Nadia Ahmad on climate justice, abolition, and being in Teen People magazine

When Teen People magazine sent Nadia Ahmad on a shopping spree in 1998, she didn't feel cool enough to model makeup! Plus, she had just started wearing a hijab, and the 18-year-old wasn't sure how to reconcile her femininity within the norms of a teen magazine.

Today, Nadia is an Associate Professor of Law at Barry University in Florida. She completed her law degree at the University of Florida; where she served as executive editor of the Florida Journal of International Law, and wrote about women’s property rights in post-partition South Asia.

You’ll hear about her shopping trip in this episode and, of course, what she’s up to now, 25 years later.

Time stamps:

00:01 Random fighter jet flyby

05:45 "I remember growing up and hearing the sound of the newspaper hit the driveway, and being really excited..."

07:56 "I felt I wasn't cool enough to write about makeup!"

10:04 Nadia describes her shopping spree for Teen People, where she bought products from Lancôme, Kiehl's and The Body Shop.

12:30 "You'll find more Muslim women in the malls than you will in the mosque."

16:31 Nadia began to wear a hijab to honour her grandmother

17:50 - 23:18 Hijab as a political symbol; a "contra-modern" form of feminism

27:20 Working as a freelance journalist

28:34 Nadia shifts from journalism to law

30:33 Nadia's Berkeley landlord was Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was later convicted of human trafficking and sex offences

35:02 Nadia was interviewed for a news program but YouTubers called her out for *checks notes* wearing lipstick during her interview

36:08 Meghan and Harry's NYC car chase and whether Meghan was *checks notes* smiling in the paparazzi photos

38:06 The idea of going to school and teaching is so simple: but it's both contested and sad, and Nadia feels like she has to build armour to get through

38:29 "It would be very hard for me to even exist in certain places of the world"

39:00 Straight to the Comments podcast trailer

40:16 Kudos to podcast maven Arielle Nissenblatt

40:22 We talk about Nadia's PhD research on climate change and environmental racism, especially in relation to the recent Canadian wildfires and US Southwest heatwaves

43:47 Nadia wrote about 21 Savage and his immigration detention

45:46 Nadia is critical of the American Bar Association and their stance on mass incarceration

48:50 Nadia speaks about prison abolition

50:10 "My kids don't even know about 9/11"

51:13 Zayn from One Direction normalized "Muslimness" for Gen Z

52:33 Nadia reflects on the role her grandmother played in her life

54:33 What advice would Nadia give her teenage self today?

Podcast notes:

Nadia is friends with a previous guest, Amar Shah, who also appeared in the same Teen People feature. Make sure you listen to his episode, too! And have a listen to my interview with Alisha Fernandez Miranda, who met Amar on the Teen People News Team.

Find me on Twitter and Instagram [at]TeenPeoplePod!

Music: Relaxed Vlog by Ashot-Danielyan-Composer on Pixabay

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.