The unapologetically meaty cuisine of Mumbai’s Bohra Muslim community has found a growing, appreciative audience.
Bohra Muslims have been an important presence in Mumbai for nearly two centuries, and yet most Mumbaikars know about them in only the most general terms. They’re an educated, close-knit mercantile community and have an ecstatic reverence for the Syedna, their religious leader. Originally from Yemen by way of Gujarat (the state to Mumbai’s north), they’re known as the city’s most progressive Muslim community. Bohra women are easily recognizable in the streets by the rida, a colorful two-piece outfit embellished with lacy flowers and sequins, a whimsical answer to the more conservative black hijab. Beyond that, the Bohras are, for most people in this city of 25 million, a mystery.
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