at what point in history, like there's always going to be challenges.

**[22:51]** There's always going to be challenges. And sure, it might not be as easy as walking to a masjid. That's okay. Like to me, we can be creative. We can create third spaces. We can create online platforms to study as women.

**[23:08]** Don't let a door slam in your face, right? What I'm taking away from this conversation is that the question itself, is Islam defined by men? It's problematic in itself. I wouldn't say it's problematic, but I would say that it's loaded with assumptions

**[23:24]** and we need to recognize those assumptions. One being that men are inherently out to get us and are misogynistic. We need to sort of question these one by one. And I think that gives me a bigger picture. Sure, I can say that we're a vast majority of scholars in the tradition male.

**[23:41]** Yeah. Was there a time in history where women were in the thousands of hadith narrators and contributors? Yeah. I'm looking to that vision, right? I want to step up our game. It's almost like our mentality is, as history moves on,

**[23:57]** sure, once upon a time, women had a role, but then men shut it down and now we're forever stuck in this man's world. No. There's no reason we can't have a strong female scholarly presence. No.

**[24:13]** Prove to me otherwise, right? Put in the effort, put in the time. Yes, it's not easy. It's not easy when you don't have access to these spaces. But I guess nothing that's worth it is easy. So then how do we empower ourselves as women? You spoke about creating our own spaces. What else?

**[24:29]** Yeah, and I really think, I want to emphasize, I think it's this attitude shift. It's not going to be easy. I'm glad you emphasized it. It's not going to be easy. There's always going to be challenges. It's about what are you doing with these challenges? It's about getting yourself past through these challenges, knowing that, you know what? I'm in this. You're going to have a lot of people who are trying to detract from you.

**[24:45]** There's going to be a lot of people who criticize everything you say and do. But if you have that end goal, like I'm thinking, I don't care what this guy says. I don't care if they were saying things that made me uncomfortable or discomfort. I'm going to say truth for what it is. And I'm not going to let that get in my way when it comes to my janazah.

**[25:03]** We're all allies. We're awliya. The believing men and believing women are awliya of one another. That attitude shift, I think, is so important. And then a little bit is just knowing how and when to ask questions. I think of Umm Salama (رضي الله عنها), wife of the Prophet (ﷺ).

**[25:19]** She asked a question. It's so gutsy. Yeah. She's hearing the Qur'an being revealed. And she's hearing and it's almost like, it feels like the Qur'an is just talking to men. This passage in the Qur'an, you'll read a whole surah and it feels like it's only talking to men.

**[25:36]** She asks what's on every woman's mind. Like out loud? Not just out loud. She goes to the Prophet (ﷺ). She's like, you know, it feels like the Qur'an is just talking to men. Like, can we get some clarity? Am I being addressed here? What's going on? I mean, it's a whole other conversation.

**[25:51]** The fact that the Prophet (ﷺ) was so incredibly benevolent and kind and open that people just were always comfortable asking him even the toughest questions. That is amazing. Let's just put that to the side there for a second, right? But then I think about it. She asks this question and because of her question, the ayah in Surah Al-Ahzab comes down.

**[26:07]** It's a long ayah. Like, believing men, believing women. Muslim men, Muslim women. The women who fast, the men who fast, the men who donate, the women who... Like, all of these attributes that are both men and women.

**[26:25]** All of you guys get the greatest reward. It was this way of Allah affirming her question. And saying, we're talking about both of you. Talking about both men and women. And Umm Salama, the same person (رضي الله عنها), later on, there's another story where she's sitting and the houses of the wives of the Prophet

**[26:43]** were connected to the masjid, right? So she's sitting in her house and she's got her servant who's helping brush through her hair. And she hears the Prophet (ﷺ) get on the minbar and he goes, Ya ayyuha al-nas, right? Ya ayyuha al-nas in Arabic is, oh, people. And it's technically a masculine plural. So she tells the person who's helping her,

**[26:59]** Okay, just give me a second, I'm going to go. The Prophet (ﷺ) called me. She's like, what are you talking about? He called al-nas. He's talking to men. She's like, I'm from among the people. And gets up. That's the attitude we need to have. I'm from the people. Our job is here and we all have that responsibility to learn and to grow and to contribute.

**[27:16]** I guess that shift is important. So how do you get out of that victim mode and actually empower yourself? Let us know.

## Other Episodes in "Real Talk Series"
- [Build Your Relationship With the Qur’an Before Ramadan | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/build-your-relationship-with-the-quran-before-ramadan-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [When You Feel Conflicted About a Hadith | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/when-you-feel-conflicted-about-a-hadith-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [Tips for When You're Struggling With Your Faith | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/tips-for-when-youre-struggling-with-your-faith-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [Are We Becoming Too Self-Centered? | Real Talk ft. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/are-we-becoming-too-self-centered-real-talk-ft-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [The Healthy Way to Think About Feminism | Real Talk ft. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/the-healthy-way-to-think-about-feminism-real-talk-ft-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [Spiritual Burnout is Real | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/spiritual-burnout-is-real-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [The Social Media Spiral | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/the-social-media-spiral-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [The Problem With Hustle Culture | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/the-problem-with-hustle-culture-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [Why is Marriage So Complicated? | SERIES PREMIERE | Real Talk ft. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/why-is-marriage-so-complicated-series-premiere-real-talk-ft-dr-tesneem-alkiek.md)
- [LET’S CHAT | First impressions, Hijab, Highschool Awkwardness | New Series with Dr Tesneem Alkiek](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/lets-chat-first-impressions-hijab-highschool-awkwardness.md)
- [Trailer | Real Talk with Dr. Tesneem Alkiek and Qaanitah Hunter](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/real-talk-series/trailer-real-talk-with-dr-tesneem-alkiek-and-qaanitah-hunter.md)