Associate Professor Nazila Ghanea participates in a BBC World Service Programme ‘Heart and Soul‘.

The Bahá’i faith is one of the youngest of the world’s major religions.

A faith without borders, most of the Bahá’is live outside of the birth place of the religion, Iran, where they are seen as heretics. After the Islamic revolution of 1979, overnight the rights of minorities were stifled. Many Bahá’is were incarcerated, tortured and evicted from their home country. Today, despite years of persecution, the Bahá’is have not only survived but thrived in the diaspora, with communities in 190 countries around the world. The programme focuses on those denied university education in Iran who subsequently pursued postgraduate study in the UK and US.