This week on So This Is Love, Basma shares a story that will challenge what you think you know about Muslim girls and choice. Basma grew up in a home where love felt distant, and approval, especially from her mother, Omaya, felt earned. A strong-willed daughter with a voice of her own, she often found herself shut down instead of seen. As the pressures of marriage and conformity started to build, Basma learns how to stand her ground - how to survive.

Today, we ask, is there a meeting point between your independent desires and the life society expects you to live? What does it really cost to live authentically? And when the pioneering spirit calls your name, is it right or reckless to obey?

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Faraja and Nanga is a deeply personal story about faith, love and the quiet courage it takes to choose your own path. Faraja grew up cherished by her father, Nanga, and was the apple of his eye. She was raised in what she remembers as a happy and stable home after her mother’s sudden absence. When her family later became Jehovah’s Witnesses, life shifted in subtle but significant ways. Faraja followed the rules without question until romance, curiosity, and a growing sense of self began to ask more of her.

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We have a man in the house! In this powerful episode of So This Is Love, Jerry shares his journey through childhood trauma, abandonment, and growing up in violent and emotionally unsafe spaces.

With honesty and grace, Jerry speaks about healing and finding purpose after years of pain. He also shares about his upcoming book, Of Pain and Grace. This is a rare and moving conversation about resilience, vulnerability, and learning to feel again.

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Today’s episode is about two sisters raised by survival. One stepped in where a mother fell away, the other learned to run instead of stay. Through Amari’s emotional recollection, we observe how, through her eyes, love becomes duty, sacrifice becomes expectation, and resentment quietly takes root. This is a story about sisterhood, choice, and the kind of wounds that time alone doesn’t heal.

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Consider supporting this podcast via our mpesa till number 9095819 or PayPal ⁠⁠sothisislovepodcastke@gmail.com

If you or someone you know is affected by domestic or sexual violence, find support here: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODUzNDUyODYyMzIwNDA3?igsh=eXkyNWRmZW1lenh5

Welcome to Season 6

In this episode, Makena looks back at a marriage she rushed into at a very vulnerable time in her life. What seemed right on paper quickly revealed bigger differences in values, expectations, and the reasons they both chose each other. As real life set in, so did the quiet tensions that slowly reshaped their relationship.

This episode is an honest conversation about escaping, awakening, and the moment you realise love isn’t enough to hold two very different worlds together.

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In this episode, we meet Gathoni (her real name, but going as Louisa in this episode), once full of promise, now caught in the quiet unravelling of a love that previously felt like home. As success shifts the balance of her marriage, admiration turns to control, and affection to fear. This is the story of a woman learning to recognize her worth again, a journey through naivety, power and the courage it takes to finally choose herself.

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If you or someone you know is affected by domestic or sexual violence, find support here: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODUzNDUyODYyMzIwNDA3?igsh=eXkyNWRmZW1lenh5

Valerie’s mother grew up carrying the weight of a broken and unstable childhood, a stolen innocence and wounds that never found rest. In her longing to be loved, she searched for it in all the wrong places, leaving traces of that ache in her daughter’s life.

In trying to outrun her mother’s story, Valerie found herself caught in its reflection, until grace met her where pain once lived.

A story of inherited hurt, healing, and the unexpected beauty of redemption.

Consider supporting this podcast via our mpesa till number 9095819 or PayPal ⁠⁠⁠sothisislovepodcastke@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠

If you or someone you know is affected by domestic or sexual violence, find support here: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODUzNDUyODYyMzIwNDA3?igsh=eXkyNWRmZW1lenh5