Between Friends: Conversations with Maitri – Détails, épisodes et analyse

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re bringing you a powerful conversation that reminds us: our mental health is just as important as our physical health.In this episode, we shine a light on the often-unspoken emotional toll of unrealistic familial expectations, especially within in-law relationships. From subtle put-downs to emotional manipulation and controlling behaviors, these dynamics can deeply impact couples' well-being and mental peace.• How can we recognize these patterns?• How do we respond with dignity and protect our emotional safety? Join us and our guest, Sushma Trivedi, LMFT, as she shares valuable insights and tools to navigate these challenges and support healthier, more respectful relationships. Sushma Trivedi Bio:Sushma Trivedi's first career was as a physicist. She obtained her Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from IIT, Delhi. She worked in academia and the high-tech industry for more than twenty years before starting a career in the field of mental health. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and sees clients remotely and in person at her offices in Los Altos and Sunnyvale. Because of her cultural and professional background, she likes to integrate science and Eastern philosophy in her counseling work. Sushma believes that all clients have the resources within them to resolve the social and emotional challenges they are presented with in life. She pays close attention to her clients' belief systems, thinking styles, and patterns of relationships and how these are affecting their current life situation. She helps the client identify their goals and become aware of their strengths and resources.You can find out more about her at her website: https://www.sushmatrivedi.com#mentalhealthawarenessmonth #MaitriPodcast #SouthAsianMentalHealth #HealthyRelationships #EmotionalWellbeing #inlaws #EndDV #sushmatrivedi

Welcome to Policy Matters, a quarterly presentation from Maitri Policy Advocacy, where we discuss public policies that shape the prevention, intervention, and overall attention to domestic violence within our communities.In our third presentation of Policy Matters, we interview Casey Swegman of Tahirih Justice Center on the prevalence of child marriages in the US and learn about the upcoming federal proposal to address child marriages nationally.Casey Carter Swegman is a national expert on serving immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. As the Director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center she oversees Tahirih’s state and federal policy advocacy focused on improving protections for immigrant survivors while simultaneously seeking long-term, systemic change. She engages in extensive domestic and international training and outreach and serves as a liaison to local agencies and service providers working to strengthen the capacity of their local community to respond to the needs of immigrant survivors. Before her role as Director of Public Policy, Casey spent over 10 years in direct service with immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking, including at Tahirih on the Forced Marriage Initiative and before that with the International Rescue Committee, where she led a program for refugees arriving with special needs.This episode was curated by the Maitri Policy Advocacy Program and facilitated by Smitha Chandrasekhar. Smitha is a senior at the University of Washington majoring in Biology. She is currently on the pre-med track and intends to focus on a career in women’s reproductive health and oncology. Smitha has been volunteering with Maitri for almost a year and is deeply invested in promoting the rights of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to their own bodies and autonomy.Resources shared in this PodcastChild Marriage Prevention Act of 2024https://www.tahirih.org/news/child-ma...Discussion with Fraidy Reiss, Child Marriage Survivor and founder of Unchained At last   • S5-E1: Unchained At Last: California ...  Asia Child marriage initiative: Summary of the research in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploa...Child Marriage in the UShttps://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/up...UNICEF working to end child marriages in the UShttps://www.unicefusa.org/how-help/ad...California Senate Bill 404 on Child Marriage ban https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB404/id... California Coalition to End Child Marriage https://cacoalitiontoendchildmarriage... It is time to end child marriages in the US https://www.cfr.org/blog/its-time-end.

Commemorating Women’s History Month!

Tune in to our latest podcast episode where four South Asian women come together to discuss misogynistic behaviors and attitudes that we women face every day. From overtly offensive behaviors to subtle, normalized attitudes, we delve into the spectrum of experiences women face daily. Join us in identifying and confronting misogynistic attitudes and behaviors. Together, let’s explore strategies for dismantling this toxic culture and envision a future where equality thrives.

Host: Nandini Ray, Sr. Manager Outreach, Prevention, and Policy Advocacy, Maitri

Guests: Aarushi Kumar, Rika Alavi, Kashmira Patel (Maitri Volunteers)

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org] Please share your feedback here: https://forms.gle/Req1NfTSAYfUnYfD7

Are South Asian youth comfortable sharing their dating experiences with their parents? Do they receive enough guidance and support from their families in understanding the concept of healthy partner relationships?

To discuss these questions we invited 3 South Asian youth community members. Hajra Usman, Sid Barathi, and Nidhi Satyagal joined us to shed light on the unique challenges South Asian youth face when navigating conversations about dating and relationships with their families. They also shared their recommendations on how both South Asian youth and adults can facilitate an environment of safe and open communication to have conversations on healthy partner relationships. Please listen to this insightful discussion and share this episode with your network. Feel free to share your recommendations with us at maitri@maitri.org.

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org]

Our host: Nandini Ray has been involved in the gender justice movement since 2011. As the Sr. Manager of the Outreach & Prevention Program at Maitri, she leads community engagement and education efforts at Maitri, represents Maitri at community talks, panels, and in media, and provides culturally responsive training for DV advocates and service providers. Nandini curates, designs and hosts Maitri’s reputed Podcast series, “Between Friends” and leads social media outreach efforts.

Hajra Usman is a clinical researcher assistant and a long-time Maitri volunteer.

Sid Barathi is a recent graduate from UCSB. He currently works at a research lab and a clinic as a medical assistant.

Nidhi Satyagal is the Prevention Program Associate at Maitri. She recently graduated from UCSB with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in History.

Female genital cutting/ mutilation has been recognized as a human rights violation by the World Health Organization. This topic is highly controversial due to its roots in cultural and religious practices so we should have multiple conversations to have community awareness around it. To discuss how we can end this oppressive practice and bring positive social change, we invited Mariya Taher, the co-founder and U.S. Executive Director of Sahiyo. Listen to this episode here! Visit: https://sahiyo.org/ This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org #EndDV, #maitripodcast, #maitriwww.maitri.org

Mariam Azimi, a survivor with her courage and resilience not only paved her future with safety and dignity, but also gave support, guidance, and emotional confidence to many survivors that they needed after suffering from domestic violence. Mariam has been working relentlessly to break the stigma of divorce. In this Maitri podcast episode, Mariam shares her journey and hope.

Mariam Azimi is the founder of Care2Elevate.space and established CircleofsiSTARhood (https://www.facebook.com/circleofsiSTARhood/about_details.)

We invited Yasmin Azad, the author of Stay, Daughter on our podcast to talk about her experience and reflection on the dilemmas that Muslim women faced and are facing in balancing the rules of orthodox Islam with the freedom and innovations of the modern world. Fahria Khan, our Donor Engagement Manage had an in-depth conversation with the author. Please listen to the episode here!

Yasmin Azad grew up in Sri Lanka and was among the first group of girls in her Muslim community to go away from home to pursue a university degree. After obtaining a B.A. in English, she married and moved to the United States where she raised her three children and worked as a mental health counselor. Her writing has been published in Navasilu, Solstice Literary Magazine, and The Massachusetts Review, and her memoir is Stay, Daughter: A Memoir of Muslim Girlhood. Read more about Stay Daughter: https://staydaughter.com/

Fahria Khan is the Donor Engagement Manager at Maitri. She is a community leader who has spent the last 20 years serving the community through various non-profit organizations, programs, and initiatives. 

#EndDV, #maitripodcast, #maitri, # YasminAzad, #MuslimGirlhood, #girls

www.maitri.org

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org]

In this episode, Flavia Agnes joined us to share her journey from a survivor to a trailblazer. Flavia Agnes is a women’s rights advocate, legal scholar, and one of the central figures of the women’s movement in India. Her own experience with domestic violence inspired her to become a women's rights lawyer. As co-founder of MAJLIS, a legal and cultural resource center in Mumbai, India, her primary engagement has been to provide quality legal services to women and children.

**About Flavia Agnes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavia_Agnes

**About Majlis: https://majlislaw.com/about/

Learn about Maitri: www.maitri.org

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention: https://desj.sccgov.org/ogbvp

In this episode we discussed inter-generational cultural conflicts that many South Asian parents and teens face. Three South Asian teens, Tara Sardana, Alina Shah and Kaushal Namuduri shared their thoughts on how this cultural conflict can be damaging for individual, family and community well-being.

If you are a parent or a teen, then you must listen to this episode to learn what can be done to reduce and end intergenerational cultural conflict. Please share this episode with your network. Feel free to share your recommendations with us at maitri@maitri.org.

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org]

Did you know that between 2000 and 2018, an astonishing 23,588 children were married in California alone? This sparks the question as to why it continues and who opposes the reform initiatives.
In 2023, SB404 was introduced by lawmakers to prohibit marriages before the age of 18; however, it was changed to only make it a misdemeanor to arrange non-legally recognized child marriages without actually ending child marriages in California. Passing the Senate, SB404 awaits a vote in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety.
In this podcast, the founder of Unchained At Last (www.unchainedatlast.org), Fraidy Reiss had an insightful discussion with Maitri’s Director of Survivor Advocacy, Zakia Afrin and Senior Manager of Client Services, Jaya Suresh.

Fraidy Reiss is a forced marriage survivor turned activist. Through Unchained, Fraidy has helped hundreds of survivors across the U.S. to escape forced marriages, and she now leads a growing national movement to end child marriage in every U.S. state and at the federal level. Fraidy’s research and writing on forced and child marriage have been published extensively, including in the New York Times, Washington Post and Journal of Adolescent Health and by Oxford Press, making her one of the foremost experts on these abuses in the U.S. 

Read More about Fraidy’s Reiss:

https://www.unchainedatlast.org/founder-executive-director/

Relevant Resources on Forced Marriages:

California Senate Bill 404 on Child Marriage ban

https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB404/id/2832415

California Coalition to End Child Marriage

https://cacoalitiontoendchildmarriage.org/

It is time to end child marriages in the US

https://www.cfr.org/blog/its-time-end-child-marriage-united-states

Asia Child marriage initiative: Summary of research in Bangladesh, India and Nepal

https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLAN-ASIA-Child-Marriage-3-Country-Study.pdf

#EndDV, #maitripodcast, #maitri, #Endchildmarriage # Fraidyreiss #unchainedatlast

www.maitri.org

This project was made possible by funding provided by the County of Santa Clara Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. [www.sccendviolence.org]