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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Shuhrat Choudhury, Bangladeshi American mental health counselor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more from this series:

• Free health clinic aims to close insurance gap for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan  
• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

The University of Michigan is closing its office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and shutting down diversity initiatives campuswide, in response to executive orders from the Trump administration and internal discussions on campus.

The moves were announced in a campus-wide email from university President Santa Ono and other top leaders Thursday afternoon.

The changes will also affect the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion at Michigan Medicine.

In the email, university leaders acknowledged the diversity initiatives had been successful on some measures.

“First-generation undergraduate students, for example, have increased 46% and undergraduate Pell recipients have increased by more than 32%, driven in part by impactful programs such as Go Blue Guarantee and Wolverine Pathways,” the email read. “The work to remove barriers to student success is inherently challenging, and our leadership has played a vital role in shaping inclusive excellence throughout higher education.”

The University of Michigan has frequently been at the center of conversations about diversity on college campuses; it was the defendant in two lawsuits that reached the Supreme Court in 2003, resulting in rulings that partially struck down affirmative action programs on campus at the time.

Last year, the New York Times reported on UM’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, saying the university had poured more than a quarter of a billion dollars into the programs since 2016, but many critics remained on campus.

In 2023, the university launched what it called its DEI 2.0 strategic plan, which was announced as a five-year plan to run through 2028. On Thursday, the university announced it would abandon the plan, as part of the other cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on campus. It said it would also update university websites to remove mentions of the DEI efforts.

In a post on the social media site “X”, university regent Sarah Hubbard said cutting the DEI offices on campus would free up money to spend on other student programs.

Today the University of Michigan is ending implementation of DEI.

We are eliminating programs, eliminating affiliated staff and ending the DEI 2.0 strategy.

Late last year we ended the use of diversity statements in faculty hiring. This is now expanded university wide and…

— Sarah Hubbard, Regent @umich (@RegentHubbard) March 27, 2025

“We are eliminating bureaucratic overspending and making Michigan more accessible,” Hubbard wrote, citing the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee scholarship program, which had previously been announced by the university.

Editor’s note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public’s broadcast license.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) issued an advisory this week warning people of a possible travel ban by the Trump administration for Arab, Muslim-majority countries and others.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The advisory says nationals from Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela or Yemen should not leave the U.S.

If people need to travel, they should check with an immigration attorney before traveling. The advisory also says individuals living or traveling in one of those countries should return to the U.S. immediately, saying U.S. citizens may be able to reenter but may undergo a vetting process.

People can contact ADC’s legal intake hotline at 844-ADC-9955 for further assistance.

Other headlines for Monday, March 10, 2025:

• A Detroit Youth Mobility Summit is planned from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. March 22 at Newlab, Michigan Central.
• The Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) is looking for volunteers to join a network that collects and shares surface water quality data throughout Michigan.
• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says nearly 60,000 students are receiving the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, saving families $252 million in tuition costs.
• The charity organization Mercy-USA for Aid and Development is hosting its second annual book drive, Lanterns for Literacy. Last year, 8,000 books were donated to families in Detroit through the program. The organization is looking for book donations, volunteers or financial gifts to create literacy kits.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965.

The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote, as well as the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and voting rights organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion.

At the apex of the span over the Alabama River, they saw what awaited them: a line of state troopers, deputies and men on horseback. They kept going. After they approached, law enforcement gave a two-minute warning to disperse and then unleashed violence.

“Within about a minute or a half, they took their billy clubs, holding it on both ends, began to push us back to back us in, and then they began to beat men, women and children, and tear gas men, women and children, and cattle prod men, women and children viciously,” said Mauldin, who was 17 at the time.

Selma on Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of the clash that became known as Bloody Sunday. The attack shocked the nation and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. The annual commemoration pays homage to those who fought to secure voting rights for Black Americans and brought calls to recommit to the fight for equality.

For those gathered in Selma, the celebration comes amid concerns about new voting restrictions and the Trump administration’s effort to remake federal agencies they said helped make America a democracy for all

Speaking at the pulpit of the city’s historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened in Selma changed the nation. He said the 60th anniversary comes at a time when there is “trouble all around” and some “want to whitewash our history.” But he said like the marchers of Bloody Sunday, they must keep going.

“At this moment, faced with trouble on every side, we’ve got to press on,” Jeffries said to the crowd that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, multiple members of Congress and others gathered for the commemoration.

Members of Congress joined with Bloody Sunday marchers to lead a march of several thousand people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They stopped to pray at the site where marchers were beaten in 1965.

“We gather here on the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when our country is in chaos,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama.

Sewell, a Selma native, noted the number of voting restrictions introduced since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively abolished a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to clear new voting laws with the Justice Department. Other speakers noted the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and a rollback of equal opportunity executive orders that have been on the books since the 1960s.

In 1965, the Bloody Sunday marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams walked in pairs across the Selma bridge headed toward Montgomery.

“We had steeled our nerves to a point where we were so determined that we were willing to confront. It was past being courageous. We were determined, and we were indignant,” Mauldin recalled.

He said the “country was not a democracy for Black folks” until voting rights. “And we’re still constantly fighting to make that a more concrete reality for ourselves.”

Kirk Carrington was just 13 on Bloody Sunday and was chased through the city by a man on a horse wielding a stick. “When we started marching, we did not know the impact we would have in America,” he said.

Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, who grew up in Selma, remembers a time when she was expected to lower her gaze if she passed a white person on the street to avoid making eye contact.

Dawson and Mauldin said they are concerned about the potential dismantling of the Department of Education and other changes to federal agencies.

Support from the federal government “is how Black Americans have been able to get justice, to get some semblance of equality, because left to states’ rights, it is going to be the white majority that’s going to rule,” Dawson said.

“That that’s a tragedy of 60 years later: what we are looking at now is a return to the 1950s,” Dawson said.

Reporting by Kim Chandler and Safiyah Riddle, Associated Press

February is Black History Month and WDET’s Detroit Evening Report is collecting Black History stories from listeners.

Iola Corbett, also known as Sister Ameedah, is the author of the book “Growing Up Muslim and the Journey Continues,” a story about being born and raised in Detroit.

Corbett’s family was a part of the Nation of Islam when she was a child.

“That was unbelievable, because I remember it like my first time going with [my father] to the temple. At that time, because it was we had a restaurant, the temple was right around the corner,” she shared.

Over the years she met Malcolm X, who visited her family’s restaurant in Detroit often.

“My mother was an excellent cook, so he had dinner with my dad every day, so I got to hear him, and I would serve him. He was a big influence in my family’s life,” she said.

As part of growing up in the Nation of Islam, Corbett said she was a part of something bigger.

“It still gave me a purpose of who I was, who I wanted to be close with my community,” she explained.

There were many businesses, an apartment building and a bookstore that were part of the network.

“We were about African American people, because back in the day, and I’m sure when my dad come up here, I was amazed that he came here and drove, you know, because I remember going down south with him, and it was you couldn’t go in the bathroom. You couldn’t drink out of the faucet. So when we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that,” she said.

“When we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that.” — Iola Corbett

Her family converted to Sunni Islam as part of a mass conversion under the guidance of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed in the 1970s.

Corbett worked in Detroit in several roles, including as a factory worker and machine operator for the Detroit Oil Company. She also became first Black female president of Local Lodge 82 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

“I conduct the meetings and all that. But I also went on a tour of some of the unions around the city. I got to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia, you know, you travel to see what other unions or other of your union members were doing,” she explained.

The larger union 698 took over local union 82.

She says she wrote “Growing Up Muslim” as a way to preserve her family’s legacy.

“We need to know things about our history, and I wanted the community to know children and my grandchildren, and now I have lots of great grandchildren. I got to really expound about how I grew up, so they would know. Because, you know, my mom is gone, my dad is gone, so they never met him. I want them to know what great people that they were.”

Corbett said she’s working on a new book expanding on her life in Detroit.

Hear our full conversation with Corbett using the audio player above.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroiters will elect their next mayor later this year, and the stakes are high. The government should reflect the communities in which it plans to represent, and race is expected to play a role in the election. 

Throughout most of the city’s history, Detroit had white mayors. Coleman A. Young became Detroit’s first Black mayor in 1973, which changed the trajectory of the city. Current mayor Mike Duggan — the first white mayor of Detroit since Roman Gribbs 1970-’74 — inherited a city with bankruptcy and significant leadership instability, being the fourth mayor in five years. During his tenure, Detroit has witnessed noteworthy economic growth, a slight population increase after years of decline, and a reduction in crime rates. 

However, Duggan’s leadership also raises concerns about reinforcing the misleading notion that white leadership results in economic prosperity, while Black leadership is associated with turmoil.

Today on The Metro, we want to explore how the race of Detroit’s mayor impacts residents and how their efforts could continue to shape the city’s perception as a whole. 

Guests: 

• Jeff Horner: Professor of Teaching at Wayne State University.
• Kandia Milton: Chairman of the Black Slate (Detroit), associate pastor at the Shrine of the Black Madonna, and national policy director for the Justice program at Dream.org.
• Sam Robinson: Reporter covering the city of Detroit and author of the Substack Detroit one million.

We also asked listeners:

“Should Detroit’s next mayor be Black? And how vital is the race for Detroit’s next mayor?”

Listener Mama Jo said: “We should want somebody, I don’t care if they are purple, with gold and green stripes, we should want somebody that’s going to finish the job that Mike Duggan started.”

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation.

More headlines from The Metro on Feb. 25, 2025: 

• Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District and has been sounding the alarm about cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Dingell joined the show to discuss.

• Former Michigan Senator Curtis Hertel Jr. has been named the new chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. He joined The Metro to discuss Democrats’ overall goals and the lessons learned by the party in 2024.

• Angela Hanks is the former associate director of external affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). She was a Biden-Harris appointee and left the CFPB as part of normal administration transitions. Hanks joined the show to discuss what will happen if the nation’s consumer watchdog agency is gutted by mass layoffs. 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.