Love is greatly powerful. We have seen and heard many instances of how love has conquered every obstacle. Two people with seemingly similar backgrounds but are poles apart due to their faith are very much common in a lot of people’s relationships.
One such couple who overcame the differences in their religious beliefs is comedian, actor, and TV host Hasan Minhaj and his beautiful wife Beena Patel.
Hasan Minhaj is one of the up-and-coming stars in the world of entertainment who is known for his Netflix show ‘Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj’.
In his sketches, he usually voices out stuff related to politics, culture, immigrants and many more. Along the way to his stardom, one person has been there with him for a long time; his wife Beena Patel. Beena Patel besides being married to a very famous person has a very successful career. Let us learn more about her.
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Who is Beena Patel?
Beena Patel is estimated to have been born sometime in 1980. She is Indian-American and comes from a Hindu family. Not much is known about her family background. Since she was young she was very smart and dedicated to her studies. By the time she joined high school, she could already speak four different languages; Hindi, English, Spanish, and Gujarati.
Patel is a graduate of the University of California
She graduated from high school in 2003 and joined the University of California, Davis for her bachelor’s degree. There she majored in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and graduated with the degree of Bachelor in Science in 2007. She did not waste any of her time idly and enrolled herself for further education.
From 2007 to 2008, Beena Patel completed her Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the University of California Davis School of Medicine. Her quest for more academic qualifications did not stop there.
She eventually applied for the Doctorate program in Public Health at the same university. During her time there, she got involved in various medical researches and fully devoted herself to her education. She was awarded the prestigious ‘Ruth Romeo Award’ at her graduation in 2013.
Her Successful Career Resume
Beena Patel since the beginning of her education journey tried supporting herself by doing multiple jobs in different organizations. Following her post-graduate degrees, she started working as a clinical research coordinator at ‘Retinal Consultants in Sacramento, California. She dealt with top pharmaceutical companies, such as Lucentis and Avastin.
In October 2008, she started working in ‘Cave Consulting Group’ as a clinical operations analyst and account manager. This was one of her first big break in finding success in career. While working as an operations analyst, Beena got to work with top-level healthcare organizations like the ‘National Committee for Quality Assurance’ (NCQA) and ‘National Quality Forum’ (NQF).
In August 2010, she left her job in the ‘Cave Consulting Group’. She later started working in the ‘UCLA Center for Health Policy Research located in Los Angles in October 2010. She also joined the ‘VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System’ as a program director for the ‘Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team’ in West Los Angeles.
Currently, she is working as a transformational consultant in MedAmerica where she first entered as a practice management consultant. She has been working for MedAmerica since 2013.
Involving in a Romantic Saga with Hasan Minhaj
Beena Patel met her future husband when both of them were students at the University of California, Davis. When Hasan Minhaj was asked about how and when he met his beautiful wife, he explained the moment to be wild. He said that from the moment he met her, he had a huge crush on her.
They dated for a few years before finally getting married in 2015. Since, both Hasan and Beena had traditional values, they decided not to move in together during their courtship period. The beautiful couple was blessed with a baby girl on April 22, 2018. The couple now resides in an apartment in New York City which was personally decorated by Beena.
Becoming Parents For the Second Time
After welcoming their daughter in 2018, the comedian and Patel are enjoying parenthood again. The duo welcomed their second child in March 2020. Minhaj took the support of Instagram to crack the news of the arrival of their son. He shared the picture of him holding his newborn de Beena Patel.
Hasan shared the photo with a beautiful caption that wrote:
“Even in these crazy times, there are so many beautiful moments. Welcome to the world little guy. The Minhaj family grows, and according to Beena, it’s done growing. But ya never know, shooters shoot.”
Fighting Through Religious Obstacles in the Way to their Marriage
Marriage between two people who come from different religious backgrounds often faces many obstacles. Hasan Minhaj is a Muslim while Beena Patel comes from a Hindu background. According to Islam laws, marrying outside your religion is only accepted when a Muslim male decides to marry a non-Islam female who is a Jew or Christian.
Beena being a Hindu meant there would be problems before proceeding with their intentions to get married. One of the options available for them was converting Beena from Hindu to Muslim. Beena took a stand and decided not to convert. In the end, both of their families supported their union and their wedding was done following all the Indian customs and traditions.
Patel Enjoys a Low-Key Life
While her husband is one of the familiar faces in media, Beena is quite private. Being her husband’s number one supporter, she does make appearances with her husband. In 2016, she accompanied her husband to the White House when he was invited by the then-president of the united states of America, Barack Obama.
Hasan posted a photo of him with his wife on his Instagram with the caption ‘walking through the rose garden’. She also attended 76th Annual Peabody Awards with her husband. She was also present at Donald Trump’s ‘White House Correspondents’ dinner’ which was hosted by her husband.
Besides making some appearances at award shows and dinner parties, she rarely steps out in the media by herself. Hasan also respects her ideas of living a private life and rarely spills any personal information regarding her and their family life.
Beena herself maintains a low profile life and does not publicize her social media accounts. The only time we are able to see Beena outside the red carpets is when she is featured on her husband’s Instagram which has millions of followers.
How Rich is Beena Patel?
Although her official net worth is not released in the media, we can estimate it to be somewhere around $45,826 which is the average income of a health professional in the US. her husband, on the other hand, has a net worth of 3 million dollars. With both of their combined income, they can live quite a privileged life.
Beena Patel is a beautiful, intelligent and career-driven woman who is much more than just being the wife of Hasan Minaj. Hasan Minhaj might be a powerhouse in media but Beena Patel is equally incredible in her line of work. She truly embodies the ideal 21st-century strong woman.
Beena is Working to make US Healthcare System Better
Since 2021, Beena Patel Minhaj has been working as the leader and executive director of Vituity Cares Foundation previously known as CEP America. The main goal of the foundation is to build healthier communities where people in need would be able to get the help they need where they live. According to her, they are not looking at a quick fix but rather a long-term plan with an equitable healthcare future.
Beena’s husband Hasan seems to be especially proud of her work with the foundation. Through his Instagram he supported and praised her work against the healthcare inequity.
Since starting to watch The Patriot Act, my 14 year old has been excited to watch with me. I admire Beena Patel for taking steps for herself in University. She seems to love to learn and with that she just make a big impact on so many lives. I think if she doesn’t want publicity she and her husband must have a real plan so she can continue working and studying without having anyone have knowledge o f her life. I believe she may have had many obstacles as race and how you got into the state’s is more important than doing what makes you happy and at the same time taking employment opportunities and making them alone. We all hear what Donald Trump has to say. It’s interesting to watch people realize that there are people of all races, backgrounds etc that were born in The USA. We say and think about how someone thinks they are better than people of a different skin colour. We all bleed red is an expression that is used by my family. Being Caucasian I absolutely can see the difference in how people are treated if they have a different colour than others. My mom was born and raised in England. My siblings and I are therefore half-Brits. We want people to laugh about that. Think about it. My mom cane to Canada so we are first generation Canadians from one side and our biological fathers family landed in Plymouth Rock. I truly wish all people got the blood test that can tell you where your origins started. Crazy world and all of the wars that have happened and are still happening do not and will not do anything because you can’t negotiate or speak when you were taught hate. As for religion, I wish people would read and learn other religions. I’m tired of hearing that people are in a racist cult – read the Koran. Friendly kind and honest and yet a single person that is an extremest and learned to hate from birth are not truly a part of that culture. We all have extremists in our country’s. I was extremely devastated by how refugees were being treated all because Trump spoke out about what colour you need to be to be true, law abiding Americans. I hope that the younger generations will step up. Racism is all around us. In a small town that has a large farm openly says things such as the “n” word. No one reacted or noticed except for my daughter and I. This is an issue we would speak to right there, however we are not changing their beliefs. We can only hope that the next generation has not learned from their fathers and grandfathers racism. People have to start focusing on morals, on allowing themselves to learn of differing regions and then after learning world religions they will discover that we are mostly all the same and not extremely felling the hate and ignorance of those that just don’t really understand when we say that we all bleed red.
I am an interfaith marriage consult and have guided some 1200 youths around world, most of them being Muslim-non-Muslim pairs. I have critically evaluated Minhaj-Patel’s published information.
It is clear that Hasan Minhaj is not dogmatic and does not believe to be boxed-in when comes to him being a Muslim. With such personal views and other published information, I believe Minhaj did not asked his Hindu girlfriend Beena Patel to convert to Islam for their Islamic nikah wedding. However, some Islamic leaders told me personally with conviction that Beena has converted to Islam. It is possible it is their wishful thinking and not truth.
In my research paper, I summarised as “Hasan Minhaj and Beena Patel are good role model for other Hindu-Muslim couples considering interfaith relationship.
I wish them the best.