Many Michigan students went back to school this week.

One of the new changes this year is a no-cellphone policy in classrooms signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The new policy goes into effect this school year. Students are not allowed to use phones, AirPods, smartwatches, or Meta glasses in classes unless otherwise allowed by teachers who wish to use technology in their classrooms. Teachers may collect cellphones at the beginning of class or require students to turn their phones off on silent during classroom instruction time.

The new measure was put into place to allow students to pay more attention in class by reducing distractions. It’s also an effort to improve mental health.

Other Headlines:

• Over 1,900 people missing due to Nepal floods.

• The City of Warren is working on expanding its tree canopy.

• WIC has changed the baby formula being distributed. Beginning Nov. 1 they will serve Enfamil products.

• CAIR Michigan has created a safety toolkit for mosques and Islamic centers, after the deadly shooting in San Diego in May.

• The American Arab Chamber of Commerce has fired its Executive Director Bilal Hammoud for alleged missing funds. An investigation is ongoing.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center raised an alarm about the city of Detroit failing to comply with the language access ordinance it passed last year.

Detroit Free Press and Bridge Detroit journalist Nushrat Rahman says the ordinance was intended for the city to translate information for emergencies or public health emergencies.

“That’s really the crux of where this issue came about, because there were, as we know, recent health emergencies related to the hazardous smoke and the extreme heat, and an immigrant rights group essentially raised the alarm and said that the city is violating its own ordinance by not translating much of this material for residents for whom English may not be their first language,” she explains.

Rahman says that without the translated information, Detroit residents who do not speak English, or for whom English is not their first language, miss out on vital information.

She says for example, the city did not consistently put out information or resources in translated languages to avoid hazardous smoke to extreme heat.

“What immigrant rights advocates have been saying is that a lot of that information was out there, but it wasn’t translated for people… one of the groups mentioned that residents came to them, and they had to provide that information,” Rahman shares.

According to the Census, 14% of Detroiters five years old and up speak a language other than English. Rahman says the city identified Spanish, Bangla, Arabic and French as languages that they hope to provide city information in.

“I looked at the city of Detroit’s Facebook and Instagram page, and also the city’s health department Facebook and Instagram pages. And translated posts were sporadic,” she says.

Rahman reported the city is taking steps to improve their language access services, including having several departments focus on the work, and hiring a new person to take the lead to create a comprehensive plan for improvements.

She says community groups are also advocating for additional languages to be added. They say they are willing to work with the city to create resources.

This story was originally published in WDET.

Other Headlines:

• Older adults are unaware of 988 lifeline

• Michigan farm workers are facing increased anxiety due to Trump administration’s latest immigration enforcement

• Who plays cricket in Detroit?

• Jake Lang visits Dearborn, mayor talks about coming together in unity

• Former Hamtramck city manager sues

Detroit news legend WDET News Director Jerome Vaughn is retiring Monday, August 17. Like many of us in the journalism landscape, JV has helped mentor, inspire, and encourage young journalists to aspire to make a difference. He’s been working for WDET for 34 years, 20 of those years as the News Director.

I first met JV at an internship fair at Wayne State University. I interned as a news intern in 2010. At the time, I was studying print journalism at WSU and very shy. I was terrified of the prospect of doing anything broadcast - TV or radio. But, as all students in the Journalism Institute for Media Diversity, we interned at various news organizations to learn the craft.

JV was gentle, yet firm and encouraging to all the interns. We had high standards, working alongside knowledgeable journalists, many of whom became my colleagues years later. Many people started as interns at WDET and later landed a job in the industry, in what is almost a nonexistent pipeline for journalists of color. This is an industry that is hard to break into, stay a part of, and do meaningful work.

I returned to WDET in 2018 for the Food in Two Worlds StoryCorps fellowship, learning how to take my skills from print journalism to radio. My first story was about a Bangladeshi restaurant. On my first day of the fellowship, he teased me, saying, “Oh, you talk now?!” remembering me from my shy intern days.

I did another freelance project after the fellowship and was later hired during COVID-19 to work with Detroit Documenters.

Working in radio is a huge deal for people like me, a Bangladeshi American hijabi Muslim girl. There are not many people who share my background in the industry. Over the years, people have expressed shock to see a hijabi journalist working at a major mainstream media outlet.

It is NOT lost on me what this means for girls like me, who juggle intersectional identities. I feel an immense responsibility and pressure to get it right for the general audience while bringing in nuanced conversations and bringing BIPOC communities into the fold.

We are certainly indebted to mentors like JV who pay it forward.

One day while teaching me how to anchor, JV said, “You might be the first Bangladeshi American woman on air, no pressure,” as a joke. There are a few others. As I hyperventilated through the first mock anchoring session, I also appreciated how much he understood where I was coming from and where I was headed.

He is supportive of letting me tell the stories of marginalized communities, including Bangladeshi and Muslim stories. He has always encouraged me to listen to my gut instinct and pursue stories worth telling.

JV also created the Detroit Evening Report podcast, a daily news podcast. It’s a podcast co-hosted by journalists of color (about five of us at any given time, including the news director), for communities of color. JV knows deeply what it means to be seen and heard. He also cares deeply about Detroit and Detroiters getting the news they need.

I thank him for his service. In addition to being our work dad, he’s a role model who has shaped journalists in Detroit and beyond. He’s going to be missed, but not forgotten.

With gratitude,

Nargis

Documentary photographer Syed Yaqeen is the founder of the American Muslim Experience documentary project. He created the project to preserve the stories of American Muslims through visual storytelling and conversations.

“It’s just everyday lives of folks going through their struggles, kids going to school, people going to their work, and all of that is what the one thing that connects. And they happen to be Muslims,” he says.

Yaqeen began American Muslim Experience as a passion project around 2017. The multimedia platform became a nonprofit in December 2025.

Coming to Michigan

This week, the Pennsylvania-based photographer visited Hamtramck, Detroit, and Dearborn to gather pictures of people.

“Michigan is so interesting because you can go in a half-mile drive radius and have every different ethnic background Muslims and their specific areas where there are specific people from parts of the world, but also in between you have the local and long term Black Muslim community, which are such a historic community, ” he shares.

Yaqeen says he was inspired to begin this project after noticing that American Muslims are portrayed negatively in the public eye.

“When you think of a Muslim in America or a Muslim, who that person can be, and you might not imagine the person you’re seeing right now as what you think a Muslim is,” he says.

Syed Yaqeen is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller.

A diverse religious community

He says American Muslims are among the most diverse Muslim communities in the world.

Yaqeen, who has two sons, says he also wanted to create positive representation of everyday Muslims for his kids, and others.

“It’s definitely a learning process for myself, and I want to share that with the rest of the community, with everyone,” he says.

Yaqeen says the American Muslim Experience project is a way for Americans to learn about Muslims, but also for Muslims to see themselves in the public.

“Even inside the Muslim community, it’s such a needed visual representation,” he says.

Yaqeen previously worked on the Muslims for American Progress by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), which featured Muslims from all walks of life. He says he got a taste of what this work could look like long-term.

“A lot of this misunderstanding comes from a point of where whoever has that negative idea so often, if not almost always, has never actually met someone who’s Muslim or don’t know anyone who is Muslim,” he explains.

“They just have this stereotypical idea in their head, and they go with it. So all of this work, I think ISPU’s work, and what I’m trying to do, comes back to that point that… get to know the folks.”

Contemporary archive in the making

American Muslim Experience is now a nonprofit. Yaqeen says the work will expand to include educational programming and community conversations.

“We’re hoping for it to be a place where a lot of different storytelling and… community events and all that stuff is housed in one place, so it’s easy to access,” he says.

Yaqeen says this work is important for years to come.

“Not just a Muslim community, because you hear such negative talks most of the time. But then, when you’re on the ground with the people, you realize there is so much going on. They’re doing amazing work. They’re building community,” he elaborates.

He says American Muslims have played an important role in the country.

“We’re very much part of the history of this country, but also we plan to be part of this country going forward. So to you know have that documented, recorded, and preserved going forward, I think will be very important,” he says.

Yaqeen was collecting photographs and interviews this week. Check out Yaqeen’s work on Instagram @americanmuslimexperience.

This story was originally published in WDET.

Listen here

Other headlines:

• Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic nomination for Michigan Senate primaries (Guardian)

• Progressive Donavan McKinney wins seat for Michigan’s 13th district (Bridge Michigan)

• Islamic Center of Detroit provides mental health care services to immigrants (MetroMode)

• PBS food documentary series Spice Roads visits Hamtramck. Check out that conversation on The Metro.

  

• Listen to a conversation about who plays Cricket in Detroit here.

When Saiyed Ahmed moved to Detroit from Bangladesh in 2002, he was hoping to play cricket with his friends. Without any formal place to play, they played in a parking lot — often scraping their knees.

But then one day he ran into Detroit city officials, including Councilmember Scott Benson. Ahmed asked him to provide a cricket field. In 2017, the city opened the first cricket field at Lasky Cricket Field. Two years later, the city opened another cricket field at Jayne Field in Banglatown due to the increased demand for space to play this international sport. Today, cricket is played by 106 teams as part of the Michigan Cricket Association by over 2,000 players across 16 fields in Southeast Michigan.

Learn more about how cricket made a big splash in Detroit in WDET’s latest episode of CuriosiD.

Listen here

University of Detroit Mercy dean hopes to help first-gen students

Dr. Ahmed Radwan knows what it’s like to come to a new country and not know the ropes. That’s why he says he’s passionate about introducing first-gen students to resources and helping guide them through multiple health care fields as part of the College of Health Professions. He says many times families from immigrant backgrounds emphasize their kids to go into medicine, engineering, or law — however, there are several other career fields which are worth trying out.

Here are some tools to get through perimenopause

Women experience perimenopause, the transitional time before menopause, in their late 30s or early 40s. But a lot of women don’t know how to handle the symptoms.

Dr. Amy Shah, a double board-certified MD and nutrition expert, wrote the book “Hormone Havoc” as a guide to eating, sleeping, and thinking better for perimenopause and menopause.

“Most doctors don’t even know perimenopause exists,” she shares.

Symptoms may include feeling tired, itchy skin, carpal tunnel syndrome, or frozen shoulder.

Her book highlights the importance of the “30-30-3” protocol — eating 30 grams of protein in the first meal, 30 grams of fiber throughout the day, and 3 grams of probiotics for gut health. Shah says people do have control over some symptoms and options to live a healthy, fulfilling life.

Shah, who is Indian American, says South Asian communities usually shy away from talking about perimenopause and menopause. She says that creates barriers to healthcare.

“I think that there’s like real barriers there from in that culture about talking about it with your doctor, about actually getting help for it, and… speaking about it in the community, because there’s just so much kind of taboo around it,” she says.

Shah encourages families to talk early about perimenopause and menopause to help support women.

“Your 40s, 50s, and beyond can be the best years, and it can be the years that you can actually find your gifts,” she says.

The air quality has been at an unhealthy level in Detroit this week. IQAir labeled Michigan with the worst air quality in the world. With thick smoke and hazy skies, people have been advised to stay indoors and keep their windows closed. People are also advised to wear a N95 mask if you do go outdoors.

• The Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee is hosting its second annual block party next weekend. The event features an exhibition, artwork, free film screenings and lots of food vendors. The block party will take place on June 25 from 12-8 p.m. between Cass Ave. and Peterboro St. in Detroit.

• Helping Hand USA is hosting a clothing drive tomorrow June 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s also Helping Hand’s 5th Annual Day of Service.

• IONA is hosting a FIFA World Cup Finals watch party June 19 from 3-5 p.m. at the Youth Lounge. Register here.

  

It’s been about a month since summer break began for our family. That means we had a chance to travel to the Upper Peninsula and spend lots of time with family.

As our family slowly gets back into a slow rhythm, looking for a new normal and adjusting to the summer schedules, we’re also doing a few things around the home while we have more time on our hands.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Clean out the basement/sunroom/spare rooms: It’s a great time to declutter spaces which may be piling up with boxes, clothes or just things. Keep what makes sense, and get rid of things you haven’t used in the past year or two. Drop off those donation bags as soon as you fill them!

2. Clean the AC: Temperatures have been in the upper 90s for the past few weeks. But if your AC is filled with dust outside, it may not be working at the best speed. Powerwash or thoroughly wash off the dust carefully after turning off your machine for a better run. Here’s a video on how.

3. Reorganize your garage/shed: Take out those shipping boxes, rearrange those tools. Keeping your garage or shed organized will help you find things easily.

4. Get your air ducts cleaned: My kids have dust allergies and asthma. So for us, getting rid of as much dust as possible is a big deal. One way to do this is to remove carpets (we did this last year) and have your air ducts cleaned by professionals.

5. Give your home an uplift: change a few things around. Add some solar LED garden lights or plant a few flowers in the front. Spruce up the energy in your space.

How are you using your downtime during the summer?

Other headlines:

• Lake St. Clair Metropark is spending $15 million to fix the park over the next three years. Improvements include infrastructure upgrades, reopening the North Marina for boaters, and planting more trees for stormwater management. Multiple entities are funding the construction work, much of which is slated for completion by Memorial Day next year. The park also teams up with local partners to offer free swim lessons to those who need them.

• Wayne County has a new mobile food pantry. It accepts SNAP, EBT, and other methods of payment. The mobile food pantry will rotate locations throughout the county. Community members can share input about where it should go next. It’s an effort to provide healthy food options for those who may live in food deserts and lack transportation to reduce barriers and improve health outcomes.

• The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says cases of cyclosporiasis, a parasite that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, is on the rise. Most of the cases are in Southeast Michigan. Over 1,000 people have been infected. The state department says fresh produce is most likely the cause of the local outbreak. They recommend washing produce thoroughly and cooking foods to kill the parasite. Additionally, hand washing and good hygiene are recommended for preparing food.

• Dearborn is planting more trees to grow its tree canopy. The city has also received $8 million in FEMA funds to install flapgates for stormwater management.

My Fufu is visiting.

She’s my father’s second-eldest sister. Fufu recently moved from Bangladesh to the United States. She lives with her youngest daughter in New York. They came to visit the rest of the family here in Michigan this summer.

I haven’t seen her in 15 years. Many others haven’t seen her for even longer.

Visits like these always bring up more questions than answers. Growing up in the U.S., while most of my dad’s side grew up in Bangladesh, means we barely knew our family. Many of my family members assume that we have no connection because we are the “American cousins” who grew up here and “don’t know her well.” But for me, there was always a deep longing to spend time with my family abroad and to grow up together.

We visited Bangladesh twice before they all moved here, at 8-year intervals. Our relatives were surprised we remembered anyone.

By the time many of my family members immigrated to the U.S. in the 2010s, I had already moved on in my own life. All the years of longing came to a sudden halt as I could no longer spend my evenings or summers with my cousins. I was married and a young mother, balancing my time with my in-laws.

But today I’m soaking it all in.

The gatherings, the laughter, the somber moments. We lost our eldest aunt earlier this year. And that isn’t lost on us.

And I have a lot of questions about the past. The lives our relatives lived. The decisions they made to get to this part of their life. The people they lost on the way.

I’m driving through the Upper Peninsula with my parents, siblings and our families. It’s one of the few trips we’ve taken together to go site seeing, and to spend time together intentionally as adults.

As Bangladeshis, it’s not often that people like us travel up north. Brown skinned Bangladeshis who also happen to be Muslim. The women and girls in our family wear hijab. We don’t blend into the places we are visiting. We stand out like a sore thumb, to say the least.

But we are also cognizant of the opportunities we have now that perhaps we didn’t have growing up.

When we first moved to Michigan over 20 years ago, many people we knew did not go on vacations, nor could they afford to. It was also unusual for Bengali people to go kayaking or camping. Or drive up north (often).

It was unusual to spend time away from the community. Instead we’d spend much of our free time on the weekends or summer at dawaths, summer picnics, or weddings. We didn’t spend time with our core family doing bonding activities.

But growing up as a first generation Bangladeshi American (child of immigrant parents), I’m trying to give my children both experiences - spending time with community but also with their own extended family away from home. That’s in new places and creating new experiences.

It’s also amazing to be able to spend time with your siblings as adults. Two of my siblings recently had a kid each. Watching our kids spend time together and grow up is a unique feeling.

And yes, we had to add our Bangladeshi touch to our trip. Especially when it comes to the food.

We had chicken biryani, Bengali style noodles (egg pasta spiced with Thai chili pepper, turmeric and salt, garnished with cilantro) and kasa aam chatney (raw mango with salt, Thai chili pepper and cilantro). But we also had burgers and chicken patties.

What new summer memories are you making with your family?

A couple of years ago I decided to revisit my childhood home in Old Tampa. We were visiting, but I did not have any family there. I decided to go on a drive-through in my neighborhood in Old Tampa. The tiny apartments were lined up in rows. And there was the same tree directly in the middle between the homes on either sides of one particular row. The apartments had a yellowish hue, like they hadn’t been painted in two decades.

I wondered, how did we fit in those homes? I never realized actually how small they were. But our experiences were full of laughter and joy.

Across our home lived my neighbors, Andrea and her family from Guetemala. Her mother babysat all the kids in the nieghborhood, including us afterschool. Leo, our other neighbor from Puerto Rico, would be the one who picked us up from the airport when we needed a ride. A few rows over lived Tiana’s family.

Andrea was our ring leader. We both feared her and admired her. We did whatever she thought of, whether it was picking up catepillars from the nearby forest, or making up games to play.

I remember cramping in Andrea’s backyard under umbrellas — a makeshift camp — where we dreamt of things larger than life. Our imagintion was our biggest gift.

But many of us moved away- one by one.

I wanted my children to see the places I grew up in.

Before my trip to Florida, I put out a Facebook post to inquire who still lived in the state. Tiana did. So our families met for dinner and caught up. Much of the area we grew up in remained the same, despite the area across the street having major renovations. It was a stark contrast — and one that replicated where and how minority communities often live. And how they survive, purely on making the best of the sitautions they live in.

I often wonder how to share the experiences and memories that made us who we are. How do we carry our kids forward, while keeping them humble? Many of them may not physically or emotionally experience the things we did while growing up. And that’s okay. But I do think its important to know where you come from, so you can collectively see how far you’ve come in life.

School is officially out. We’ve already kicked off summer break with a bang. Yesterday, my boys had an informal sleepover when thunderstorms rolled through Southeast Michigan. The trees shook in the wind, as things in the backyard flung from one side to the other.

When my kids were younger, I worried about how to keep them busy during the summer months. But as they are getting older, more of our time is occupied with occasions and events. Attempting to plan a family getaway, is now checking the schedules of adults and the teenagers, and young adults.

Last summer, we spent about half the time with my family and the other half with my in-laws. As we were renovating our home, we sprawled on the floor to make a makeshift bed in my parents’ home, as we ate meals together and engaged in what felt like a forgotten time, when I lived with my parents in their home as a kid. My kids experienced the parents I grew up with, albeit as cool grandparents rather than the strict parents we knew.

As parents now, I wonder what lessons we are passing along, and which ones we have to create as we move along unknown territory.

Looking back at those days, it was three generations under one roof, sharing space and building new memories for future years to come.

When I was in my 20s, I grappled with the idea of being “ambitious.” Generally, I would see ambitious Bengali women called “modern,” thought to be out of touch culturally, judged by their roles that are extensions of who they are in relation to others — a daughter, sister, wife, or mother. When women did pursue a career, they still had to come home and cook dinner from scratch, clean the house, and do child-rearing. And they were still judged for being out in the world.

So, I fought hard to push against being labeled ambitious.

Instead, I found ways to quietly push forward on my goals, while juggling personal and professional obligations. That looked like getting married and having my first child while attending undergrad. As the oldest daughter in a Bengali home, I was still expected to follow cultural norms while juggling professional opportunities.

But that also taught me you don’t have to do things in life in one way or direction. You can create your own path.

I grew up in a community where people didn’t make plans more than two weeks out. Our elders came from war and famine, a scarcity mindset, and pinching pennies to give us better opportunities. They didn’t have time to make long-term goals. They just wanted us to have a better world than they lived in.

Sometimes that meant trying to protect us and being fearful of letting us wander too far into the world. But today, I look back and realize that although I made these quiet goals for myself — to write well, meet people I look up to, get paid to travel for work, speak in rooms which are receptive to the information I hope to pass on — I didn’t always believe they were possible. And yet, something deep down inside me hoped for these things.

Today, I find myself checking off the boxes on my to-do list, plans I dreamed of 10-20 years ago, with a few U-turns. Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah, I’m opening doors that I thought were already locked.

Looking back, I want to tell my younger self that it’s okay to be ambitious. It’s fine to build my own blueprint. I’m exactly where I need to be today, U-turns and all. Alhamdulillah.

The Bengali Mental Health Movement is creating culturally competent resources for Bengali and Bangladeshi communities in New York.

Founder Tazin Banu created BMHM as an Instagram page while in grad school for social work, “really coming from a place of curiosity about… where are all the other mental health professionals who are Bengali in New York City,” Banu says.

She says she noticed people were being left out of important discussions.

“There were broader conversations about mental health, like for South Asians… but I think a lot of times Bengalis and Bangladeshis kind of get left out of those conversations, and our unique needs don’t get addressed,” she says.

Cofounder Riya Ahmed, who is also a social worker, says she stumbled upon the page and ran into Banu at conferences. They later joined forces.

“We realized there was so much of our lived experience that kind of matched and also like so much of what we were observing in the community, which was the lack of representation, lack of knowledge and lack of the correct information,” she shares.

Ahmed says it was important to create a safe space for mental health care.

“We don’t want anybody to feel alone, and that’s why we do the programming that we do in BMHM, and that’s kind of how BMHM grew,” she says.

Making a difference

By 2019, the team blossomed to about 10 volunteers. During that time, they produced infographics and held ALAAP sessions, a peer support group for discussing mental health-related topics.

“The idea was to help individuals feel like there’s a sense of community and to openly speak about mental health,” Ahmed says.

The idea of ALAAP, which means “conversation” in Bangla, is to have more conversations about mental health, she explains.

In 2020, BMHM became a nonprofit. During the height of the pandemic, the page posted translated and transliterated posts about mental health care, including for anxiety and depression. The group also had an online provider directory.

Banu says the infographics are for intergenerational audiences to understand information without medical jargon. For example, if someone is unable to read Bangla, they can read the English transliteration and share it with a family member.

“We want to take these mental health concepts and information and make it accessible to our community,” Banu says.

Paving a new path

In 2024, BMHM took a break to regroup.

“We have reestablished ourselves in a stronger way,” Ahmed says.

She says they were able to add paid staff to the now team of 14 people. The nonprofit is now centralizing its online directory, adding filters for insurance and Bangla dialects.

Banu says there’s a demand for information about psychologists, therapists, and social workers.

“We have our educational resources, we have our directory, we have supportive spaces like ALAAP, and we’re trying to expand and create other programs as well,” Banu says.

Banu says navigating relationships, boundaries, and self-care are common themes that come up in ALAAP sessions. Caregiving for aging parents or in-laws is another topic that comes up, the organizers say.

“From the beginning of our programming or initiatives or whatever we want to call it, we’ve always asked the community, ‘what do you want to see?,’” Banu says. “Participants will come either they’ll tell us what they want to hear about in person, or they tell us through our feedback survey that we send after each all up.”

The nonprofit will conduct a needs assessment soon for New Yorker residents.

The group also has a huge online presence.

“When you do work like mental health and in a community that might not be so encouraging… it’s very validating when you see the encouragement from all over,” Ahmed says.

The group’s main audience is people between 22-40 years old. The group hopes to expand its reach across age groups and include more Bangla programming and self-care workshops.

BMHM is launching a new program called, “Joton: Aided and Embodied Self-care Workshop”, emphasizing somatic and embodied experience of mental health.

Last week, I hosted a panel discussion on the power of community storytelling at the Hamtramck Historical Museum. Panelists included Nazneen Miah, the founder of the Pratham Pathways, a leadership development program, and Not Your Model Minority storytelling project; Nushrat Rahman, reporter at the Detroit Free Press/BridgeDetroit covering housing and economic mobility; and Nargis Rahman, founder of the Saa Nasta Newsletter and reporter at WDET, Detroit’s NPR station. The panel was moderated by Fatema Haque, an educator, writer, and fiber artist.

Highlights:

• Nargis Rahman talks about the importance of leaving stories behind.

  • If you don’t tell your stories now, there’s nothing to leave generations ahead, and I really think about what it would mean to us to be able to easily find the history of people like us that have already tread the path and learned from their mistakes and opportunities, and challenges.

• Nazneen Miah says there are not enough stories about the second generation.

  • I’m a second-generation American, and I would say there’s really not a lot or enough stories from us about us out there. I think it’s important not only for younger second generations when it comes to identity, it comes to resources and information, but just the opportunity to be able to create something that can help generations.

• Nushrat Rahman talks about the lack of access to historical and family information.

  • Maybe I can go a few generations back by talking to family members. I wish it was preserved. I wish I could read it. I wish I could look at it and just see, what generations past were like, and stories they have to tell. I especially think about the women, right? I think about where I am right now, and all that I’m able to do, and all the privileges I have, and everything that is right at my fingertips.

• Fatema Haque talked about different ways to engage in storytelling, including fiction writing.

  • Fiction writing has been a wonderful way, like still telling the stories without it being my story, right, in a way, becomes our story… maybe it’s that one key thing that happened that’s kind of haunting you a little bit, like, take that and explore it a little bit, and write, write fiction, and I would love to see more fiction.

Other headlines:

• A mass shooting this week at the Islamic Center of San Diego rocked the community.

• Highland Park was once home to diverse Muslim communities.

• American Muslims consider their options to go to hajj amid the U.S.-Iran war (NPR).

• Community mourns the death of Md Gulshan Ahmed (BanglaOne TV)

• Shustho series wins first-place award in enterprise reporting from the Detroit Society of Professional Journalists.

Bangladeshi mental health counselors work toward breaking stigma, building culturally informed care

Nargis Rahman March 28, 2025

Mental health counselor Shuhrat Choudhury says stigma is the biggest reason many Bangladeshi women don’t seek care — especially among older generations.

Photo credit: Shuhrat Choudhury, Fariha Ghazi

Editor’s Note: This story is part four of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

Ayesha Tanjum moved to the U.S. about two years ago with her husband, an international student. Shortly after, she learned she was pregnant.

“It was really tough for me in Michigan, because I didn’t have any friends or relatives around, and I was struggling to make friends,” she said.

Tanjum said she was having mood swings due to hormonal changes and a complicated pregnancy.

“I had loneliness, frustrations, fear, anxiety, and I was alone. So I had a hyper, hypertension that time. And in the last time, my doctor figured it out that my baby’s baby’s growth is restricted,” she explained.

Tanjum says she ultimately got the care and support she needed. She also read books to learn more about maternal health and nutrition, and began reaching out to old friends and connecting with new ones. That helped to improve her mental health.

Speaking about mental health remains a taboo subject for many Bangladeshi women.

Shuhrat Choudhury is a Bangladeshi American mental health counselor. She says stigma is the biggest reason many women don’t seek care — especially in older generations.

“I would be contacted by their sons, their daughters, their daughter-in-laws, that we need help for our mom or, like the older generation, but they are not OK. Like, they just, it’s that stigma around mental health, they go, ‘I’m not crazy,’” she said.

Choudhury says younger Bangladeshi Americans struggle with navigating between American individuality and the Bangladeshi culture’s collective family expectations, in which personal boundaries do not exist in the same way in Bangladeshi culture.

“When I transition to working someone with from our community, I have to find that balance. I just can’t advise them to move out, because you know that’s just not how it works in our culture,” she said. “I might use that terminology, but as long I’m explaining in our culture, it might not be feasible to exactly the definition, but maybe a different version of it.”

Choudhury said affordability is another barrier which can keep people from getting mental health care services.

“Not a lot of our community members have access to better insurance plans, or they’re not financially stable. That when mixed with that stigma that we’re already trying to overcome, one obstacle on top of it, if it’s not financially feasible, then that just creates more delay in getting that help,” she added.

There’s also a shortage of Bangla or Bengali speaking mental health professionals.

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated, so I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

– Shuhrat Choudhury, Bangladeshi American mental health counselor

“I have been reached out by people from out of state, like someone in Michigan worked with me and their mom, brother, sister, someone’s like in Texas, but they just can’t find someone Bengali there,” she said.

Choudhury says she didn’t know there was such a need until she entered the field. She says she made that choice, in part, to give back to the community.

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated,” she said. “So I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

Like Choudhury, Fariha Ghazi entered the mental health field to provide culturally competent care. Ghazi is a psychiatric physician assistant in Grand Rapids, who lives in the metro Detroit area and has telehealth options.

She said she frequently sees Bangladeshi women struggling with anxiety, which manifests as physical symptoms first.

“When they go see their general primary care provider, they’re often treated for things like stomach pain or acid reflux or, given sleep medication to help with sleep, a kind of root cause of a lot of those physical symptoms, it tends to be what I see being anxiety and trying to get them treatment for it,” she said.

Ghazi says many women hesitate to discuss their mental health. She takes a creative approach to uncovering their struggles.

“If someone has children, you know, I’d maybe ask her what are things that she thinks about in terms of her children, so if she’s always kind of like jumping to worst case scenarios, like thinking something bad’s going to happen to her child, or she kind of expresses that in our session, I’ll kind of note that as being, part of her symptoms.”

Many women are also hesitant to take medication due to cultural taboos surrounding mental health treatment.

Ghazi said there is a cultural taboo around taking medications to treat mental health, and part of her role is to explain treatment options and encourage self-advocacy, which she said plays a role in coverage.

“If someone’s not fully aware of the terminology or what’s out there as resources, they’re not likely to get the health care that they need. They’re also much more willing to just kind of not question medical providers either. They’ll be more complacent in their care,” she said.

Choudhury and Ghazi say mental health is a vital part of caring for Bangladeshi women. They see a growing need for more Bangladeshi mental health professionals to serve their community.

For now, they are using their language skills, cultural awareness, and lived experiences to provide better care.

Originally published in WDET for the Shustho series, a series exploring how Bangladeshi women in Southeast Michigan are overcoming health care barriers.

Saa Nasta “Power of Storytelling” Panel today

It’s here. The first Saa Nasta event is this afternoon at the Hamtramck Historical Museum. Listen to storytellers share why it’s important to have community conversations and why community storytelling is powerful.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. We’re starting promptly at 6 p.m.

Highland Park’s diverse Muslim communities

The City of Highland Park was once home to large Arab American and African American Muslim communities. Unlike other cities, where they built their own enclaves, people lived side-by-side and often worshipped together. The city is also home to what is thought to be the first masjid built from the ground up.

Listen to this story here

Talking about mental health care is considered taboo in Bengali and South Asian communities. However, Bengali and Bangladeshi women are at the forefront of tackling stigma head-on by creating programs, sharing their stories, and resources. They have also created ways to hold space for others. I spoke to a group of women who found creative ways to approach mental health wellness in the c

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The complicated conversation about aging parents

I was visiting a friend last week. There was a room full of familiar faces — people I attended high school with a long time ago. As many Bangladeshis grow up with family values, many asked me how my parents were doing. They shared memories they have with my parents when we were in school.

I was surprised.

For some, I didn’t realize they knew my parents at all, as we weren’t family friends. For others, I felt the warm, fuzzy comfort of knowing someone else is inquiring about them years later.

But what scares me is the conversations I will have once my parents are gone. I have several friends who lost at least one of their parents. I can’t even imagine the pain they feel. Now add to that the layer of responsibilities, caregiving, moments they shared together, and moments they didn’t.

I watched my own mother and her siblings scramble to make funeral arrangements for my Nani last December. One can never be fully prepared.

In Islam, people are no longer considered “youth” when they turn 40. That’s when their parents depend on them. Some of us may still depend on our parents to help watch our kids when we go to work, or feed us when we’re homesick. We may not physically have to feed or care for them.

My parents, for example, are still able to go to the doctor on their own, Alhamdulillah. But I’ve been having conversations with them about increasing measures to protect their brain health, strength, and mobility for the days ahead.

As the oldest child in my family, I can foresee having to create new systems and figure out things along the way. But for now, I am enjoying the moments we have together in sickness and in health.

The Power of Community Storytelling Event

We’re hosting our very first event to celebrate 5 years of community-powered storytelling. Join us for an evening with saa nasta and storytelling on May 15, from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Hamtramck Historical Museum.

Panelists include Nargis Hakim Rahman, Saa Nasta Founder and journalist, Nazneen Miah, Founder of Pratham Pathways and Not Your Model Minority storytelling project, and Nushrat Rahman, reporter at the Detroit Free Press, who covers economic mobility, housing, and affordability. The panel discussion will be moderated by Fatema Haque, a Bangladeshi American writer, educator, and fiber artist.

Limited seating will be available. Light refreshments will be provided.

Reserve your spot today.

Reserve your spot

Other headlines:

• Two students from Warren Consolidated Schools were recently honored for their outstanding academic achievement. The students are MMSTC Butcher students, who also attend other high schools. Muhsin Ahmad attends from Sterling Heights High School, and Tajrean Chowdhury attends Mott High School.

• A student from Cass Technical recently received over $1.5 million in scholarships. Onanna Jacy is the valedictorian at Cass. She received scholarships from Harvard and Yale, among other schools. Jacy’s family is also a part of the Durga Temple Detroit community.

• Detroit Friendship House is hosting its community gardening event next weekend, May 16 at 11 a.m. Free seedlings will be provided to SNAP recipients. There will be free workshops and a chance for people to swap seeds/saplings with their neighbors.

• Detroit is hosting a men’s mental health wellness event on May 23 at the Northwest Activities Center. Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network will provide Suicide awareness training.

Part 1: Here’s what you should know about women with ADHD

The group Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or (CHADD), reports that 3.5 percent of all adults worldwide have ADHD.

Dr. Asra Hamzavi is an adult psychiatrist who treats adults with ADHD. She founded the Hamzavi Psychiatry and Wellness Center.

Hamzavi says ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that people are born with, and most don’t outgrow it.

She explains attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), previously known as attention deficit disorder (ADD), is identified as three types: predominantly hyperactive, predominantly inattentive, or combined type.

“They might have difficulty with focusing on details, a problem with focusing on kind of forgetfulness, ‘where do you put your keys, where’s your phone?’ Those are things that everyone kind of goes through from time to time, but for someone with ADHD, it’s something that they deal with on a daily basis,” said Hamzavi.

Hamzavi adds emotional dysregulation and rejection-sensitive dysphoria, or people who have trouble regulating their tempers and feelings, are other signs of ADHD.

“Outside of the diagnostic criteria is really problems with self-esteem. It’s one of the biggest things that I see feeling that they are not reaching their potential. It’s not about intelligence, it’s about whether or not you’re able to execute.”

Hamzavi says ADHD is one of the most under-diagnosed treatable conditions, and that many times people don’t get treatment until adulthood.

She wants people to know that ADHD can be their superpower.

“When they’re the person in the room who comes up with solid bright ideas, not everyone in the room might know that this is actually a person with ADHD. Treatment can make the difference filling in those gaps.”

This story was originally published in WDET.

Learn more

Two Bangladeshi students were brutally killed in Florida

Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy were two Bangladeshi doctoral students studying at the University of South Florida. Both were reported missing on April 17. That led to a search and the arrest of Limon’s roommate, Hisham Abugharbieh, who was charged with first-degree murder of the students. Authorities say their bodies were found late last week near the Howard Frankland Bridge. Investigators have yet to release the motive of the killings. NBC News reports Sheriff Chad Chronister says authorities are working to return the bodies to their families in Bangladesh.

A celebration highlights the contributions of Asian Americans in Warren

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. The city of Warren is hosting its third Asian American and Pacific Islander Celebration.

Ayasha Bahar, Administrative Coordinator for Warren Mayor Lori Stone, says there are about 17,500 Asian American residents in Warren.

“Warren really stands out as having one of the larger Asian communities in Michigan, and it’s, it’s been on the rise and growing over time,” she shares.

Bahar says it’s important to host these types of events to give people an opportunity to learn about each other’s cultures.

“I feel like these kind of events matter in a city like Warren because of the growing Asian population, and just how the Asian community contributes to the city’s growth… " It’s just important to highlight and celebrate those cultures,” she says.

The event takes place at the Warren Community Center on May 2 from 1-4 p.m.

The event will feature guest speakers, performances, and henna art representing Chinese, Hmong, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Thai, and Lao communities.

The Saa Nasta Event

Readers, it’s finally here. Come out for an evening of saa nasta (tea and snacks) to celebrate five years of the Saa Nasta Newsletter. Join me for a panel discussion with other storytellers (more details soon) on the power of community storytelling. Have some light refreshments and network with like-minded people. The event takes place on Friday, May 15 at the Hamtramck Historical Museum from 5:30-8 p.m. Space is limited.

RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/thesaanasta/.

A new school board member joins Hamtramck Public Schools, replacing Daz’Shavon Hall who moved out of the city. Tazia Miah grew up in Hamtramck and attended Hamtramck Public Schools.

Now she hopes to give back to her community and make a difference, using her knowledge and expertise in working with families with disabilities.

She works as a Research & Evaluation Associate with Lift Every Voice – Evaluation Research and Strategy and support as a Research Technician with the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Institute, she tells the Yemeni American News.

“I work on projects that examine how systems and services affect outcomes for individuals, families, communities, and organizations, including how educational experiences connect to long-term opportunities,” she says.

Miah hopes to strengthen communication between the school system and families.

“I also hope to help create a space where community input is not only heard but meaningfully included in decisions and to build trust through transparency and accountability,” she told YAN.

Miah will be serving in this role until December 2026.

Read more

Other headlines:

• Poet and activist Khadega Mohammed shares a conversation about the ongoing war in Sudan. Listen here.

• The City of Warren is hosting an Asian American and Pacific Islander Celebration on May 2nd.

• Dearborn’s Economic Development and American Arab Chamber of Commerce is hosting a pitch competition on May 12, followed by a Night of Innovation on May 13. People can come together to learn more about opportunities and networking at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. Check out betondearborn.com for more information and to register.

• Dream of Detroit is hosting a community organizing training next weekend.

• The U-M Center for Innovation in Detroit is hosting a 3-week intensive on Detroit Leadership. The course is taught by U-M Faculty Members, Cristina Eckhoff Onofre, from the Ross School of Business, and Fatema Haque, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The Detroit Leadership Lab equips participants with practical tools for today’s evolving workplace. This new program marks the launch of expanded workforce development efforts in Detroit.

  Register here

• Students can apply for a $1,000 scholarship by May 15. Sponsored by the Women of AT&T Michigan chapter.

• A to Z Pharmacy is providing a Hajj Immunization Clinic on May 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The pharmacy is located at 30736 Hoover Rd., Warren, MI 48093.

• Over 75 multifaith leaders are starting a solidarity fast next week. They hope to uplift the voices of those detained at the North Lake Processing Center, many of whom are now on a hunger strike, protesting the inhumane treatment of detainees at the center. The Michigan Multifaith Clergy Rapid Response organizers are also encouraging people to join the week-long fast, starting Monday, April 27.

A 16-year-old Hamtramck girl was kidnapped at gunpoint from her bus stop early this week. The kidnapper then assaulted her. Afterwards, he drove her to a gas station, asking her to purchase cigarettes for him. She mouthed “help” to the attendant, who intervened by standing between the kidnapper and the teen. The gas station attendant then escorted the kidnapper out, where police were waiting outside. Donald Fields was arrested within 30 minutes of the kidnapping.

Other kids at the bus stop alerted police, who were able to track her through her phone and social media. The teen was also able to call the police for help. Donald Fields has been charged and is being held at Wayne County Jail without bond, in what Hamtramck Police Chief Hussein Farhat calls an isolated incident.

While community members came together to rally for this teen and her safety, others are calling for additional safety measures and even purchasing personal safety alarms for kids.

Summer programs:

Are you looking for activities for your kids this fall and summer? Here are a few to check out:

• Kids 10-16 years old can now learn how to play Cricket in Warren. Register here.

• Warren is offering tennis courses starting in May. Ages 8-18 are welcome. Register here.

Other Headlines:

• Michigan Central’s New Lab has opened applications for its Creative Residency program. Four fellows will be chosen — two for an art and technology fellowship, while the other two will work in health with Henry Ford. Fellows receive a $30,000 award.

• Canada has its first Bangladeshi American federal member of parliament (MP). Doly Begum is a former New Democrat MPP in Scarborough Southwest. She will serve residents in Ottawa in her new role.

• Eligible residents of Hamtramck can now sign up for Hamtramck’s RxKids program. The program provides stipends of up to $1,500 to moms during pregnancy and $500 per month for six months after birth. Moms can register after 16 weeks of pregnancy. Babies have to be born after November 1, 2025.

• The City of Warren is hosting its second annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Celebration on May 2nd.

• Rising Voices is hosting its Feast of Resistance program on May 2nd.

• Detroit Friendship House is hosting a Cultivating Community Gardening Event on May 16 at 11 a.m.

  

I share this story from years ago, reflecting on that aha moment in cooking biryani.

Soggy biryani

My brother-in-law asked me if I knew how to cook biryani, a popular South Asian dish made of rice and meat, chicken, seafood or vegetables, a few weeks after I moved in with my husband’s joint family, which consisted of my husband, his parents, two brothers, and their wives and kids. Throughout the five years of living in a joint family, our family size blossomed from nine to 13 people.

I didn’t know how to cook biryani.

I was a nervous 20-year-old college student trying to learn the nuances of day-to-day desi household life, something I was alien to growing up in a relaxed home in which our parents put emphasis on school and work rather than domestic duties.

My husband has four brothers. Our house was the place to be on weekends, breaks, and downtime. We also hosted large parties of 50+ people within our 1400 sq. ft. home. Our family was half the crowd.

During those times when my sister-in-law took the lead as the main chef, she would whip up snacks and meals. I would help prepare onions, clean food before it was cooked, and arrange food on dishes to be served as the kitchen helper. I learned the hustle and bustle of cooking for a full house, rather than previously as a family of six with my parents and siblings. I also didn’t have to cook often when living with my parents due to being unavailable with school and work commitments.

Little did I know biryani would become a staple in my Bangladeshi American family home a few years later or that I would learn how to cook many Bangladeshi dishes I enjoyed such as roast chicken or sweets like suji, cream of wheat cooked in milk and sugar (doesn’t sugar make everything taste good?)

The process of cooking biryani involves starting with browning and sauteing onions with green chillies, bay leaves, cardamom and salt. My mom also adds freshly grated ginger to the mix. Then you add Basmati rice, which was previously soaked. Add your meats or veggies, water, ghee also known as refined butter, and cook until rice is cooked through on low-medium heat.

During my first few tries of making biryani, it always came out soggy. A lot of the cooking I learned was by estimated measurements of ingredients. Then one day I saw a cooking show in which a food blogger traveled to Bangladesh and made biryani with fresh prawns and shrimp. He added “1 1/2 cups” of water (additional to) + equal parts of water to cups of rice for the “perfect” texture of rice.

And the days of my soggy biryani were officially over!

Biryani is a special food item at large Bangladeshi gatherings, or the perfect hearty meal for a rainy day. It is usually eaten with other sides such as roast chicken or can be eaten alone. Biryani is often garnished with green chillies, salad, lemon or lime, or pickled mangoes.

Republished from my blog Sing Song Lullabies (2017).

Other headlines:

• Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield appointed Ali Abazeed as the Chief Public Health Officer for Detroit, a city with 700,000 people. Abazeed tells me for WDET that he hopes to bring public health to the people, along with incorporating public health across all departments. Abazeed formerly created and led the Dearborn Department of Public Health. Detroit provides translated city documents in Bangla, Spanish and Arabic. Listen to our conversation here.

• Warren Restaurant Week kicks off from April 10 to 19. Mention “Warren Restaurant Week” to get discounts at restaurants around the city — some you may love and others you want to try. Check out the full list and food options from Bangladeshi restaurants Flame & Fusion and NYC Halal Eats Warren.

• The 18th Muslim Mental Health Conference is taking place at the Soho Banquet Hall & Events Center, April 10-11. The conference will feature themes of systems, collaboration, and helping people reintegrate into society after incarceration.

• Macomb Community College is hosting Youth Summer Programs, including Camp Scrubs for ages 11-14 years, to explore health fields. The summer camp will take place at simulation centers with the Macomb Health & Public Service faculty on 6/15/26-6/18/26 from 8 a.m. to- 4 p.m.

  There are also courses, including Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for high schoolers, a culinary arts course, and Makerspace Academy for those hoping to learn computing. The classes are in person and cost $149.

• New American Leaders is hosting a Ready to Lead program this weekend.