Positive Solace with Attika Choudhary

In this raw episode, Attika speaks with a married woman, divorcee and a mum and explores the judgements behind women, as well as the healing process when faced with life’s challenges.

Attika catches up with her close friend and fellow BBC broadcaster Nadia Ali who, through her own experiences, supports people through social enterprise. In this candid chat, Nadia opens up in about her past reflecting on the breakdown of her first marriage, the stigmas she faced in her community and the solace she's found through her family's support, her eventual decision to remarry and having a daughter bring joy.

It is hoped that you, like Nadia, will be able to find the strength to traverse any similar obstacles you may face in your life.

Nadia is also a big supporter of these charities:

Restless Beings:

https://www.restlessbeings.org/

NourDV:

https://www.nour-dv.org.uk/

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TW: This episode contains themes some may find upsetting.
Attika dives into an in-depth and raw conversation with Kevin Hines who has dedicated his life to suicide prevention.
In 2000, Kevin's life changed forever, when he attempted to take his own life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. He is only one of the few to have ever survived.

Kevin has used his experience, to help provide education on brain health, widely known as mental health and help those grappling with suicide - as a global public speaker, best selling author, and award winning documentary filmmaker. Attika and Kevin delve into our "brain health". Having faced many of his own challenges, Kevin shares how having these conversations and addressing the lows, depression and/or even suicidal thoughts, we can hope to see a reduction in suicide rates across the world. http://www.Kevinhinesstory.com/resources for all resources  http://www.YouTube.com/KevinHines 715 videos designed to better your brain health.  

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In Season 3 Episode 5 on Positive Solace, Attika speaks to Mo Jannah, BAFTA nominee and social philanthropist, who is also a life-coach. He is gearing up for his first TEDx talk in April 2023 on “Representation”.

Mo talks about his background, his father and his heritage and how it contributed to his progression in life, his experiences working with young offenders and his later work with the BBC in development and production. He struggle with death and loss for a while but found healing partly in nature and how we should take the good where we find it. Meaningful conversations with people he respects help him unwind, and he finds ideas and uniqueness: the differences in our lives are what makes life worth embracing.

It is as if we all have a canvas on which we create our individual journey but there are similarities that connect us all as human beings. Our spiritual journeys are often projections of our love and healing.

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A month ago, in the night of 6th February, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and north-west Syria, affecting the lives of millions of people. It was followed by a second quake of 7.5 magnitude. So far, the death toll has exceeded 50,000 with 116,000 injured and millions who have been made homeless.

Thousands of aftershocks and two more recent quakes have left many people fearing to go back inside buildings: they sleep in tents or out of doors. Aid has come from all over the world - including £4.8 million from the organisation, Choose Love. This charity, established in 2015 to support refugees and displaced people fleeing from war or persecution, has grown to be an international aid organisation that also funds first responders and other help agencies in an emergency, like an earthquake. At first they supported 29 different local agencies that responded quickly to the emergency. Now they are focusing on getting everyone into temporary housing, seeing they have food and clothing, and helping those injured in the quakes to recover as much as possible.

Attika engages with Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of Choose Love and one of the masterminds behind this amazing charity. Selfless, determined and passionate, Josie and the work of Choose Love, in supporting the people of Turkey and Syria, symbolise the type of love we want to explore in this season: “We need more love and compassion, as we aim to become more humanised, especially at times like this,” says Attika.

They talk about the creation of Choose Love, its mission and the vision of its founders, and we get to know more about the remarkable woman who has devoted so much of her time and energy to making Choose Love what it is today. In fact as we celebrate International Women's Day on 8th of March, it is an appropriate time to listen to such a woman of vision.

If you'd like to help Choose Love in supporting the agencies on the frontline in places like Turkey and Syria - feel free to donate using this link: https://donate.chooselove.org/

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After reading his insightful book of quotations, 'Hearticulations', Attika's exploration into the themes of love and healing have led to an enlightening talk with a popular Canadian author, 'grounded spiritualist,' and former criminal lawyer, Jeff Brown.

The two ponder the true meaning of life and the existence of 'sacred purpose': the voice inside you that acts as a spiritual guide. They talk about the culture that prevents people from being able to heal and find solace, after experiencing trauma. It is important to find an authentic sense of our own value in a world where surviving and achieving seem to define us. 

This episode will leave you mulling over words and ideas, and hopefully deepen your spiritual awareness.

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As we continue Season 3 of Positive Solace, in Episode 2, the discussion examines how important it is to involve love in the healing process: Attika speaks candidly with her close friend, actress Sarah Jane Dias, a yoga instructor and podcaster. Sarah Jane opens up in an unprecedented conversation about how she was abused as a child, and the impact this has had on her life: depression, anxiety, and grieving the loss of a loved one all threatened to impede her journey towards healing.

Sarah explains what love means to her, and how over time, she feels the healing has exposed and then laid to rest her bad experiences.

Find out more about her feel good community Fegoco here: https://instagram.com/fegoco?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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Welcome back to Positive Solace! 

After a hiatus, we're back with Season 3.

In the next 12 episodes, Attika Choudhary will be exploring the themes of love and healing in an endeavour to discover more of what it means to be human. By hearing her guests' contributions on these subjects, we hope to learn the importance of healing, the things we need to heal and how we can improve our lives with love, knowing the right way to act and be.

To begin our exploration of these words, Attika talks candidly with Pakistani-Canadian actress and activist Armeena Khan, about her pregnancy, becoming a mother and addressing the subject of toxic patriarchy. For the first time, Armeena opens up about the reality of her pregnancy including what it was like to have pre-eclampsia, and the complications she faced mentally and physically as she began her journey to motherhood.

Armeena is an avid supporter of the Graham Layton Trust who's mission it is to treat curable blindness and visual impairment by providing high quality free eye surgery and ophthalmic care for the poor and underprivileged of Pakistan.

 

You can read more here: https://www.glt.org.uk/

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Positive Solace: Women of Vision concludes with an interview with Mahira Khan, a multiple award winning actress and film producer.

Mahira has just finished an intense period of filming for her latest film Aik Hai Nigar based on the first female Lieutenant General in Pakistan.

Mahira achieved global fame when she portrayed the role of Khirad Ashar Hussain in the TV series Humsafar. Other than her TV work Mahira is passionate about her film roles - she lives through them - and about the difficult themes tackled in her films. But at the same time she recognises the stress and strain these deep and heavy subjects and treatment of them can bring to her both physically and mentally.

Attika asks about the film Verna that deals with the rape of a married woman and the social reaction to it that Mahira feels is no longer acceptable for the new generation.

When portraying a roles that deal with difficult issues like the General's, she works hard to reflect her true character and how she has dealt with all the obstacles in her path. This film is being produced by Mahira's own film company Soul Fry Films. So she gets to be both sides of the camera.

Despite her broad career in both large and little screens, Mahira has many other strings to her bow, not the least of which is her work with the United Nations. She is an ambassador for the UN refugee arm, UNHCR. She is particularly concerned about the refugees in Afghanistan and how these people may come under greater threat due to recent events.

Mahira is a deep and thoughtful person and she opens up to Attika in this podcast. She talks about the challenges and the dark times she has experienced but also looks at the good and positive: she is driven and optimistic for negativity is just not part of her vision. Mahira is not just a celebrity and a business woman, she's also a mother to Azlan her 12 year old son and takes time out to care for her family, even her granny.

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In the penultimate Positive Solace: Women of Vision, Attika speaks to Mir Urfi, a Kashmiri lawyer and human rights activist, who faces a constant struggle for justice and freedom of movement, not just for her clients.

She is often stopped and made to identify herself by the Indian security forces in her own state: Jammu and Kashmir.

When Urfi began her work as a lawyer she was a woman in a man's world, and even today there are very few female lawyers, especially those willing to take on cases of citizens wrongfully detained.

Since 1949, Article 370 of India's Constitution gives Jammu and Kashmir special status, authorising the region to have its own constitution and state flag. However, this article was revoked by India in 2019, resulting in the voice of the people being silenced. With communication services suspended, a curfew imposed, creating an effective lockdown, and people encouraged to stay off the streets, the state is effectively under martial law.

Oppressive legislation such as the Public Safety Act (PSA), is being used to make indefinite arrests and detentions thereby revoking a person's rights. In fact, the PSA violates many human rights according to international law.

In her day-to-day life, Urfi fights for those unlawfully detained: sometimes, she explains, these people have been held in custody for months or even years. The PSA gives the security forces the right to revoke a person's right to habeas corpus which should force the authorities to bring the detainee to trial. And while India feigns ignorance of its actions, its security forces pursue further injustice.

Urfi says she dreams of a Kashmir where people can live without fear, go out without hinderance, and not feel constantly the threat of physical violence or mental pressure from the security forces. Mental problems have increased due to high levels of anxiety. Upwards of a third of the adult population have been diagnosed with some form of mental condition and Urfi believes this is all related to the stress of living with the present tensions. Even the medical practitioners who treat the people are themselves suffering from heightened anxiety states.

Urfi's mentor was the renowned lawyer and human rights activist Mir Shafqat Hussain who fought all his life for people abandoned by the judicial system. And he played a pivotal role in helping Amnesty International highlight the abuse of humans rights in Kashmir. Urfi has taken over his firm and is now walking in his footsteps.

Urfi tells Attika that the Kashmiri people must be freed from the constant military pressure. “The people need to be given the right to live!” she says.

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In the latest episode of Positive Solace: Women of Vision, Attika chats to Founé Diawara and Leïla Kellou, who are members of Les Hijabeuses, a collective of women who are campaigning against the French Football Federation (FFF)’s ban on the wearing of a hijab in official matches and international games.

Despite FIFA, the world governing body of football lifting their ban on hijabs in 2014, the FFF have stood fast, citing that the sport must comply with Laïcité, (secularism), which is derived from a traditional policy of separation between church and state in France, but has since been taken to mean that the state should be neutral to all religions.

France’s estimated 5.7 million Muslims face a torrid time of further stigmatisation and oppression from extremist groups - There is continuing controversy over the national ban on full-face veils in France which was first imposed in 2011, and more recently there has been an amendment to a controversial 'anti-separatism' bill which includes a ban on women under the age of 18 wearing the hijab in public places, sparking a backlash and a protest under the hashtag #HandsOffMyHijab that went viral.

Founé was just 15 when she was first told by a referee that she could not participate in a football match due to her choosing to wear a hijab.

Now 21 and the co-president of Les Hijabeuses, the pair play football together, connect with other teams across France and put on training sessions to encourage other young hijab-wearing women to get into football.

Leïla originally comes from an Algerian family that has a passion for the game. She has also been denied the right to participate in games, and wants the next generation of young women to enjoy the sport without the fear of exclusion.

Founé and Leïla converse with Attika about their experiences both on and off the field. They discuss how they are dealing with the recent political decisions by the French Senate, their campaign for a more inclusive French society, regardless of religion or race, their love for the beautiful game and their vision for a more inclusive sport in France is truly something to behold.

You can find out more about the Les Hijabeuses by following the group on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leshijabeuses/

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