Past Programs
Religion and Beliefs - 2008
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No Excuse Not To Know
16/11/2008
From within the Jewish Australian community voices of dissent are emerging, people who are challenging the mainstream version of the history of Israel and the current conflict the country is involved in. They speak about how they came to their understanding of history and the friends they have lost as a result.
Israel's official history has been challenged for some time now by Israel's New Historians and one of the latest books challenging Israel's historical narrative has come from Israeli society itself. Avraham Burg's The Holocaust Is Over argues that Israel's use of the holocaust has created a nation with a self image of victimhood, which allows all sorts of atrocities against The Palestinians...
'be it fences, sieges ... curfews, food and water deprivation or unexplained killings. All is permitted because we have been through the Shoah (catastrophe) and you will not tell us how to behave.'
In Australia, where the largest community of holocaust survivors lives, it has been difficult to break through the grip of the belief that Israel is the solution to ending discrimination and persecution of Jews, and must always be defended.
But, this emerging voice among the Australian Jewish community is questioning the dominant story and actively supports Palestinian aspirations for justice and peace in their homeland.
We speak to three Australian Jews who have thoughtfully and courageously spoken out, acted in support of Palestinians and battled their own families and communities to live their lives with integrity and candour.
God Knows Why Part 2
07/09/2008
When the Pope came to Sydney recently for World Youth Day, Sister Johanna of the Cross came out of her 45 years of seclusion in a Carmelite convent to recruit new postulants for the order and to visit her family.
Aunty Janny, as she is affectionately known by the Lawson family, has spent most of her life inside the enclosed order of the Catholic Carmelite Nuns in Lismore, northern NSW.
Once a popular and beautiful young Sydney woman, she now spends her days praying for the salvation of all souls. Whenever family or friends pay her a visit there is a set of steel bars dividing them.
She had never been allowed to visit the homes of her brothers and sister before and had not met many of her extended family. So when she came out of seclusion for the ten days, she did a lot of catching up.
She also found that technology had advanced since she had gone into the convent; she was amazed by automatic hand dryers and doors that opened by themselves. The shape of Sydney was completely unrecognisable to her also.
In God Knows Why Part 2 Julie Kimberley, Janny's niece, accompanies her as she meets, greets, visits and explores the outside world for the first time in 45 years.
Turban
24/08/2008
The headscarf has cut a swathe through Turkish society, like a sharp edged knife. The debate about whether women should be allowed to wear 'turban' to university has threatened the very core of the Turkish secular state.
When Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey he discouraged women from wearing this symbol of Muslim belief. Today it is illegal for teachers, public servants and university students to wear it. For years some students have got around this ban by wearing wigs to uni.
Since the 1970s students have been agitating to lift the ban and earlier this year the ruling AK Party, a religious party, did just that. However in June the Constitutional Court upheld the ban, saying that the Turkish Consitution is secular and so Turkish society should remain secular.
In this program we hear from women who choose or choose not to cover their heads about this decision and their lives in contemporary Turkey.
Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Gold
13/04/2008
Young people in Iraq are living through a dangerous war, resiliently maintaining a sense of humour and optimism. On their blogs they talk of the profound and the mundane; dodging bombs on their way to school and trying to study without any electricity.
March 20, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the allied military invasion of Iraq.
May 1, 2008 will mark the fifth anniversary of US President Bush's declaration that the war was over, yet fighting has continued and approximately a million people have been killed. Before the invasion Iraq was a country with high regard for education and moderate views towards women's role in society. Now between 30% and 70% of schools across the country have been closed because of insecurity. Teachers and students have become targets for bombings and kidnappings.
Large percentages of students have chosen to discontinue their studies, or have left Iraq, yet there are those who have chosen to stay and continue. Their commitment to a strong, educated Iraq is what keeps them focused.
Rather than the standard tales of military operations this program is about living through the war and attempting to maintain normality in the face of adversity. Iraqi bloggers HNK and Sunshine and Bassam Sebti, a postgraduate student and former Iraqi correspondent for the Washington Post share their stories with us.
A Life of Ashes
17/02/2008
There are more than 40 million widows in India today and for a large proportion of these women, their lives are what some have referred to as a living sati, a reference to the now outlawed practice of widow burning. A woman's diet, dress, and even sexuality all suddenly become part of the public realm the moment her husband dies.
Producer Dheera Sujan is an Indian herself and the daughter of a widow. In 'A Life of Ashes' she weaves her own experiences with those of the women she met.
The Sycamore Tree
13/01/2008
Fiona was randomly and violently sexually assaulted at the age of seven; Helen was sexually abused by her father, and later her stepfather, from the age of three. Both are sick and tired of sleepless nights and living in fear, so have turned to the Sycamore Tree Project in an attempt to move on.
The Sycamore Tree Project is a faith based, restorative justice program where victims visit unrelated offenders in prison over a period of months to discuss crime and its ongoing effect on victims. Victims are given a platform to describe their pain, fear and loss. Offenders are encouraged to share their stories, to accept responsibility for their crime and to consider ways in which they might make restitution to their particular victims.
