Heart and Soul is a weekly half-hour programme that has the scope and understanding to explore different experiences of spirituality from around the world. Whether examining religious faith or any other belief-system, the programme talks to believers and non-believers, and tries to get beyond superficial notions of spirituality and religion.
Once Afghanistan’s Sikh population numbered more than 100,000 in the 1970's. Today, it’s estimated around only 100 Sikhs remain, following the return to Taliban rule. The BBC’s Kawoon Khamoosh speaks to those who have been forced to leave in recent years. Producer: Nina Robinson
Raees Khan explores the history, influence and enduring legacy of Qawwali music, both within, as well as outside of the Islamic World. From its earliest origins in the writings of Sufi Saints, to its spread throughout South Asia we look at how the mystical and devotional artform spread throughout the Indian Sub-continent and attracted millions to the religion of Islam. A deeply personal journey, Raees reminisces about his first introduction to Qawwali as a young boy and how the captivating voice...
Evangelical Christian women of colour were the kingmakers in Brazil’s last presidential election. In May, a corruption conviction that barred the former left wing President from running was quashed on a technicality. And the stage is now set for an epic election showdown where experts say it’s women of colour who will have the deciding vote. But after four years in power, will they turn a blind eye to Jair Bolsonaro’s comments that some consider misogynistic and racist? In ‘The Bible, Black wome...
In February 1983, a group of 42 Shia devotees left a quiet village in the Chakwal district of Pakistan and embarked on an epic journey to Karbala in Iraq. This was no ordinary pilgrimage but had been ordained by Mahdi, the last spiritual leader or Imam of Shia faith. His instructions were communicated to the faithful in miraculous messages channeled through an 18 year old woman. The caravan left in two trucks on the 1300 kilometre journey to the port city of Karachi where they were to cross the ...
Writer and poet Nikita Gill and sitar virtuoso and composer Anoushka Shankar are friends and collaborators whose life stories share many parallels. In this programme, recorded sitting with tea and doughnuts on the floor of a child’s bedroom, they share an intimate conversation about a moment of spiritual awakening. Nikita reflects on the idea that awakenings or epiphanies often follow a challenging or traumatic phase of life. She recalls a series of personal experiences which compelled her to ta...
In 2007 Christian and Muslim leaders in Norway controversially recognised for the first time in modern history, the right to convert between the two faiths without harassment or impediment. They also called for all missionary work to be conducted “without force or manipulation". The “Joint declaration on the freedom of religion and the right to conversion” was welcomed as an important contribution to inter-faith dialogue in the Scandinavian nation. But it was also seen by some Muslims as recogni...
Fleeing from the war-torn Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, Afina Khadzynova is trying to reconnect to her Greek roots in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The ethnic Greek community has been in Mariupol since the 18th Century. Up until February of this year the city's Greeks had a vibrant cultural life, celebrating their language, traditions and religious rites, brutally cut short by the Russian invasion. Within weeks traditional Greek settlements were levelled and the city itself was besieged, le...
CERN, in Geneva, is the most complex scientific experiment in the world. It has just restarted operating after a break, and is celebrating the 10th anniversary of detecting the Higgs Boson, a particle that is the final piece in the jigsaw of the standard model of physics. It explains how particles acquire mass. Without mass, there would be no matter and we wouldn’t be here. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was designed to find this Higgs boson, and smashes particles at almost the speed of light...
We explore the interplay of faith, spirituality and LGBTQ+ identity in this special episode for Pride Month 2022. We hear three fascinating cross-cultural and religious conversations between people who are also LGBTQ+. Furgie was raised a Muslim as a child in Pakistan. He speaks to Sukhdeep, a gay Sikh man in India. Abby Stein left her strict Hasidic Jewish community and transitioned but she is still very much Jewish. Abby talks to Claire who is a 73-year-old trans woman from the UK. Finally two...
When ISIS swept into Mosul in June 2014, the organisation immediately began a campaign to wipe out the most important part of the northern Iraqi city’s unique heritage - its a multi-sectarian culture. Mosul was home to ancient and modern Christian communities, Yazidis, Shia and Sunni Muslims, and at one time, Jews. Throughout the period of ISIS occupation Omar Mohammad, a history lecturer at Mosul University, risked his life daily to get news of the city out to the world via the internet. His Mo...
BBC Faith and Ethics reporter Claire Jones has been granted exclusive access on board British warship HMS Northumberland while on deployment to the North Sea. As Russian troops continue to invade Ukraine, Claire explores faith on a warship, and whether armed forces personnel can ‘find their faith’ in times of trouble or unrest. The military chaplain onboard the warship is Reverend Dr Louisa Pittman, one of three female chaplains in the Royal Navy. She caters for all faiths, never carries a weapo...
In traditional Maasai culture one of the central figures of the community is the laibon. A laibon is a person who has been gifted with the power to see the future. They are not really a fortune teller and they are certainly not a witch doctor. They are more like a seer, but some also have the power to cure illnesses. A laibon is the one who advises the community as a whole on the best course of action to take in a given situation. For example, they can use their powers to say where the community...
According to some studies, journalists tend to be less religious than the general population. Some find solace in faith, but others begin to question it. So is it a profession which challenges your religious convictions, strengthens faith or attracts the faithless? Atif Rashid, a Muslim, has started questioning his role as a journalist who believes in god. What place does religion have in the work that he does? To help him consider his future career steps he speaks to other journalists who have ...
It is the number one question asked to anyone who is fasting for Ramadan, which began at the beginning of April. But what is Ramadan? Why Fast? And how do young Muslims manage Ramadan in their respective lives and work? Former teacher turned journalist Mehreen Baig goes in search of the answers by speaking to Muslims from different cultural backgrounds. She explores all aspects of fasting like abstaining from food, sex, music and of course…water. (Photo: Iftar water. Credit: Getty Images)...
For 500 years the Jews of Europe were kept apart, legally segregated in ghettos. Then at the dawn of the 19th Century Jews were emancipated and overnight what it meant to be a Jew in the world changed. Michael Goldfarb looks at how this historic event changed Jewish identity and the world in which Jews lived. In interviews with prominent members of his community in three different countries - a Rabbi, a musician and educator, and an organiser for eastern Europe’s rebuilding Jewish communities, h...
Easter and Passover are among the most important religious festivals of the year for Christians and Jews. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, how will the people of faith still left in the country celebrate? Is it possible to practise your belief when your country is at war? In Odesa, an Orthodox priest is preparing to deliver an Easter service as best he can, even though half of his congregation has left. In the west of Ukraine, members of the Jewish Ukrainian Social Initiative are organ...
For 16 years Sister Imelda Poole has been fighting in a war. This war has brought her to countries all over the world and just when she thinks she is making progress, the war game changes. Based in Albania, during the pandemic Sr Imelda noticed a new trend in human trafficking as people in poorer regions were struggling to pay their rent due to losing their jobs. It came in the form of a compromise from their landlord; offer your daughter for sex or to be entered into the sex industry to clear t...
What does it mean to be a young Hindu in India today? The BBC’s South Asia correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan is in Delhi with a panel of young people aged between 18-27 who have travelled from across India to share what their faith means to them. They give their views on the caste system, Hindu nationalism, interfaith marriage, who is and is not a Hindu and the values and rituals that sustain them in their daily life. Presenter: Rajini Vaidyanathan Producer: John Offord (Photo: Rajini Vaidyanath...
The German Catholic church is one of the most influential and richest in the world. It is at the epicentre of Catholic theology, debates over the future of the church, and the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic faith all over the world. Revelations over priests accused of child sexual abuse being protected from consequences by church institutions continue to emerge, with a recent bombshell report even linking Pope Benedict with the scandal from his time in Germany. Many are losi...
Pav Gill, a Sikh lawyer living in Singapore, joined the Wirecard financial services empire in 2017. Wirecard had global ambitions to become a big player like Google or Amazon. But it did not take long until Pav realised that there were fraudulent business practises going on. To investigate and examine the financial wrong-doing he had discovered, Pav commissioned an independent report - with damning results. Advised by his mother, Sokhbir Kaur, a woman of strong Sikh faith, Pav eventually decided...
From an early age, Fatima Daas knew that she was different. Raised in a strict Algerian Muslim family in the poor suburbs of Paris, she struggled to reconcile the feelings she was developing with her devotion to her faith. Her upbringing dictated that she would have to choose between Islam and her sexuality. At high school, she tried and failed to start teenage romances with boys. Confused and isolated, one day she even took out her frustrations on a fellow student whom she resented for being ab...
June Joplin was born outwardly a boy, but at the age of 11, at a Christian summer camp, two things became very clear to her: that she was supposed to be a pastor, and that she was supposed to be a girl. Becoming a pastor was the easy bit. June studied to become a Baptist minister in Richmond, Virginia, married and started a family. Yet the sense that she was really a woman never left her – and by her own admission, the struggles with her gender identity led to a depression which at times made he...
BBC Hong Kong reporter Danny Vincent hears from Christian migrants who have fled the territory for a new life in the UK. Many of the people Danny hears from are speaking about their experiences for the first time. A large number of Christians have made the difficult decision to leave Hong Kong after the introduction of a controversial national security law, which critics say is eroding freedoms in Hong Kong. Danny also meets their friends and family who have been left behind, the Christians stil...
In the internet age, the traditional way Thailand’s monks reach out to young followers is under threat. With nearly three quarters of Thailand’s population on Facebook, a move by two monks to broadcast their teachings live has created controversy, and exposed a growing schism within the religion. It ultimately leads one of the men to turn his back on the temple. Thai reporter Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai hears from 30-year-old monk Phra Maha Paivan Worawono, from Bangkok who landed himself in trouble...
In the summer of 2014, a passenger jet was shot out of the sky over a rural area of Ukraine. Images of suitcases and children’s toys strewn around the burning wreckage were beamed and streamed around the world. All 298 people on board were killed. Two thirds of the victims were Dutch and this air disaster is often referred to as the Netherlands 9/11 - likening the impact of the downing of flight MH17 to that of the terror attacks in New York, in terms of the way these unfathomable events ignited...
Poland is often seen as a stronghold of the Catholic faith. Yet today, many Poles are now protesting against the Church’s political over-reach - by simply leaving. With more secular, more ‘western’ ideas and movements penetrating what was once a bastion of Roman Catholicism in Eastern Europe, more and more people are deciding to part ways with the Church. While around 90% of Poles identify themselves as Catholics, only 40% go to church regularly: and that number is falling as the Church loosens ...
Andrea Bocelli is a multi-award winning Italian tenor who has sold over 75 million records worldwide. Blind from the age of 12, singing was always his passion but he never could have dreamt his life would turn out as it has. When asked what he puts his sucsess down to, he lists his talents, hard work, and overall his belief and faith in God. A strong Catholic, Bocelli has even performed for three popes at the Vatican, and his faith lead him to establish the Andrea Bocelli Foundation where he hel...
Journalist Nadine Batchelor-Hunt is a black, Jewish woman. She is is fiercely proud of her dual identity - even as recent political discourse around race has meant that she has been forced to defend her identity in ways she's never had to before. She is on a journey to meet one of the oldest, largest and most resilient communities of black Jews in the world: Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish minority. Around 140,000 black Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today following several waves of emigration in the 1...
Jan was 33 when she had an abortion. She now believes she murdered her child and works with Catholic organisations to get the procedure banned. Erika was 14 when she terminated her first pregnancy. She is now a church minister and believes God wants her to fight to protect the rights of women to choose an abortion. Across America women and churches are divided on the issue. And it’s coming to a head as many states, emboldened by recently appointed conservative justices on the Supreme Court, are ...
To celebrate the lives of loved ones after they have passed away is nothing new. Many communities cling to memories, stories and anything else that makes them feel as close as possible to those who have died. For the Malagasy people, an Austronesian ethnic group native to the island country of Madagascar, this desire to remain close to lost loved ones is viewed in a more literal sense with a funerary tradition known as Famadihana - the turning of the bones. With the belief that the spirits of th...
