Season 2 Episode 1: In Conversation With Zeba Talkhani

Today I’m talking to Zeba Talkhani, author of the recently published memoir My Past Is A Foreign Country: A Muslim Feminist Finds Herself. In this honest and insightful book, Zeba writes with clarity and vulnerability - no topic is off the table. We discover her experience with hair loss, which started when Zeba was a teenager, the complicated relationship with her mother, a thirst for education and the tension that caused amongst her family and friends. She also shares with us her journey to aligning her Muslim faith with her feminist beliefs, growing up in Saudia Arabia, as well as finding love on her own terms. 

Born in 1991 in Sirsi, South India, Zeba has already packed so much into her 28 years. Getting her life experience down on paper is an opportunity that she clearly took seriously - growing up, Zeba was painfully aware of the lack of representation in the books she read and so felt a responsibility towards younger generations who may be suffering in silence like her. Today, Zeba is based in London and on top of being a published author, she’s a production editor at Bloomsbury publishing house.

In this first part, we talk about the precariousness of memory and the challenges that presented to Zeba whilst writing her memoir, the role of Zeba’s parents in her demands for a life that went further than the community she grew up in, as well as the literary influence that helped heal Zeba’s volatile relationship with her mother.