Religion and Conflict MPhil student Julia interviews Arezoo Farahzad, a television producer, director, and chair of an interfaith charity in Plymouth, UK. They discuss Arezoo's initiatives, including an annual interfaith festival and monthly international dinners aimed at fostering community and cultural understanding. Arezoo emphasizes that these events celebrate unity and dialogue among different faiths and generations without experiencing tensions. She shares insights on how food acts as a unifier and a springboard for deeper interfaith discussions, and reflects on her personal journey and the teachings of the Baha'i Faith. The conversation also touches on broader societal issues, the importance of global cooperation, and the role of schools in promoting interfaith dialogue.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:39 Arezoo's Work and Interfaith Initiatives

01:15 The Role of Food in Interfaith Dialogue

01:45 Experiences and Lessons from Interfaith Events

05:08 Challenges and Solutions in Interfaith Work

07:40 Global Perspectives and Collective Solutions

09:56 The Importance of Dialogue and Education

15:06 Future of Interfaith Relations and Personal Reflections

17:24 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Resources mentioned

• Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity, pcfcd.co.uk
• International Dinner (Plymouth)

Hello, I'm Julia and I'm an MPhil student in Religion and Conflict at the Faculty of Divinity. My area of research is primarily the relationship between religion, family, and state in India. Outside of work, I love to cook and I run a food blog on Instagram. I'm super excited to welcome my guest today, Arezoo Farahzad.

Arezoo has worked all over the world as a television producer and director specializing in food and lifestyle programs. Alongside this, Arezoo is chair of trustees for an educational interfaith charity in Plymouth that has worked with primary and secondary schools for the last 23 years.

She organizes an annual interfaith festival in Plymouth that celebrates harmony between the various faith communities within the city. To bring these diverse and multi generational groups together, Arezoo recently began organizing a monthly international dinner as a space for learning and community building.

Given our shared interest in food and the place this conversation as part of CIP's Interfaith Future Series, I wonder if you could share with us how these international dinners work and how food can be a springboard for interfaith discussions and encounter.

Well, first of all, thank you so much, Julia, for having me on this platform, and it's really a thrill for me to speak to a fellow food lover. So thank you so much for allowing this space for us to have this conversation.

Interesting question. I think that for me, my experience of learning about interfaith over these precious years that I've been involved in events in Plymouth has meant that for me, interfaith is about exploring a shared spiritual heritage, and it's been a real privilege to learn from my fellow members in Plymouth community that come from different beliefs about their practice and their belief system.

And I've really come to learn that this kind of the spiritual teachings of all world religions teach us about togetherness and harmony and unity. And of course food is a great unifier. All these years of being involved in interfaith activities and ultimately becoming the founder of International Dinner has been the fact that I've been learning about unity with the help of my fellow interfaith members in Plymouth.

In the Baha'i writings we read, Make thy beauty to be my food and thy presence my drink. And I've often found that food and love often go hand in hand, you know, making food for someone can often be an act of love. It's our way of showing others how much we care about them, how valuable they are to us.

But above that, above our love for fellow human beings is our love of God and love of God for me means service to humanity. And as a person trying to learn about the teachings of the Baha'i faith, I think that's what's been the main purpose of my journey is learning how to be of service alongside people of other cultures and beliefs.

International dinner isn't specifically an interfaith event but definitely through each monthly dinner, we do help guests learn about significant dates and cultures of most world nations and religions. Back in October, last month, we had a celebration of Diwali. And we had exhibitions of how Diwali is significant of light and we had the rangolis and, artifacts and we told stories about how this festival came about.

Or, in March, we talked about Nowruz, which is the spring equinox, and we talked about how over 20 countries around the world celebrate this time of year as the start of their calendar, but that from a spiritual point of view for Baha'is all over the world, it was also spiritual renewals. It's the beginning of their year.

So all these opportunities are possible through international dinner. But it's all done very naturally in conversations and then we just allow the participants to sit and talk to each other and learn from one another.

Yeah, that sounds fantastic. I suppose one thing I was wondering was how you managed to bring together different generations and how you find that interaction.

Can there be any, tensions, or is it very, erm, everyone gets along really well?

Well, both with the Interfaith Festival that we organise through Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity and International Dinner, we've not yet and I hope never experience tensions. I don't know if that's because of the spirit of service that everyone involved puts into it and goes into it with the right mindset, but it's, I have to say, Julia, it's been an absolute delight and everyone really is empowered by it, is energized by it.

Everyone who comes to both events comes and says, I definitely want to be part of it next year or can I come next month, I'm going to bring other people.

We've not experienced tension ever, and I hope that we never do, but maybe that's because we lovingly offer the experience in a very genuine, inclusive way. So there's never any reason for tensions to arise. Fingers crossed they never will.

No, that's fantastic. I'm really pleased to hear that.

Well as chair of trustees for Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity, we've spent the last 23 years learning about personal relationships between members of different faiths and beliefs in Plymouth and right at the beginning, we had to set some ground rules and sometimes learned the hard way how we can relate to each other and how we shouldn't relate to each other.

But we use it as a learning ground and then have spent the last 23 years learning how to respect each other and work alongside each other and collaborate to create a very inclusive, collaborative city. So that's taught us a lot, but, obviously, being aware of the world that we're currently living in, there are problems, and I think that we're now living in a very global society, so our problems are universal.

They're not unique to a specific group or a country or specific part of the world. What effects one part of the world ultimately affects the whole world. And if our problems are universal, then the solutions need to be global. And at the moment, looking on the world stage, we haven't quite learnt how to solve our problems globally.

We feel that if there are problems confined within a specific border, that we say, oh, well, it's got nothing to do with us, that's their problem. Let them work it out. But again, something that I've tried to internalize through the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith, a path I'm personally trying to walk.

The founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh says, the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. I really feel that this is the kind of world we now live in. Things like the internet, social media, so many things are, have made the world a very small place. We are indeed all individuals living in one country, but we have some way to go about learning how to be the citizens of that one country.

And we need to learn to solve problems together and regard our problems not as individuals, but as a collective and try to help each other to solve problems for the betterment of all. This may take some time.

How do you think those sorts of issues might be? How do you think different faith communities can come together to try and resolve those issues?

Have you seen anything in your work that's given you some inspiration?

I think we shouldn't be afraid to talk to each other. If we can all come together in a safe environment and hold social dialogues. we can be courageous in agreeing to disagree with each other on certain issues, but I'm convinced that if we come together and we look to trying to solve the problems of our society, local society, or even national, or even international society, by holding a collective dialogue, we'll find that we have far more things that unite us, tha n that we disagree on, if you know what I mean. And, I think truth is one. It all depends from which angle you're looking at it. And everyone has a valid point to make. And everyone who feels that they see the truth are probably right in that they're seeing it from a specific angle.

We just have to learn to hold better dialogues, have social discourse, and really learn to solve our problems collectively rather than feeling that it's someone else's responsibility to sort it or that we have the answer and no one else does. I think collectively we can come to much better solutions and hopefully through social dialogue and consultation in future years we'll learn to do that.

Yeah, no, I think that's a really valuable point is it is just about talking to each other. I think we really see ideas come out and that's a springboard for further conversation. Do you think there's any ways in which schools could be a better site for sparking these conversations and creating interfaith leaders in the future who might be able to facilitate the expanded, the expanding nature of these ideas?

A hundred percent. Hundred percent. This is exactly what we've been learning about for the past 23 years with, through the work of Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity. It really is a very unique venture that exists in Plymouth and we have sent individuals, we have trained and sent individuals into schools who can present their particular belief or culture to the children directly.

And you have no idea the power of that one act. The children are so inspired. So empowered, so inquisitive, it has helped to really break down barriers. The children no longer see people who are different from themselves as kind of others. They just see that they're all part of society's rich tapestry, and it's really made a profound difference, and I hope that over the last 23 years, through the work of this wonderful, unique, small charity, we've really delivered to society its future movers and shakers who have a very different outlook on , members of their family, their friends, their neighbours and co workers.

They're no longer seeing others as being different. They're just seeing others as being part of a very multi diverse society that has different practices and beliefs. Again, Julia, if you'd allow me one thing that's really inspired me personally in this work is one of my favorite pieces from the Baha'i writings.

In the Baha'i writings, it says, “If you desire with all your heart friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread. It will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger until it reaches the hearts of all men.” And this has really inspired me in. My work as chair of trustees for this wonderful charity.

It's inspired me in the way that I live as a member of Plymouth community, and it's inspired me in wanting to start international dinners, where we're learning about this kind of thoughts, positive spreading to the community through a very different medium, not always interfaith, but certainly culturally.

So it's been very exciting.

That's such a beautiful reflection. Thank you very much for sharing that with us.

I suppose one thing I'm wondering is what your concerns are going forward for future interfaith relations in Plymouth and how you think these might be addressed and also what your work going forward might look like in helping with some of those issues?

Well, back in August, Plymouth was one of the cities that was victim, fell victim to the national riots. It wasn't one of our proudest moments. Observing what happened made me reflect and I wonder if my personal reflection is that how as individuals we can learn not to make world issues personal issues. What is happening on a global political stage doesn't reflect every individual that might represent a certain nation or a culture. And my personal reflection is that I wonder if I need to work on myself to see every person that crosses my path as an individual and only by taking the trouble to engage with other people in conversation, learning about them and not seeing them as specifically representative of a certain culture or belief, whatever my feelings might be about the misrepresentation of cultures and belief beliefs on a global stage, see individuals as interesting human beings who have something very valuable to offer. So on a personal level, I think that would be my solution: not to be guided by things that are happening, unfortunate things that might be happening on a global stage, but to truly see the earth as one country and mankind and its citizens.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for all of your reflections today, Arezoo.

I think that's really given us insight into how we might go forward in terms of interacting with people from other faiths, but realizing we're all part of one global humanity.

So thank you so much for being so open and personal with us today.

I really enjoyed this conversation. I hope you have too.

It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for allowing me the time to get to know you better and to have this wonderful discourse with you. Thank you so much, Julia.

Thank you so much.