November 13, 2023 • 47 mins
As part of this limited series and 97th episode of UNSUGARCOATED with Aalia, our host welcomes to the conversation United Kingdom based Fitness Trainer and Influencer, Nazia Khatun. After discussing her background and work to empower clients through fitness, neuroscience and trauma healing they dive into their critical perspectives of what “role model” means in a world that wants to cancel those speaking up for Palestinians suffering genocide as part of what is being dubbed the second Nakba, of “Catastrophe” since October 7th, 2023.
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(00:03):
From UBN Studios. You're listening toUnsugarcoded with Alia, bringing you interviews with
public figures and inspirational people speaking onself improvement with empowered themes, and I'm
your host, Ali Elaneus. Hello, Hello, Hello to everybody in the
world, no matter where you are. I'm happy to be speaking to you
(00:23):
today from another season of Unsugarcoated withAlia. As you will know already,
this is a special, dedicated seasonthat we are theming from Los Angeles to
Gaza, a plea for humanity.These conversations are not easy to have,
but I am grateful that you aresticking with us, that you're open to
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hearing these important conversations that need tobe had. You know where we constantly
explore the voices that shape our worldtoday, and always in an effort to
support humanity. You know, Iwant to say, the crisis that we
have right now, that has unfoldedbefore all of our eyes, is impacting
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a lot of people. Everyone,you know, the Jewish community, American
community, the British community around theglobe, the Muslim community of obviously the
Arab community. Everybody. There isnot, in my opinion, people that
are not suffering from this crisis.The reality is though some people are suffering
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more, and that is why thisseason and that is why these conversations are
more critical than ever. Our job, my job as a social impact producer,
is to remind us of our humanity, and through our projects, we
always want to humanize one another everyonebecause you're beautiful, I'm beautiful, and
that family that you don't know isbeautiful too. At least ten thousand Palestinians
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have been killed in Gaza. Morechildren have died in Gaza in this crisis
so far than all other conflicts aroundthe world in the past four years,
according to the charity Save the Children. In this situation, there's a lot
that I could say that's going tomake somebody upset. Not everything I say
is going to ring true with somebodybased on their lived experiences. But I
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do have lived experiences. You havelived experience, and others do as well,
and we want to continue to raisethose voices. We want to hear
it all with the hope that wecome together and find bridges and find peace
and find comfort, that we canbe better than this. We can be
better. We don't have to letinnocent people die. And on that note,
I stand on no moral high ground. I'm an American. You know
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there's a lot a lot to sayto that. I know what I'm encouraging
and encouraging people to do right nowis lift your voice for humanity. Don't
stop, don't give up. Weneed people to keep the fight more than
ever, and around the world weare seeing people raise up and do that.
In fact, just I believe yesterdayAustralian senators walked out of Parliament in
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an act of demonstration for the peoplethat are dying innocently, for the civilians
that are caught in the middle.Now, in this episode, as you
know that we like to do,we want to bring in people with different
experiences right so specifically, we're goingto delve into the topic that resonates deeply
in our modern society, the ideaof role models and the fusion of influence
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and activism. What does it meanto be a role model in our rapidly
changing world, How do those withplatforms use their influence to advocate for global
causes, and most importantly, whyis it crucial for us to care about
the well being of others no mattertheir circumstances. Our guest today is someone
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who has recently been part of thoseactions and conversations that have been ignited worldwide.
She joined and estimated five hundred thousandpeople in a protest in London on
October twenty first, amongst others,standing in solidarity with Palestine in an era
where the line between public figures andactivists often blurs. Will explore the profound
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impact such individuals can have. We'lldiscuss how true influencers are not just those
who amass followers, but those whopassionately advocate for the world, pushing boundaries
and demanding justice. And yes,we know a lot of people don't like
that. They'd rather you keep puttingup the photos of your food, or
putting up the exercise videos, oryou know, the places, the beautiful
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hotels. Sometimes that's very difficult whenever, and as somebody in that position starts
speaking on humanity, they kind ofsay, ssh, we don't want to
hear that. But I admire thepeople who go against that. I admire
the people who stand up and showthe world what we need. So,
while some argue that public figures shouldkeep their personal views separate, will ponder
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the question, is it our dutyas human beings to care for the wellbeing
of others. Join us as weembark on a thought provoking journey connecting the
dots between role models, platforms,and the relentless pursuit of a better world.
Is time to challenge our perceptions andembrace the power of unity and empathy
in today's global landscape. Nazia Chatoune'sjourney has been a powerful transformation from a
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life consumed by the pursuit of theperfect body through calorie counting and fad diets,
which left her mentally and physically drained. Her battle with insecurities and lack
of self love led to a periodof depression and unwonted thoughts. However,
through the catalyst of fitness and anunwavering determination, Nazia managed to reinvent herself.
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Exercise became the tool that helped herconquer her old self, combat anxiety
and fear, ultimately leading her tobecome the best version of herself in all
aspects of life. Today, Naziais on a mission to empower other women
through her coaching and social media platform. By mergering neuroscience and fitness, her
focus is not only helping females embraceand love their bodies, but also on
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fostering self acceptance. With an unshakablemindset, she strives to guide others through
tough times and inspire them to embracetheir true selves. Nazia's story is a
testament to the resilience of the humanspirit and the power of self love in
the pursuit of well being, andwe are so happy to have for us
join her. Everybody, ladies andgentlemen, please welcome miss Naziachton. How
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are you? How are you?How are you? You actually gave me
goose films with that introduction. Honestly, thank you so much for having me
on here. I'm good. Idon't know, actually I say I'm good
by the hour, everybody. Ifeel like my mood has been changing for
the last month or so. SoI'm here. I'm here, and we're
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so grateful for that. And Iunderstand. I think that's a common thread
for many of us. We're fine, you know, And that's kind of
the privilege of we are fine,We're not, you know. I've shared
with people. I will have thosemoments I go to get a drink of
water and suddenly I'm you know,flushed with a sense of guilt, or
I'm hugging my child and and Ihave a certain emotion and I went through
that as a cancer survivor as well, the survivor's guilt. But you know,
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but we remain hopeful. We focuson what we can do, which
is the kind, you know,kind of conversation I'm glad to share with
you today versus what we can't do. So for our audience, you know,
you do incredible things. I loveyour energy. We connected immediately before
this, you know, on socialmedia. Tell us a little bit about
your origin story. You know yourfamily's from Bangladesh, you were born and
raised in the UK. Why don'tyou start there? I mean, I
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grew up as a typical British Asianfemale in London, went through the whole
schooling system, came out, youknow, this whole idea get a good
education, get a good job,get married, have children, end of
life. And I think from avery young age, asking questions led me
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to just ask more questions like whoam I? What's my purpose? And
I think people who are those questionson a deeper level, they're the ones
that go on a quest And Igenuinely believe the tribe that I connect with
we have all been here for apurpose because now we are empowering those people
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with the change makers in all respect, and people can share their stories and
we can learn so much as well. And when I was going through university
and everything, I was just like, Okay, what is my purpose?
What am I doing here? Whatdo I want to do with this life?
I didn't want to settle with mediocre, a mediocre job, a mediocre
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relationship. I just don't know whatit was. I was an amateur boxer
for the best part of my twenties. I struggle with an eating disorder that
we don't really speak about in mycommunity at all. The South Asian community
is are very reserved. We carea lot about our reputation, how we
look in the community. It doesn'tmatter what you're going going through. Mental
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health is and spoken about. There'sso much there that I can actually dismantle
as we go along in this conversation. But it was just so much for
me to handle at that time goingup. There wasn't a manual to say,
Okay, this is how you're meantto be, this is how you're
supposed to live life. Even ifI was outspoken, it was seen as
too much. So you go backinto your shell, and then you repress
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every part of you. And fitnesswas a beautiful channel for me basically in
that respect, especially boxing. Itwas a very aggressive sport in so many
ways, but it really pacified allof that energy I had that was just
repressed inside of me. Actually,and then I just went on this journey
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of discovery, I guess. Andin between having gone through the career change,
rebelling against the stereotypes or what itmeans to be a Bangladeshi Asian wasn't
female, what it means to bea Asian female boxer in the fitness industry,
and so on, and then Ijust realized fitness was such a beautiful
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thing for me that helped me recoverfrom depression. It also helped me from
moments of weakness. When people gothrough depression, you know, your thoughts
take you places you don't want togo to. I feel like I'm very
one of the most luckiest people thatmanaged to just hold on and didn't do
anything silly. And I'm here tonow share my story and help people recover
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from their trauma, from depression,from feeling stark, empowering yourself, finding
your voice really, and fitness isjust one of those ways I found myself
doing it. I love that you'rethe oldest of six girls, right,
I am, I am, andI sympathy to every elder child, whether
you're a boy or a girl,A sympathies you. You know you talked
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with me before about how because ofthat, because of being the oldest,
and because of your own experience ishaving an eating disorder and obviously being able
to identify that you share. Youknow you taught you told me a bit
about wanting to try and be arole model for you young it forced you
to want to be a role modelfor your sisters. Yeah, tell me
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a little bit about that. Well, you know, it comes with the
whole package, doesn't it. They'reoldest born is automatically set to be setting
the ways on the path for everybodyelse. And I remember my parents us
to always say, if you doanything wrong, you know, it falls
back on your brothers and sisters.If you go to university, the rest
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will go to university, pass yourexams, the rest will do it.
And it got to a point Iwas like, Okay, that's fine,
went to university. Everybody else wentto university. And then I was just
like, well, I want tolive life and the older system me going
to box, Oh, that's notacceptable. What are people gonna think?
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Who's gonna marry you? This isnot what's expected of a Bangladeshian. What's
them female? And I was like, okay, I wasn't. I didn't.
I didn't make the stereotypes up,So why do I have to adhere
to this? And it wasn't likeI was naturally rebelling. It was something
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No. What I was trying tosay is it's not like I purpose went
out there to annoy my parents.It was just a part of my DNA.
I wanted to do something. Iwould go and do it, but
then come home or backfire by myparents or by relatives or people in the
community. And it just made mefeel very, very congested in my head
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in terms of so who am Isupposed to be now? They want me
to go to work? What amI supposed to do at work? There's
more to life and being a rolemodel with my siblings. I think I
totally failed at that because I hada lot of issues with how I looked
myself image. The eating disorder literallyruined every aspect of my life in my
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twenties, and it took me avery long time just to fix that.
Heal that part off me. Andnow I look at myself and I think
if I had somebody just guided mewhen I was growing up in my twenties,
my life would have been just abit more manageable. Or if I
knew what I know now, lifewould have been very different for me then
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as well. Of course, ofcourse, So what was the turning point
for you? You know? Andthank you so much by the way for
sharing that and vulnerability. I knowhow it is. And actually, on
the note of you being a boxer, I always tell people who say,
you know, they say to me, I just can't focus. I have
a lot of issues, And theysay the belief in that is a myth
you tell yourself, because if youwere a boxer and you got in a
ring and you just had to focuson not getting hit in the face,
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trust me, you can focus veryquickly, right. So I really appreciate
that. And I know you've hadinspirations such as Muhammad Ali and things like
that, But what was the turningpoint for you? When I probably left
my full time job and I wantedto pursue my career in the fitness industry,
and I realized how much it wasn'tencouraged, how much as an Asian
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female, I had to struggle topursue my identity, to pursue my career,
and it took me in a spiralingdown weigh heal into depression very quickly,
and I think that's where my turningpoint was. The depression for me,
when I look back at it wassuch a beautiful blessing. I can
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say that now because I've healed throughit. The initial five years of my
thirties, it was just trying torediscover myself, and it was in the
initial years of becoming a fitness coach. It was just holding on, and
it was just holding on. That'swhen I realized, I like, oh
wow, it was a penny dropmoment for me to realize why I don't
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feel good enough, Why I needvalidation from other people to tell me I
was beautiful. I need a validationfrom other people to tell me I had
an amazing physique and the self imagenow that I understand that I've studied it
so much, how we see ourselvesis very different to how the world sees
us, and the language that weuse to describe ourselves our inner monologue has
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a huge impact on how we showup in the world. And fitness Reborn
at UK was created when I realized, my God, fitness is actually helping
me survive my worst days, thedarkness of all darkness that I have to
face right now. And that waswhen I was thirty years old, and
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now I'm forty ten years on.I still rely on fitness as the medicine
that would pick me up, themedicine that would give me joy, the
medicine that will give me a happymovement is everything. And that's where a
lot of people fail to understand thatwe can help ourselves if we choose to
change. I resonate with that alot, because it was in my early
thirties that I really started to becomeempowered myself and look at the things.
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And then through the thirties and thenthrough the forties, and now I'm almost
at the fifties, and you know, and I'm a grandmother and mother,
and you know, to your point, yes, the way that we help
ourselves is through connecting to our body. The neuroscience aspect, you know,
I know that we can we candefinitely talk about that, but I really
appreciate how part of your structure andthe way that you have, you know,
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you operate your coaching fitness business isto address the trauma. You consider
the trauma to be a barrier towhat a lot of people are trying to
accomplish for themselves. Yeah, howdid that start for you where you started
to recognize to unlock that part ofyou will ultimately contribute more to your success
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in the fitness aspect. Yeah,I mean I came in the industry and
the fitness industry is a very lucrativeindustry. And then to be a South
Asian, then to be a woman, then to be a Muslim female.
There's a lot of us on socialmedia now, but back then it was
very rare. And my clients havealways been my biggest ever teachers as well.
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And when I took them on theeight week journey, the twelve week
journey of learning how to love themselves, learning how to champion mental health,
something unlocked there. I almost feltlike I hite jack Pot eight years ago
when I realized that the program washelping people become the cliche saying of the
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best version of themselves. But peoplewere leaving abusive marriages, abusive relationships,
they were becoming better, they werebecoming healed. There were the skin used
to glow when they came to thepros. At the end of the process,
their hair was growing. They droppedweight within like a few weeks,
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and they had been struggling to dropweight almost all their life for some of
the clients. And then the moreI studied it, the more I studied
the brain and did my course withneuroscience and fitness, I was like,
oh my god, this is thepuzzle that a lot of people are not
speaking about. We have repressed emotionthat gets suppressed and that leads to depression.
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Once we sought out the root cause, it's almost like the body gets
off survival mode, it comes offautopilot, and then it resets itself naturally.
So when I understood that point,I accidentally I feel like I was
helping females heal themselves. And myfirst few clients, unfortunately came from the
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domestic violent background, and I hadno knowledge, no understanding of how to
deal with those females. So Ijust took them as just teach them how
to love themselves. But along theprocess, I have tools and resources,
and I see females now who aredoing amazing things. They're single moms,
they've gone into healthier relationships, They'velearned how to accept who they are,
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fixing their attachment styles, learning aboutyourself, Like we don't have enough time
in the world because everybody's busy doingtheir jobs or getting distracted. Like to
look within. It takes courage,it takes a lot of effort, and
you have to be briefly say youknow what, this is not working.
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Let me go and see what's causingit. And there's a cause and effect
in everything, and with the fitnessindustry, we keep looking at the external.
And this is what happened. WhenI was going through eating disorder.
It was all about I need tolook good, I need to have a
six pack, and it it didn'tmatter how beautiful I looked. I couldn't
see it. And the more Iwas struggling with my weight, the more
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I realized I actually don't like myself. And it was just like wow,
another Pandor's box opened when I realized, oh my god, once I've done
that in a work, once I'vehealed that trauma, Once I've healed the
part of me that was wounded,that was God, it didn't matter how
I looked anymore. I didn't reallybother so much about people liking me or
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not. I liked me and that'show that journey started. And now I'm
known for healing traumas through fitness andgetting people to become the best version of
themselves. That is fantastic and Icompletely agree with you. So I'm going
to shift a little bit because youknow, I want people to understand your
heart, your motivations. You're awoman of diversity, You've been through things,
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and you want to help people notsuffer, right, Because I think,
even as you had told me,it's something that if you haven't had
an opportunity to work through trauma,that is, you will suffer. You
will struggle. First of all,I'll start with the simple. I mean,
you're a citizen of the UK,similar to me as an American citizen.
You have a government that has largelynot shown up for what we most
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of us consider a humanitarian crisis.How does that feel for you when it
comes to the conversation around what's happeningyou know in Gaza in these regions to
both sides angry. I think alot of us have been feeling this emotion
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in the last couple of weeks iscoming up to about a month now,
and we've been we've seen nothing beingdone by a government, and in fact,
having a Home Secretary and a PrimeMinister that are both South Asian,
it's a lot more harder to processwhat's going on in their heads. India
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was once colonized. Our presses areall the same, it doesn't matter what
kind of oppression we are gone through. And for us for our government not
to listen to the people to gofor a ceasefire, it's heart ragingly destroying.
It's disgusting how they are actually handlingthis, how much money is being
funded from the tax case. Ithink most people are just outraged the fact
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that they now realize where the taxmoney is going to. And nobody has
a saint, nobody can control what'sgoing on here. So there's a lot
of disappointment, there's a lot ofrage. We have a protest, one
of the biggest protests coming up onthe eleventh of November, which is also
Remembrance Day, and the Home Secretaryhas again and again declared that this is
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a hate march, is antisemitic andwhat the protest that's being held is causing
more harm and it's totally not true. It's just false claims to keep people
in their pigeonholes. So people aremore afraid. But I think right now
the people are going up. They'reshowing how much courage they have, Even
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the quiet people, even the peoplethat haven't been at the fourth one of
using their voice, they've become sopassionate all of a sudden. I love
seeing that, because people are theones that make society want and the government
not listening to the people in theirfaith or the fourth week of what's going
on in Palestine, everybody's woken upa lot more. Right. There are
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some people that will refuse to educatethemselves, but there are a lot of
the you know, the education occurs, and I think that you know,
I agree with you. I've startedtelling my friends here in America better start
getting them side businesses going so youcan reduce the tax liability, because it's
so true. You feel kind ofhelpless over recognizing I don't support this,
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especially because if we truly truly wantpeace, how can we ever accomplish that?
You know, the governments do thethings that they're doing. When it
comes to all this work and energythat you put into trauma and you're seeing
what happens. You know, whatis it that truly drives you to stand
up for others right now, especiallyin the face of a government saying that's
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a hate which to me, obviouslyI have to say this a hate march.
I mean, first of all,it's not anti Semitic to be in
support of Palestinians. They are Semites, you know, you and I both
know this. But it's constant educationbecause during World War Two, of course
anti Semitism became somehow exclusive for theJewish community, which is absolutely not true.
There are all Semites in that region. So to say these things and
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to insist that people who just wantto see innocent women, children and families
being taken out in complete for youknow, to get them to stop,
to call it a hate march,it's incredible. But what is it that
truly drives you to stand up forothers right now in the face of that
discouragement, in the face of agovernment that's telling you otherwise. For me
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personally, my parents are from Bangladesh. We come from a background where our
country was. It wasn't long goalnineteen seventy the country gained independence. We
went through a war. We're allleast Pakistan before now it's Bannadesh and Pakistan.
Our forefathers have four, our fathershave four. They had to stand
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up for justice. If they didn'tstand up for justice, I wouldn't be
here. I wouldn't be a partof this collective society during the march is
going to the protests. I wouldn'thave sisters who are passionate about showing up
for a gas and Palestine. Sothat's one. It's already embedded in us.
But as humans as well as Eliya, we were all born here to
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be a part of a tribe.That's what humans do. We look after
one another. We want to makesure we are okay. So when humanity
is hurting individually, we all sufferas well. How can we call it
a peaceful earth when Earth is actuallycrying right now, which it is.
We have Suddan that's going through awhole different episode of genocide. There is
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crying. We have different parts ofthe world where people are going through stuff
that they should not be going through. In twenty twenty three, these are
things that we used to read aboutin history books, and again history hasn't
taught us everything we want exposed toall of this stuff and the fact that
we have social media. Yes,it's a blessing and it can be a
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curse, but right now I feellike it's such a beautiful blessing because through
our phone we can see the realityand the truth. And the more you
see the truth, the more enragedit makes people. And for me personally,
it's like you feel helpless. Sothe little bit that I can do,
I am going to do it,even if it means posting on social
media, because when I post,it gives ten other people courage to show
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up for it as well. Andright now, where the narrative of if
you are pro Palestini it means you'resupporting Hamas or you're an antisemitic, that
narrative has to be diluted. Wecan't have that narra running anymore because that's
silenced people before. But right nowpeople have been I'm so proud of people
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right now that are standing and goingto these markets because they have been educating
themselves. They're seeing the reality ofwhat Israeli is doing as well. And
yes, we can sit here andsay yes there's casualties on the other part,
but we have to go deeper.Than what happened on the seventh of
October. We have to go allthe way back to nineteen forty seven,
even maybe even before that to reallyunderstand the conflict here. So for us
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to feel like, okay, wehaven't got a responsibility, we all have
a responsibility because if we are notstanding up for these people, what happens
when it happens to us who wantto stand up for that fast then So
that's where my passion comes from tosupport Palestinians or anybody going through injustice.
Actually right, right, agreed?And something you said, so, you
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know when we were in our previousconversation, you said, we can't hear
the voice of the oppressed. Youknow that stands out to me because in
this moment, no differently than otherpeople in our past history wanted people to
stand up for them during their suffering. It's the truth. We can't hear
the voice of the oppressed. Youknow, here in America there were people
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that explained away slavery and said,well, there's a reason we do this,
there all the reasons. But whenwe sit down and listen to them,
now we know they weren't right.When is the time to stand up
for the oppressed. Well, youknow, like you and I agree,
the time is definitely now. Andwhen it does come to the conversation,
whether people want to acknowledge or not. And as we've shown through even this
season that we're producing, it isdefinitely not Israeli forces that are oppressed,
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right, It's not. And that'ssimply the case. And when you know,
when you know wrong has been done, your soul knows it. And
you said that to me, andwe both truly truly agree on that.
Taking it to kind of going backinto your work. Confidence is important,
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right. You spend all this timeand effort to build a person's idea of
self love, that I'm valued,that I bring value to this world,
that I am worthy. How doyou feel this impacts the confidence of the
little Palestinian child that feels unfortunately largelyabandoned by a good piece of the world.
(29:21):
What do you feel it does tothem, that lack of to their
to their ability to find self lovein who they're now? Mind you and
I Before you answer, I haveto say, it is still incredible.
And I know this being a personyou know, with Middle Eastern and my
family and my children. I havechildren that are half Palestinian. I've been
part of the culture for well overhalf of my life. Right, it's
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incredible the the you know that partof them. However, this has to
be impacting them, right Like asa person who does what you do,
what do you what do you feelthis impact is to those children's it's feeling,
it's mixed emotions right now. Rightyou're helpless that you can't change what's
happening there and waking up seeing nastyhob or images of what the people are
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going through. That's one thing thatyou have to deal with. Then you
have comments and people's outdated way ofthinking from the other side of what about
the hostages? Free the hostages,and it's exhausting and having confidence in myself
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or giving people the tools to haveconfidence is to not shy away to challenge
people's narratives or what they're commenting on. We have this. We're in a
society where cancel culture is like this. Your Instagram can be taken away from
you because you made a comment orsomething that somebody else wasn't happy with,
(30:53):
or you know it breached the rulesand regulations. But you've got to foster
fire. At one point or sometimein your life. You got to say
this is what I stand for andthis is who I am, and it
doesn't matter what you think about me. I'm gonna do what brings me the
joy here, what brings my soulon fire as well. And having this
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confidence and teaching my females how tobe empowered, it simply means you're giving
chance to other people to follow through. If your voice is the one that
they need, then be it.Be that person to show up. But
you have to show up for yourselfbecause if you do not show up for
yourself, how are you going toshow up for other people? Right?
(31:38):
And I just the other evening watcheda documentary that's currently on Netflix, you
know, born in Gaza and incrediblyheartfelt, you know, following the twenty
fourteen war that happened in Gaza,and followed children that were living with shrapnel
in their body and kids that justyou know, their fathers were good men.
There was one his father was anuns driver and you can see the
(32:02):
impact of living in that and it'sheartbreaking to be quite honest, because I
mean, I'm a mother. Iwould not want my children to grow up
in an environment that made them feellike just going outside to play ball with
my friends, I might get bombed, Like that's their reality. How is
(32:22):
a community do we rebuild their confidence? I really worry about that every day.
The dead are dead. Now isa survivors. It's the new old
boy that lost his entire family.How does that traum my impact him growing
up in Palestine? Even if itmoved away from Palestine and he came to
the UK or America. You know, I was just thinking coming here as
(32:45):
well. It's the survivors that needthe most love and the most help.
But I don't know what capacity tohelp because they're just going to be waiting
for their time to die. They'rejust it's like a zombie now for them
to even exist. The whole family'swiped away. They've witnessed the unbelievable.
(33:07):
Right now, we are witnessing agenocide. It's impacting us. I don't
even know what the people on theground are going through in the last four
weeks. If they haven't broken already, I don't know what we can do
in order to build them up again. And this is where we have to
collectively in this world now, thinkabout the next steps forward. In Charlotte,
(33:30):
there is a seaspire soon and wecan actually move on and go to
the next part saying what do wedo now, because right now, everybody's
on edge, everybody's angry, everybody'swatching this genocide happen day by day,
and it's exhausting now for us.If it's exhausting for us, I wonder
how they're feeling over there, theyoung children. And it's very heartbreaking when
(33:53):
you see children here and then youthink, oh my god, there're children
over there that I haven't got afraction of what's happening here and what they
have. I had my nephews overthe other day and I just couldn't help
it. I'm not a mom,but just having my nephews in the house
and playing with them and holding them, it was almost like a very weird
(34:16):
kind of feeling. And you can'thelp but compare. Oh my god,
children like this are getting their headsblown up in another part of the world,
and we can't do nothing right now. Right and furthermore, they want
to justify it. I've had alot of comments to me while Hammas started
this, right, Hey, fourteenhundred people died on the Israeli side.
Tragic, I agree, but theywant to somehow use that as a justification.
(34:37):
And I do appreciate that you wereto use the word genocide, because
nobody wants to acknowledge it. Butthis is in fact a genocide when you
just collectively punish an entire civilian population, knowing that if Hamas was hiding in
Tel Aviv, they would not betaking that same approach. Correct So to
know that you're just doing this becauseyou feel you can, because you feel
(35:00):
their lives are not as valuable,and this is all just you know,
par for the course. I amheartbroken by that. And and I you
know, shared early yes with myI took my daughter, you know,
Halloween trick or treating because it wasHalloween here, and you know, you
don't want to make our children sufferbecause you're feeling a certain way. But
I just felt such privileged Nasia,like Okay, I get to go on
(35:21):
about my life knowing that those childrendeserve the same and the incredible things that
they are witnessing. You know,I shared on my IG in two thousand
and six, my family was caughtin the two Israeli conflict between Lebanon.
My family was nothing. We werenot part of Hesbelah. They were just
visiting my ex husband and my husbandat the time was standing in the airport
when it got bombed, and forthat week they thought they were going to
(35:44):
die, and they came home withthe images in their mind ingrained of children
in the street body parts. Imean, that does something to you that
you and I both know. It'safter a while, you're just what do
you feel? There are children whowill not know their names, they will
not know when they were born.They will grow up without an identity.
And so to your point, you'reright, when the ceasefire, God willing
(36:04):
and sha lah when it's done,is only the beginning. You know,
there are people sending you know,aid and things. Thankfully there are some
going to the Palestinians, but we'reseeing much more of a side for Israeli
you know, community, which isfine. But however, I think it's
important for us to advocate that,you know, housing for children with no
families to care for them is goingto be critical, you know, and
(36:28):
not just some building that you throwa bunch of kids in and pretend they
don't exist and they don't matter.Right Like I my heart breaks for thinking
of just the recovery process, notonly that you have people that will die
continuously right now from infections, lackof medication, lack of proper health care.
The death continues every single day.And yeah, go ahead, I
(36:50):
just want to say this. Andif Palestinians had blonde hair, blue eyes,
it'd be a very different approach.The world is very much used to
seeing brown people or colored people dyefor no reason. Going through all of
this, Ukraine made three. Wellyou can't help but compare, Okay,
(37:13):
there was aid quickly. We hadevery shot, every supermarket with the donation
buttons on the screens as you're goingthrough checkout. I haven't seen any for
Palestinian children and we are months inthis. Unfortunately the world. We have
to look at it. How racistthe world can be as well. This
(37:36):
is white supremacy at its highest,okay, and people don't want to actually
actually acknowledge this. If Palestinian childrenwere blue eyed, blonde hair, the
world will be reacting very differently,especially America and the UK right. And
that is something that we have toIt's a bitter pill to swallow because as
(37:57):
an ethnic person, as somebody whocan be labeled as a terrorist straight away
if I say something out of line, if I do something out of line
at the protest, but if it'sthe other person or the israel Israelis who
are the real terrorists right now,But let's sugar cor and let's give them
the highest ranking or funding and everything. They are getting away with it left,
(38:22):
right and center. Again, That'swhat I think infuriates me as a
person, is how on earth arethey still getting away with it? Right?
Because if the rules were reversed withthis whole Hammus thing and it got
to the point where Israelis are doingto the Palestinians, right, the world
will be at Palaestinian throat within twentyfour hours. There will be a ceasefire
(38:46):
within three hours, guaranteed. Butunfortunately, we saw it with Cereal,
we saw it with Libya, wesaw it with you name the countries that
have gone through this kind of killingand genocide. And at the end of
what Israelis are doing, we've seenit all and we just people are just
(39:06):
used to it now, right,see right? And you know, I
do want to I want to saythat I am thankful and grateful, you
know, to see I think themost I think some of the most important
voices to lift up in this aresome of the Israeli born citizens or people
of Jewish faith who say this doesnot represent us. Right, they're educating
people on Zionism versus Judaism. They'resaying, you know, like any group
(39:28):
of people, you don't have everyonelumped into the same ideology. And I'm
grateful for them that are showing upand saying we we we acknowledge this,
we acknowledge this for what it is. And you know that's incredibly important because
yes, when you are the brownperson speaking up for the brown people,
then you're just, oh, youknow, well, that's why you're standing
up for them, because you're oneof them, And that's not really fair.
(39:51):
No, I'm a human freaking beingwith the pulse, and if you
were being attacked, I would standup for you just as much as I
would someone else. We saw thatduring the Black Lives Matter movement, right,
you know, everyone all while alllives matter, No duh, no
freakin' dah. We're just saying there'svalues. There's as valuable as valuable as
yours, and we shouldn't be excludingthat. And on the one of the
(40:12):
other points you made, I thinkthat a lot of people don't want to
acknowledge in what the Jewish community wentthrough during the Holocaust, of which I'm
also part German. I kind ofgrew up with this like obsession of how
did German society just allow this tohappen? Why? How? How?
And you know, you want tobelieve that we're in a society today that
would never tolerate that type of thingagain, And yet we are. And
(40:35):
you know, and I want tosay that, you know, it shouldn't
matter what color you what color yourskin is, what religion you practice.
We are human beings and I firmlybelieve that until we see each other as
such, people will suffer that neverhad to in the first place. So
I can appreciate everything that you're saying. Listen, you know you have a
beautiful message to the world. Whatis your message right now? From the
(40:58):
UK to the world in our effortinitiative, from Los Angeles to guys,
everyone around the world that is comingtogether, what is your message? If
I had to think of a messageright now, it will be we actually
don't have long on this planet.We were here for a reason, every
single one of us were selected tobe here. And if we don't actually
(41:22):
rise up to stand up for oneanother, to be there for one another.
We're going to be a very dyingspecies if we are not already.
And right now, it's all aboutshowing each other the solidarity the compassion that
we need as a collective unit tostand up for these people around the world
that are going through this kind ofoppression. If we don't do it now,
(41:44):
that means we just ruined the nextgeneration of people who are going to
be cowards, who are going tobe silent. And you know, you
just ask a question of how didthe Holocaust happen? Right? Why are
we seeing a repetition of it nowin two different ways? Now we have
all the tools and the resources toget our voices heard, and back then
they probably didn't. That's why theygot away with it. And we don't
(42:07):
want to keep repeating this in aboutanother fifty years time or another ten years
time. So if we don't breakthat curse now, it's going to forever
just recycle itself. So it isso important for us now to go to
these protests to say enough is enough, to say we're the ones that make
the change, and we are makingthe change, and for us all to
(42:29):
go out of these demonstrations is important. Take your dog, take your family,
take your friends. When we showup, one person needs to show
up, twenty others will follow.Even if they don't understand what's going on,
they will learn. They will bepulled to learn, because again,
when injustice has been done to somebody, when you are witnessing it, naturally
(42:52):
your job, you will feel likeyou want to stand up for that person.
If you're a good human being,right, and I feel that as
a person who has you know,a platform, you'd sacrifice all that just
so you can know you save people. None of that matters if you're not
using it for good, right andin too that, I ask you,
what is a role model to you? I tried to ask this question myself
(43:15):
so many times that LAA and Ijust can't get to the you know,
the message of what is a rolemodel for me? I don't see myself
as a person of influence. Idon't see myself as a fitness influencer.
I'm just me and this is whatI stand for. These are my value
this is where my moral compasses andwhen you are aligned with that, you'll
try to naturally follow. And everybodyseeking a leader, right, So,
(43:38):
whether you're a leader, and you'releading the way for you that could be
for people. That's a role modelfor me personally. I'm just going to
speak my truth and let the peoplejoin the tribe. If they don't want
to, they're allowed to come offthe vehicle as I say, or they
can join and go with the rightand that ride is going to be not
for everyone, and then I respectthat. I think social media has created
(44:02):
a lot of people who have becomenarcissistic in their own ways where they feel
like, okay, well, youknow the entitlement as well, but if
I'm not sharing, even if Ihave ten followers or twenty thousand followers or
fifty thousand, it doesn't make adifference. You have a platform, use
it for it's good and if it'sdoing the right thing, then we're going
(44:24):
to keep multiplying that and the personwho's watching it is going to create that
movement as well for everyone. Forour audio audience, please tell us your
handle on ig so they can followyou and support what you're doing. Absolutely,
it's fitness read on UK one comingfor the madness. I feel like
this year we really have to riseup altogether and every single one of my
(44:46):
followers, I treat them like ahuman being. They're not just a number.
And if they want to learn moreabout your coaching and what you're doing
professionally, your website correct, Yes, absolutely, it's ww dot Nazika two.
Thank you so much. I appreciateyou people are having me have a
great night. Thank you. Andto our audience at home, to every
(45:08):
single person, I encourage you touse your voice right now. It doesn't
matter who you are. This issomething I've always taught my team, and
you know, we went through thisduring the pandemic when I was honored to
mentor young interns and college students thatwere sent home all over the globe Hong
Kong, Taiwan. They were prettymuch shoved in a closet right and said,
(45:28):
hey, what you're going through rightnow isn't really important. And from
that place, what they were ableto learn was that I can make a
difference. I do have a voice. I will use it, I will
exercise it, but I will alsostay this first, before you start going
out and using your voice to sayanything off the top of your head,
get some education first. If youdon't know the information, find it out.
(45:51):
I remember in my eight I wasaround eighteen nineteen years old when I
started to learn about African history inAmerica and taking the time to see outside
of what I had been told versuswhat I was living and what I was
actually learning independently completely changed the wayI saw things, and not because it
indoctrinated me or brainwashed me, butbecause I opened up to the possibility that
(46:15):
what I had been told was wrong. So in that I encourage you get
educated and then use your voice forgood. We value life, we value
all of it. We all havethe same rights. Human rights is a
thing, and I would love foryou to consider that if in the past
we've considered genocides wrong, if itwas wrong for the Jewish community during the
(46:37):
Holocaust, if it was wrong forRuandan genocide that occurred, if it's been
wrong, why would it be rightnow? Thank you so much, we'll
see you next time, and thankyou for letting us be unsugarcoated fo
From UBN Studios. You're listening toUnsugarcoded with Alia, bringing you interviews with
public figures and inspirational people speaking onself improvement with empowered themes, and I'm
your host, Ali Elaneus. Hello, Hello, Hello to everybody in the
world, no matter where you are. I'm happy to be speaking to you
(00:23):
today from another season of Unsugarcoated withAlia. As you will know already,
this is a special, dedicated seasonthat we are theming from Los Angeles to
Gaza, a plea for humanity.These conversations are not easy to have,
but I am grateful that you aresticking with us, that you're open to
(00:43):
hearing these important conversations that need tobe had. You know where we constantly
explore the voices that shape our worldtoday, and always in an effort to
support humanity. You know, Iwant to say, the crisis that we
have right now, that has unfoldedbefore all of our eyes, is impacting
(01:03):
a lot of people. Everyone,you know, the Jewish community, American
community, the British community around theglobe, the Muslim community of obviously the
Arab community. Everybody. There isnot, in my opinion, people that
are not suffering from this crisis.The reality is though some people are suffering
(01:23):
more, and that is why thisseason and that is why these conversations are
more critical than ever. Our job, my job as a social impact producer,
is to remind us of our humanity, and through our projects, we
always want to humanize one another everyonebecause you're beautiful, I'm beautiful, and
that family that you don't know isbeautiful too. At least ten thousand Palestinians
(01:49):
have been killed in Gaza. Morechildren have died in Gaza in this crisis
so far than all other conflicts aroundthe world in the past four years,
according to the charity Save the Children. In this situation, there's a lot
that I could say that's going tomake somebody upset. Not everything I say
is going to ring true with somebodybased on their lived experiences. But I
(02:14):
do have lived experiences. You havelived experience, and others do as well,
and we want to continue to raisethose voices. We want to hear
it all with the hope that wecome together and find bridges and find peace
and find comfort, that we canbe better than this. We can be
better. We don't have to letinnocent people die. And on that note,
I stand on no moral high ground. I'm an American. You know
(02:37):
there's a lot a lot to sayto that. I know what I'm encouraging
and encouraging people to do right nowis lift your voice for humanity. Don't
stop, don't give up. Weneed people to keep the fight more than
ever, and around the world weare seeing people raise up and do that.
In fact, just I believe yesterdayAustralian senators walked out of Parliament in
(02:57):
an act of demonstration for the peoplethat are dying innocently, for the civilians
that are caught in the middle.Now, in this episode, as you
know that we like to do,we want to bring in people with different
experiences right so specifically, we're goingto delve into the topic that resonates deeply
in our modern society, the ideaof role models and the fusion of influence
(03:21):
and activism. What does it meanto be a role model in our rapidly
changing world, How do those withplatforms use their influence to advocate for global
causes, and most importantly, whyis it crucial for us to care about
the well being of others no mattertheir circumstances. Our guest today is someone
(03:43):
who has recently been part of thoseactions and conversations that have been ignited worldwide.
She joined and estimated five hundred thousandpeople in a protest in London on
October twenty first, amongst others,standing in solidarity with Palestine in an era
where the line between public figures andactivists often blurs. Will explore the profound
(04:08):
impact such individuals can have. We'lldiscuss how true influencers are not just those
who amass followers, but those whopassionately advocate for the world, pushing boundaries
and demanding justice. And yes,we know a lot of people don't like
that. They'd rather you keep puttingup the photos of your food, or
putting up the exercise videos, oryou know, the places, the beautiful
(04:30):
hotels. Sometimes that's very difficult whenever, and as somebody in that position starts
speaking on humanity, they kind ofsay, ssh, we don't want to
hear that. But I admire thepeople who go against that. I admire
the people who stand up and showthe world what we need. So,
while some argue that public figures shouldkeep their personal views separate, will ponder
(04:51):
the question, is it our dutyas human beings to care for the wellbeing
of others. Join us as weembark on a thought provoking journey connecting the
dots between role models, platforms,and the relentless pursuit of a better world.
Is time to challenge our perceptions andembrace the power of unity and empathy
in today's global landscape. Nazia Chatoune'sjourney has been a powerful transformation from a
(05:16):
life consumed by the pursuit of theperfect body through calorie counting and fad diets,
which left her mentally and physically drained. Her battle with insecurities and lack
of self love led to a periodof depression and unwonted thoughts. However,
through the catalyst of fitness and anunwavering determination, Nazia managed to reinvent herself.
(05:38):
Exercise became the tool that helped herconquer her old self, combat anxiety
and fear, ultimately leading her tobecome the best version of herself in all
aspects of life. Today, Naziais on a mission to empower other women
through her coaching and social media platform. By mergering neuroscience and fitness, her
focus is not only helping females embraceand love their bodies, but also on
(06:00):
fostering self acceptance. With an unshakablemindset, she strives to guide others through
tough times and inspire them to embracetheir true selves. Nazia's story is a
testament to the resilience of the humanspirit and the power of self love in
the pursuit of well being, andwe are so happy to have for us
join her. Everybody, ladies andgentlemen, please welcome miss Naziachton. How
(06:25):
are you? How are you?How are you? You actually gave me
goose films with that introduction. Honestly, thank you so much for having me
on here. I'm good. Idon't know, actually I say I'm good
by the hour, everybody. Ifeel like my mood has been changing for
the last month or so. SoI'm here. I'm here, and we're
(06:46):
so grateful for that. And Iunderstand. I think that's a common thread
for many of us. We're fine, you know, And that's kind of
the privilege of we are fine,We're not, you know. I've shared
with people. I will have thosemoments I go to get a drink of
water and suddenly I'm you know,flushed with a sense of guilt, or
I'm hugging my child and and Ihave a certain emotion and I went through
that as a cancer survivor as well, the survivor's guilt. But you know,
(07:09):
but we remain hopeful. We focuson what we can do, which
is the kind, you know,kind of conversation I'm glad to share with
you today versus what we can't do. So for our audience, you know,
you do incredible things. I loveyour energy. We connected immediately before
this, you know, on socialmedia. Tell us a little bit about
your origin story. You know yourfamily's from Bangladesh, you were born and
raised in the UK. Why don'tyou start there? I mean, I
(07:32):
grew up as a typical British Asianfemale in London, went through the whole
schooling system, came out, youknow, this whole idea get a good
education, get a good job,get married, have children, end of
life. And I think from avery young age, asking questions led me
(07:53):
to just ask more questions like whoam I? What's my purpose? And
I think people who are those questionson a deeper level, they're the ones
that go on a quest And Igenuinely believe the tribe that I connect with
we have all been here for apurpose because now we are empowering those people
(08:13):
with the change makers in all respect, and people can share their stories and
we can learn so much as well. And when I was going through university
and everything, I was just like, Okay, what is my purpose?
What am I doing here? Whatdo I want to do with this life?
I didn't want to settle with mediocre, a mediocre job, a mediocre
(08:37):
relationship. I just don't know whatit was. I was an amateur boxer
for the best part of my twenties. I struggle with an eating disorder that
we don't really speak about in mycommunity at all. The South Asian community
is are very reserved. We carea lot about our reputation, how we
look in the community. It doesn'tmatter what you're going going through. Mental
(09:00):
health is and spoken about. There'sso much there that I can actually dismantle
as we go along in this conversation. But it was just so much for
me to handle at that time goingup. There wasn't a manual to say,
Okay, this is how you're meantto be, this is how you're
supposed to live life. Even ifI was outspoken, it was seen as
too much. So you go backinto your shell, and then you repress
(09:22):
every part of you. And fitnesswas a beautiful channel for me basically in
that respect, especially boxing. Itwas a very aggressive sport in so many
ways, but it really pacified allof that energy I had that was just
repressed inside of me. Actually,and then I just went on this journey
(09:43):
of discovery, I guess. Andin between having gone through the career change,
rebelling against the stereotypes or what itmeans to be a Bangladeshi Asian wasn't
female, what it means to bea Asian female boxer in the fitness industry,
and so on, and then Ijust realized fitness was such a beautiful
(10:05):
thing for me that helped me recoverfrom depression. It also helped me from
moments of weakness. When people gothrough depression, you know, your thoughts
take you places you don't want togo to. I feel like I'm very
one of the most luckiest people thatmanaged to just hold on and didn't do
anything silly. And I'm here tonow share my story and help people recover
(10:31):
from their trauma, from depression,from feeling stark, empowering yourself, finding
your voice really, and fitness isjust one of those ways I found myself
doing it. I love that you'rethe oldest of six girls, right,
I am, I am, andI sympathy to every elder child, whether
you're a boy or a girl,A sympathies you. You know you talked
(10:56):
with me before about how because ofthat, because of being the oldest,
and because of your own experience ishaving an eating disorder and obviously being able
to identify that you share. Youknow you taught you told me a bit
about wanting to try and be arole model for you young it forced you
to want to be a role modelfor your sisters. Yeah, tell me
(11:18):
a little bit about that. Well, you know, it comes with the
whole package, doesn't it. They'reoldest born is automatically set to be setting
the ways on the path for everybodyelse. And I remember my parents us
to always say, if you doanything wrong, you know, it falls
back on your brothers and sisters.If you go to university, the rest
(11:41):
will go to university, pass yourexams, the rest will do it.
And it got to a point Iwas like, Okay, that's fine,
went to university. Everybody else wentto university. And then I was just
like, well, I want tolive life and the older system me going
to box, Oh, that's notacceptable. What are people gonna think?
(12:03):
Who's gonna marry you? This isnot what's expected of a Bangladeshian. What's
them female? And I was like, okay, I wasn't. I didn't.
I didn't make the stereotypes up,So why do I have to adhere
to this? And it wasn't likeI was naturally rebelling. It was something
(12:24):
No. What I was trying tosay is it's not like I purpose went
out there to annoy my parents.It was just a part of my DNA.
I wanted to do something. Iwould go and do it, but
then come home or backfire by myparents or by relatives or people in the
community. And it just made mefeel very, very congested in my head
(12:45):
in terms of so who am Isupposed to be now? They want me
to go to work? What amI supposed to do at work? There's
more to life and being a rolemodel with my siblings. I think I
totally failed at that because I hada lot of issues with how I looked
myself image. The eating disorder literallyruined every aspect of my life in my
(13:05):
twenties, and it took me avery long time just to fix that.
Heal that part off me. Andnow I look at myself and I think
if I had somebody just guided mewhen I was growing up in my twenties,
my life would have been just abit more manageable. Or if I
knew what I know now, lifewould have been very different for me then
(13:28):
as well. Of course, ofcourse, So what was the turning point
for you? You know? Andthank you so much by the way for
sharing that and vulnerability. I knowhow it is. And actually, on
the note of you being a boxer, I always tell people who say,
you know, they say to me, I just can't focus. I have
a lot of issues, And theysay the belief in that is a myth
you tell yourself, because if youwere a boxer and you got in a
ring and you just had to focuson not getting hit in the face,
(13:52):
trust me, you can focus veryquickly, right. So I really appreciate
that. And I know you've hadinspirations such as Muhammad Ali and things like
that, But what was the turningpoint for you? When I probably left
my full time job and I wantedto pursue my career in the fitness industry,
and I realized how much it wasn'tencouraged, how much as an Asian
(14:18):
female, I had to struggle topursue my identity, to pursue my career,
and it took me in a spiralingdown weigh heal into depression very quickly,
and I think that's where my turningpoint was. The depression for me,
when I look back at it wassuch a beautiful blessing. I can
(14:41):
say that now because I've healed throughit. The initial five years of my
thirties, it was just trying torediscover myself, and it was in the
initial years of becoming a fitness coach. It was just holding on, and
it was just holding on. That'swhen I realized, I like, oh
wow, it was a penny dropmoment for me to realize why I don't
(15:05):
feel good enough, Why I needvalidation from other people to tell me I
was beautiful. I need a validationfrom other people to tell me I had
an amazing physique and the self imagenow that I understand that I've studied it
so much, how we see ourselvesis very different to how the world sees
us, and the language that weuse to describe ourselves our inner monologue has
(15:28):
a huge impact on how we showup in the world. And fitness Reborn
at UK was created when I realized, my God, fitness is actually helping
me survive my worst days, thedarkness of all darkness that I have to
face right now. And that waswhen I was thirty years old, and
(15:50):
now I'm forty ten years on.I still rely on fitness as the medicine
that would pick me up, themedicine that would give me joy, the
medicine that will give me a happymovement is everything. And that's where a
lot of people fail to understand thatwe can help ourselves if we choose to
change. I resonate with that alot, because it was in my early
thirties that I really started to becomeempowered myself and look at the things.
(16:14):
And then through the thirties and thenthrough the forties, and now I'm almost
at the fifties, and you know, and I'm a grandmother and mother,
and you know, to your point, yes, the way that we help
ourselves is through connecting to our body. The neuroscience aspect, you know,
I know that we can we candefinitely talk about that, but I really
appreciate how part of your structure andthe way that you have, you know,
(16:37):
you operate your coaching fitness business isto address the trauma. You consider
the trauma to be a barrier towhat a lot of people are trying to
accomplish for themselves. Yeah, howdid that start for you where you started
to recognize to unlock that part ofyou will ultimately contribute more to your success
(16:59):
in the fitness aspect. Yeah,I mean I came in the industry and
the fitness industry is a very lucrativeindustry. And then to be a South
Asian, then to be a woman, then to be a Muslim female.
There's a lot of us on socialmedia now, but back then it was
very rare. And my clients havealways been my biggest ever teachers as well.
(17:25):
And when I took them on theeight week journey, the twelve week
journey of learning how to love themselves, learning how to champion mental health,
something unlocked there. I almost feltlike I hite jack Pot eight years ago
when I realized that the program washelping people become the cliche saying of the
(17:45):
best version of themselves. But peoplewere leaving abusive marriages, abusive relationships,
they were becoming better, they werebecoming healed. There were the skin used
to glow when they came to thepros. At the end of the process,
their hair was growing. They droppedweight within like a few weeks,
(18:07):
and they had been struggling to dropweight almost all their life for some of
the clients. And then the moreI studied it, the more I studied
the brain and did my course withneuroscience and fitness, I was like,
oh my god, this is thepuzzle that a lot of people are not
speaking about. We have repressed emotionthat gets suppressed and that leads to depression.
(18:29):
Once we sought out the root cause, it's almost like the body gets
off survival mode, it comes offautopilot, and then it resets itself naturally.
So when I understood that point,I accidentally I feel like I was
helping females heal themselves. And myfirst few clients, unfortunately came from the
(18:52):
domestic violent background, and I hadno knowledge, no understanding of how to
deal with those females. So Ijust took them as just teach them how
to love themselves. But along theprocess, I have tools and resources,
and I see females now who aredoing amazing things. They're single moms,
they've gone into healthier relationships, They'velearned how to accept who they are,
(19:15):
fixing their attachment styles, learning aboutyourself, Like we don't have enough time
in the world because everybody's busy doingtheir jobs or getting distracted. Like to
look within. It takes courage,it takes a lot of effort, and
you have to be briefly say youknow what, this is not working.
(19:36):
Let me go and see what's causingit. And there's a cause and effect
in everything, and with the fitnessindustry, we keep looking at the external.
And this is what happened. WhenI was going through eating disorder.
It was all about I need tolook good, I need to have a
six pack, and it it didn'tmatter how beautiful I looked. I couldn't
see it. And the more Iwas struggling with my weight, the more
(19:59):
I realized I actually don't like myself. And it was just like wow,
another Pandor's box opened when I realized, oh my god, once I've done
that in a work, once I'vehealed that trauma, Once I've healed the
part of me that was wounded,that was God, it didn't matter how
I looked anymore. I didn't reallybother so much about people liking me or
(20:21):
not. I liked me and that'show that journey started. And now I'm
known for healing traumas through fitness andgetting people to become the best version of
themselves. That is fantastic and Icompletely agree with you. So I'm going
to shift a little bit because youknow, I want people to understand your
heart, your motivations. You're awoman of diversity, You've been through things,
(20:45):
and you want to help people notsuffer, right, Because I think,
even as you had told me,it's something that if you haven't had
an opportunity to work through trauma,that is, you will suffer. You
will struggle. First of all,I'll start with the simple. I mean,
you're a citizen of the UK,similar to me as an American citizen.
You have a government that has largelynot shown up for what we most
(21:07):
of us consider a humanitarian crisis.How does that feel for you when it
comes to the conversation around what's happeningyou know in Gaza in these regions to
both sides angry. I think alot of us have been feeling this emotion
(21:30):
in the last couple of weeks iscoming up to about a month now,
and we've been we've seen nothing beingdone by a government, and in fact,
having a Home Secretary and a PrimeMinister that are both South Asian,
it's a lot more harder to processwhat's going on in their heads. India
(21:52):
was once colonized. Our presses areall the same, it doesn't matter what
kind of oppression we are gone through. And for us for our government not
to listen to the people to gofor a ceasefire, it's heart ragingly destroying.
It's disgusting how they are actually handlingthis, how much money is being
funded from the tax case. Ithink most people are just outraged the fact
(22:17):
that they now realize where the taxmoney is going to. And nobody has
a saint, nobody can control what'sgoing on here. So there's a lot
of disappointment, there's a lot ofrage. We have a protest, one
of the biggest protests coming up onthe eleventh of November, which is also
Remembrance Day, and the Home Secretaryhas again and again declared that this is
(22:41):
a hate march, is antisemitic andwhat the protest that's being held is causing
more harm and it's totally not true. It's just false claims to keep people
in their pigeonholes. So people aremore afraid. But I think right now
the people are going up. They'reshowing how much courage they have, Even
(23:03):
the quiet people, even the peoplethat haven't been at the fourth one of
using their voice, they've become sopassionate all of a sudden. I love
seeing that, because people are theones that make society want and the government
not listening to the people in theirfaith or the fourth week of what's going
on in Palestine, everybody's woken upa lot more. Right. There are
(23:26):
some people that will refuse to educatethemselves, but there are a lot of
the you know, the education occurs, and I think that you know,
I agree with you. I've startedtelling my friends here in America better start
getting them side businesses going so youcan reduce the tax liability, because it's
so true. You feel kind ofhelpless over recognizing I don't support this,
(23:47):
especially because if we truly truly wantpeace, how can we ever accomplish that?
You know, the governments do thethings that they're doing. When it
comes to all this work and energythat you put into trauma and you're seeing
what happens. You know, whatis it that truly drives you to stand
up for others right now, especiallyin the face of a government saying that's
(24:07):
a hate which to me, obviouslyI have to say this a hate march.
I mean, first of all,it's not anti Semitic to be in
support of Palestinians. They are Semites, you know, you and I both
know this. But it's constant educationbecause during World War Two, of course
anti Semitism became somehow exclusive for theJewish community, which is absolutely not true.
There are all Semites in that region. So to say these things and
(24:30):
to insist that people who just wantto see innocent women, children and families
being taken out in complete for youknow, to get them to stop,
to call it a hate march,it's incredible. But what is it that
truly drives you to stand up forothers right now in the face of that
discouragement, in the face of agovernment that's telling you otherwise. For me
(24:51):
personally, my parents are from Bangladesh. We come from a background where our
country was. It wasn't long goalnineteen seventy the country gained independence. We
went through a war. We're allleast Pakistan before now it's Bannadesh and Pakistan.
Our forefathers have four, our fathershave four. They had to stand
(25:12):
up for justice. If they didn'tstand up for justice, I wouldn't be
here. I wouldn't be a partof this collective society during the march is
going to the protests. I wouldn'thave sisters who are passionate about showing up
for a gas and Palestine. Sothat's one. It's already embedded in us.
But as humans as well as Eliya, we were all born here to
(25:37):
be a part of a tribe.That's what humans do. We look after
one another. We want to makesure we are okay. So when humanity
is hurting individually, we all sufferas well. How can we call it
a peaceful earth when Earth is actuallycrying right now, which it is.
We have Suddan that's going through awhole different episode of genocide. There is
(26:00):
crying. We have different parts ofthe world where people are going through stuff
that they should not be going through. In twenty twenty three, these are
things that we used to read aboutin history books, and again history hasn't
taught us everything we want exposed toall of this stuff and the fact that
we have social media. Yes,it's a blessing and it can be a
(26:22):
curse, but right now I feellike it's such a beautiful blessing because through
our phone we can see the realityand the truth. And the more you
see the truth, the more enragedit makes people. And for me personally,
it's like you feel helpless. Sothe little bit that I can do,
I am going to do it,even if it means posting on social
media, because when I post,it gives ten other people courage to show
(26:45):
up for it as well. Andright now, where the narrative of if
you are pro Palestini it means you'resupporting Hamas or you're an antisemitic, that
narrative has to be diluted. Wecan't have that narra running anymore because that's
silenced people before. But right nowpeople have been I'm so proud of people
(27:06):
right now that are standing and goingto these markets because they have been educating
themselves. They're seeing the reality ofwhat Israeli is doing as well. And
yes, we can sit here andsay yes there's casualties on the other part,
but we have to go deeper.Than what happened on the seventh of
October. We have to go allthe way back to nineteen forty seven,
even maybe even before that to reallyunderstand the conflict here. So for us
(27:29):
to feel like, okay, wehaven't got a responsibility, we all have
a responsibility because if we are notstanding up for these people, what happens
when it happens to us who wantto stand up for that fast then So
that's where my passion comes from tosupport Palestinians or anybody going through injustice.
Actually right, right, agreed?And something you said, so, you
(27:52):
know when we were in our previousconversation, you said, we can't hear
the voice of the oppressed. Youknow that stands out to me because in
this moment, no differently than otherpeople in our past history wanted people to
stand up for them during their suffering. It's the truth. We can't hear
the voice of the oppressed. Youknow, here in America there were people
(28:14):
that explained away slavery and said,well, there's a reason we do this,
there all the reasons. But whenwe sit down and listen to them,
now we know they weren't right.When is the time to stand up
for the oppressed. Well, youknow, like you and I agree,
the time is definitely now. Andwhen it does come to the conversation,
whether people want to acknowledge or not. And as we've shown through even this
season that we're producing, it isdefinitely not Israeli forces that are oppressed,
(28:38):
right, It's not. And that'ssimply the case. And when you know,
when you know wrong has been done, your soul knows it. And
you said that to me, andwe both truly truly agree on that.
Taking it to kind of going backinto your work. Confidence is important,
(29:00):
right. You spend all this timeand effort to build a person's idea of
self love, that I'm valued,that I bring value to this world,
that I am worthy. How doyou feel this impacts the confidence of the
little Palestinian child that feels unfortunately largelyabandoned by a good piece of the world.
(29:21):
What do you feel it does tothem, that lack of to their
to their ability to find self lovein who they're now? Mind you and
I Before you answer, I haveto say, it is still incredible.
And I know this being a personyou know, with Middle Eastern and my
family and my children. I havechildren that are half Palestinian. I've been
part of the culture for well overhalf of my life. Right, it's
(29:45):
incredible the the you know that partof them. However, this has to
be impacting them, right Like asa person who does what you do,
what do you what do you feelthis impact is to those children's it's feeling,
it's mixed emotions right now. Rightyou're helpless that you can't change what's
happening there and waking up seeing nastyhob or images of what the people are
(30:11):
going through. That's one thing thatyou have to deal with. Then you
have comments and people's outdated way ofthinking from the other side of what about
the hostages? Free the hostages,and it's exhausting and having confidence in myself
(30:32):
or giving people the tools to haveconfidence is to not shy away to challenge
people's narratives or what they're commenting on. We have this. We're in a
society where cancel culture is like this. Your Instagram can be taken away from
you because you made a comment orsomething that somebody else wasn't happy with,
(30:53):
or you know it breached the rulesand regulations. But you've got to foster
fire. At one point or sometimein your life. You got to say
this is what I stand for andthis is who I am, and it
doesn't matter what you think about me. I'm gonna do what brings me the
joy here, what brings my soulon fire as well. And having this
(31:17):
confidence and teaching my females how tobe empowered, it simply means you're giving
chance to other people to follow through. If your voice is the one that
they need, then be it.Be that person to show up. But
you have to show up for yourselfbecause if you do not show up for
yourself, how are you going toshow up for other people? Right?
(31:38):
And I just the other evening watcheda documentary that's currently on Netflix, you
know, born in Gaza and incrediblyheartfelt, you know, following the twenty
fourteen war that happened in Gaza,and followed children that were living with shrapnel
in their body and kids that justyou know, their fathers were good men.
There was one his father was anuns driver and you can see the
(32:02):
impact of living in that and it'sheartbreaking to be quite honest, because I
mean, I'm a mother. Iwould not want my children to grow up
in an environment that made them feellike just going outside to play ball with
my friends, I might get bombed, Like that's their reality. How is
(32:22):
a community do we rebuild their confidence? I really worry about that every day.
The dead are dead. Now isa survivors. It's the new old
boy that lost his entire family.How does that traum my impact him growing
up in Palestine? Even if itmoved away from Palestine and he came to
the UK or America. You know, I was just thinking coming here as
(32:45):
well. It's the survivors that needthe most love and the most help.
But I don't know what capacity tohelp because they're just going to be waiting
for their time to die. They'rejust it's like a zombie now for them
to even exist. The whole family'swiped away. They've witnessed the unbelievable.
(33:07):
Right now, we are witnessing agenocide. It's impacting us. I don't
even know what the people on theground are going through in the last four
weeks. If they haven't broken already, I don't know what we can do
in order to build them up again. And this is where we have to
collectively in this world now, thinkabout the next steps forward. In Charlotte,
(33:30):
there is a seaspire soon and wecan actually move on and go to
the next part saying what do wedo now, because right now, everybody's
on edge, everybody's angry, everybody'swatching this genocide happen day by day,
and it's exhausting now for us.If it's exhausting for us, I wonder
how they're feeling over there, theyoung children. And it's very heartbreaking when
(33:53):
you see children here and then youthink, oh my god, there're children
over there that I haven't got afraction of what's happening here and what they
have. I had my nephews overthe other day and I just couldn't help
it. I'm not a mom,but just having my nephews in the house
and playing with them and holding them, it was almost like a very weird
(34:16):
kind of feeling. And you can'thelp but compare. Oh my god,
children like this are getting their headsblown up in another part of the world,
and we can't do nothing right now. Right and furthermore, they want
to justify it. I've had alot of comments to me while Hammas started
this, right, Hey, fourteenhundred people died on the Israeli side.
Tragic, I agree, but theywant to somehow use that as a justification.
(34:37):
And I do appreciate that you wereto use the word genocide, because
nobody wants to acknowledge it. Butthis is in fact a genocide when you
just collectively punish an entire civilian population, knowing that if Hamas was hiding in
Tel Aviv, they would not betaking that same approach. Correct So to
know that you're just doing this becauseyou feel you can, because you feel
(35:00):
their lives are not as valuable,and this is all just you know,
par for the course. I amheartbroken by that. And and I you
know, shared early yes with myI took my daughter, you know,
Halloween trick or treating because it wasHalloween here, and you know, you
don't want to make our children sufferbecause you're feeling a certain way. But
I just felt such privileged Nasia,like Okay, I get to go on
(35:21):
about my life knowing that those childrendeserve the same and the incredible things that
they are witnessing. You know,I shared on my IG in two thousand
and six, my family was caughtin the two Israeli conflict between Lebanon.
My family was nothing. We werenot part of Hesbelah. They were just
visiting my ex husband and my husbandat the time was standing in the airport
when it got bombed, and forthat week they thought they were going to
(35:44):
die, and they came home withthe images in their mind ingrained of children
in the street body parts. Imean, that does something to you that
you and I both know. It'safter a while, you're just what do
you feel? There are children whowill not know their names, they will
not know when they were born.They will grow up without an identity.
And so to your point, you'reright, when the ceasefire, God willing
(36:04):
and sha lah when it's done,is only the beginning. You know,
there are people sending you know,aid and things. Thankfully there are some
going to the Palestinians, but we'reseeing much more of a side for Israeli
you know, community, which isfine. But however, I think it's
important for us to advocate that,you know, housing for children with no
families to care for them is goingto be critical, you know, and
(36:28):
not just some building that you throwa bunch of kids in and pretend they
don't exist and they don't matter.Right Like I my heart breaks for thinking
of just the recovery process, notonly that you have people that will die
continuously right now from infections, lackof medication, lack of proper health care.
The death continues every single day.And yeah, go ahead, I
(36:50):
just want to say this. Andif Palestinians had blonde hair, blue eyes,
it'd be a very different approach.The world is very much used to
seeing brown people or colored people dyefor no reason. Going through all of
this, Ukraine made three. Wellyou can't help but compare, Okay,
(37:13):
there was aid quickly. We hadevery shot, every supermarket with the donation
buttons on the screens as you're goingthrough checkout. I haven't seen any for
Palestinian children and we are months inthis. Unfortunately the world. We have
to look at it. How racistthe world can be as well. This
(37:36):
is white supremacy at its highest,okay, and people don't want to actually
actually acknowledge this. If Palestinian childrenwere blue eyed, blonde hair, the
world will be reacting very differently,especially America and the UK right. And
that is something that we have toIt's a bitter pill to swallow because as
(37:57):
an ethnic person, as somebody whocan be labeled as a terrorist straight away
if I say something out of line, if I do something out of line
at the protest, but if it'sthe other person or the israel Israelis who
are the real terrorists right now,But let's sugar cor and let's give them
the highest ranking or funding and everything. They are getting away with it left,
(38:22):
right and center. Again, That'swhat I think infuriates me as a
person, is how on earth arethey still getting away with it? Right?
Because if the rules were reversed withthis whole Hammus thing and it got
to the point where Israelis are doingto the Palestinians, right, the world
will be at Palaestinian throat within twentyfour hours. There will be a ceasefire
(38:46):
within three hours, guaranteed. Butunfortunately, we saw it with Cereal,
we saw it with Libya, wesaw it with you name the countries that
have gone through this kind of killingand genocide. And at the end of
what Israelis are doing, we've seenit all and we just people are just
(39:06):
used to it now, right,see right? And you know, I
do want to I want to saythat I am thankful and grateful, you
know, to see I think themost I think some of the most important
voices to lift up in this aresome of the Israeli born citizens or people
of Jewish faith who say this doesnot represent us. Right, they're educating
people on Zionism versus Judaism. They'resaying, you know, like any group
(39:28):
of people, you don't have everyonelumped into the same ideology. And I'm
grateful for them that are showing upand saying we we we acknowledge this,
we acknowledge this for what it is. And you know that's incredibly important because
yes, when you are the brownperson speaking up for the brown people,
then you're just, oh, youknow, well, that's why you're standing
up for them, because you're oneof them, And that's not really fair.
(39:51):
No, I'm a human freaking beingwith the pulse, and if you
were being attacked, I would standup for you just as much as I
would someone else. We saw thatduring the Black Lives Matter movement, right,
you know, everyone all while alllives matter, No duh, no
freakin' dah. We're just saying there'svalues. There's as valuable as valuable as
yours, and we shouldn't be excludingthat. And on the one of the
(40:12):
other points you made, I thinkthat a lot of people don't want to
acknowledge in what the Jewish community wentthrough during the Holocaust, of which I'm
also part German. I kind ofgrew up with this like obsession of how
did German society just allow this tohappen? Why? How? How?
And you know, you want tobelieve that we're in a society today that
would never tolerate that type of thingagain, And yet we are. And
(40:35):
you know, and I want tosay that, you know, it shouldn't
matter what color you what color yourskin is, what religion you practice.
We are human beings and I firmlybelieve that until we see each other as
such, people will suffer that neverhad to in the first place. So
I can appreciate everything that you're saying. Listen, you know you have a
beautiful message to the world. Whatis your message right now? From the
(40:58):
UK to the world in our effortinitiative, from Los Angeles to guys,
everyone around the world that is comingtogether, what is your message? If
I had to think of a messageright now, it will be we actually
don't have long on this planet.We were here for a reason, every
single one of us were selected tobe here. And if we don't actually
(41:22):
rise up to stand up for oneanother, to be there for one another.
We're going to be a very dyingspecies if we are not already.
And right now, it's all aboutshowing each other the solidarity the compassion that
we need as a collective unit tostand up for these people around the world
that are going through this kind ofoppression. If we don't do it now,
(41:44):
that means we just ruined the nextgeneration of people who are going to
be cowards, who are going tobe silent. And you know, you
just ask a question of how didthe Holocaust happen? Right? Why are
we seeing a repetition of it nowin two different ways? Now we have
all the tools and the resources toget our voices heard, and back then
they probably didn't. That's why theygot away with it. And we don't
(42:07):
want to keep repeating this in aboutanother fifty years time or another ten years
time. So if we don't breakthat curse now, it's going to forever
just recycle itself. So it isso important for us now to go to
these protests to say enough is enough, to say we're the ones that make
the change, and we are makingthe change, and for us all to
(42:29):
go out of these demonstrations is important. Take your dog, take your family,
take your friends. When we showup, one person needs to show
up, twenty others will follow.Even if they don't understand what's going on,
they will learn. They will bepulled to learn, because again,
when injustice has been done to somebody, when you are witnessing it, naturally
(42:52):
your job, you will feel likeyou want to stand up for that person.
If you're a good human being,right, and I feel that as
a person who has you know,a platform, you'd sacrifice all that just
so you can know you save people. None of that matters if you're not
using it for good, right andin too that, I ask you,
what is a role model to you? I tried to ask this question myself
(43:15):
so many times that LAA and Ijust can't get to the you know,
the message of what is a rolemodel for me? I don't see myself
as a person of influence. Idon't see myself as a fitness influencer.
I'm just me and this is whatI stand for. These are my value
this is where my moral compasses andwhen you are aligned with that, you'll
try to naturally follow. And everybodyseeking a leader, right, So,
(43:38):
whether you're a leader, and you'releading the way for you that could be
for people. That's a role modelfor me personally. I'm just going to
speak my truth and let the peoplejoin the tribe. If they don't want
to, they're allowed to come offthe vehicle as I say, or they
can join and go with the rightand that ride is going to be not
for everyone, and then I respectthat. I think social media has created
(44:02):
a lot of people who have becomenarcissistic in their own ways where they feel
like, okay, well, youknow the entitlement as well, but if
I'm not sharing, even if Ihave ten followers or twenty thousand followers or
fifty thousand, it doesn't make adifference. You have a platform, use
it for it's good and if it'sdoing the right thing, then we're going
(44:24):
to keep multiplying that and the personwho's watching it is going to create that
movement as well for everyone. Forour audio audience, please tell us your
handle on ig so they can followyou and support what you're doing. Absolutely,
it's fitness read on UK one comingfor the madness. I feel like
this year we really have to riseup altogether and every single one of my
(44:46):
followers, I treat them like ahuman being. They're not just a number.
And if they want to learn moreabout your coaching and what you're doing
professionally, your website correct, Yes, absolutely, it's ww dot Nazika two.
Thank you so much. I appreciateyou people are having me have a
great night. Thank you. Andto our audience at home, to every
(45:08):
single person, I encourage you touse your voice right now. It doesn't
matter who you are. This issomething I've always taught my team, and
you know, we went through thisduring the pandemic when I was honored to
mentor young interns and college students thatwere sent home all over the globe Hong
Kong, Taiwan. They were prettymuch shoved in a closet right and said,
(45:28):
hey, what you're going through rightnow isn't really important. And from
that place, what they were ableto learn was that I can make a
difference. I do have a voice. I will use it, I will
exercise it, but I will alsostay this first, before you start going
out and using your voice to sayanything off the top of your head,
get some education first. If youdon't know the information, find it out.
(45:51):
I remember in my eight I wasaround eighteen nineteen years old when I
started to learn about African history inAmerica and taking the time to see outside
of what I had been told versuswhat I was living and what I was
actually learning independently completely changed the wayI saw things, and not because it
indoctrinated me or brainwashed me, butbecause I opened up to the possibility that
(46:15):
what I had been told was wrong. So in that I encourage you get
educated and then use your voice forgood. We value life, we value
all of it. We all havethe same rights. Human rights is a
thing, and I would love foryou to consider that if in the past
we've considered genocides wrong, if itwas wrong for the Jewish community during the
(46:37):
Holocaust, if it was wrong forRuandan genocide that occurred, if it's been
wrong, why would it be rightnow? Thank you so much, we'll
see you next time, and thankyou for letting us be unsugarcoated fo
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.