Mandy Ross and Abda Khan in Conversation with Roz Goddard

Today’s episode brings together 3 Midlands women, authors Mandy Ross, Abda Khan and Roz Goddard, in conversation about the importance of literature in creating connections and fostering empathy. As members of interfaith organisation Nisa Nashim, Mandy and Abda run a monthly book club that brings together Muslim and Jewish women. In conversation with Roz Goddard, they talk about the intersections of faith and feminism and the power of literature to provide space for exchange and connection.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

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Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 12: Roz Goddard, Abda Khan and Mandy Ross 

Kit de Waal 

Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the  Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the  next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about  writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Today’s episode brings together 3 Midlands women, authors  Mandy Ross, Abda Khan and Roz Goddard, in conversation about the importance of literature in creating  connections and fostering empathy. As members of interfaith organisation Nisa Nashim, Mandy and Abda  run a monthly book club that brings together Muslim and Jewish women. Each month they read a book  written by a Jewish or Muslim woman, finding within the pages, and their discussions, more things that  unite them than divide them. In conversation with Roz Goddard, they talk about the intersections of faith  and feminism and the power of literature to provide space for exchange and connection. 

Sponsor message: Birmingham City University 

This episode of the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast is brought to you in partnership with the School  of English at Birmingham City University. Visit our website at www.bcu.ac.uk/english for details of our  undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree programmes. 

Roz Goddard 

Hello, and welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival. My name's Roz Goddard. I'm a poet living in the  Black Country and seem to have embraced Zoom as my home office. I'm delighted to be hosting this  podcast from my loft, where I'll be in conversation with Abda Khan and Mandy Ross. They're the founders of  Nisa-Nashim, an interfaith book group based in Birmingham. Nisa-Nashim is also a national Jewish Muslim  Women's Network working to promote interfaith understanding. So first, introductions. Mandy Ross has  written over 60 children's books and also poetry and plays for adults. With Ronne Randall she co-edited [For  Generations:] Jewish Motherhood, published by Five Leaves Publications. This year Mandy is the Tree  Whisperer: Poet of the Woods for the Ledbury Poetry Festival. A member of Birmingham Progressive  Synagogue, Mandy has worked in many interfaith settings and has a longstanding interest in using reading  to explore cultural identity. Abda Khan is a lawyer turned writer, her published novels being Stained (2016)  and Razia (2019). She's currently writing her next novel. Abda is also a project creator, campaigner,  volunteer, mentor and Lloyds Bank Women of the Future Ambassador. Abda was highly commended in the  NatWest Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2017 and won British Muslim Woman of the Year at the  British Muslim Awards 2019, and most recently shortlisted for the Law Society Lifetime Achievement Award.  Welcome to you both. 

Mandy Ross 

Thank you. 

Abda Khan 

Hi Roz.  

Roz Goddard 

Hello. To Abda then first of all to get us started. Could you tell us something about the background to Nisa Nashim and how you and Mandy came to collaborate and develop it? 

Abda Khan 

Mandy and I met at an event that we both attended as speakers. So, it was the Writing West Midlands  National Writers' Conference. And we just got chatting. And when we got chatting we just started talking  about, you know, a lot of the issues that we were interested in. And then Mandy mentioned Nisa-Nashim as  an organisation. And she said, 'Oh, you know, we've got this organisation, Nisa-Nashim; I don't know if you'd  be interested in us – just Jewish [and] Muslim women getting together, talking about and dealing with  certain issues'. And I said, 'Oh, yeah, just, just pop me on your mailing list and then that'd be great'. So what  happened then was, Mandy emailed me and said – it was actually Mandy that set up the Nisa-Nashim book  club, I have to say, but obviously, I jumped in. And then she emailed me and she said, 'Oh, I'm setting up this  Nisa-Nashim book club. Would you like to come as a guest author, and come speak about your book, Razia?'  So, I attended the first meeting not as a member of the book club, but as somebody who just went along to  speak about her book. And actually, it was just such a lovely environment. And the women were so, so nice.  And I think that there was just this lovely sort of camaraderie and this exploring of common themes and  common ideas, common issues, common problems. And I just enjoyed it so much that I then joined it. And  then from there it's just been great. It's been developing throughout this year. It's been wonderful getting  together initially in person but, obviously, later on now it's been through Zoom since COVID. So really it was  just this kind of friendship we struck up at an event. I had nothing to do with Nisa-Nashim, which just shows  you how you can just come together when you've got things that you find out are in common. It's just that  human touch, isn't it? It's just that human aspect of talking to somebody and then actually realising that  you've got so much in common – okay, I'm Muslim and Mandy's Jewish but through literature and through  exploring books and themes we just realised that me and all these other women and Mandy together we  actually have so much that, you know, kind of unites us, and we find out so much about each other and  even ourselves. And that's kind of how the book group has developed.

Roz Goddard 

And isn't it incredibly fortuitous when we meet someone as you did with Mandy and you realise that there  is that underlying connection, that rapport that can be developed? And that's the very best way to start.  Yeah, so thank you for that. Really lovely background info there. Mandy, could you give us a flavour of how  the meetings are organised and actually how books are selected? &nbs...