Heart and Soul: My sex work and my faith
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Aaliyah grew up a devout Muslim but now makes adult content for the online service OnlyFans. She’s often pictured wearing a hijab. Aaliyah is her stage name. She’s had death threats but believes that expressing her sexuality and making her own choices about her body are empowering. She has also had support from young Muslim women and couples. She was brought up in the UK as a Muslim and began to question her faith at the age of 12, when her parents got divorced. She says, “My work now is definitely a rebellion against my upbringing. I’m tired of being told how women should be”. Aaliyah still describes herself as Muslim, and feels that her sex work is more important than the version of Islam she grew up with.
Can you be a sex worker and still follow your faith? Sex work has always challenged religion. Although it’s broadly considered immoral within Christianity, Islam and Judaism, sacred texts carry some mixed messages. Women sex workers often see male religious leaders condemning them in public, whilst buying their services in private.
In Bangalore in India, women at a sex workers cooperative think religion is compatible with their work. One Christian, who’s a mother and wife, says her family don’t know how she makes her living. “I can talk to God about it when I can’t talk to my husband”. In Nigeria, a Muslim sex worker we’re calling Zara operates in an area where sex work is illegal and dangerous. But she draws strength from her faith. “I know what God says about selling sex, that it’s against the religion but he understands that I have to do it.”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Unexpected elements is all about finding the surprising science angles to |
| 0:05.1 | everyday news. That's unexpected elements from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.0 | Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:19.2 | And just a warning, this episode of Heart and Soul, which explores personal |
| 0:24.1 | approaches to spirituality from around the world, contains a lot of talk about sex. |
| 0:30.0 | So I've got a couple of hijabs here. I've got my black one. I've got a little |
| 0:33.0 | ready-made one. I prefer the ones that aren't ready-made. I'm in an upmarket hotel in a UK |
| 0:39.3 | city with 26-year-old Alia, and she's showing me how to put on a hijab. |
| 0:51.0 | Alia was born in the UK but describes herself as being of Pakistani heritage. |
| 0:56.1 | She's tiny and very beautiful, with huge eyes, with long fake eyelashes and long dark hair. |
| 1:02.8 | And then I've got a little clip that you should put in because when you do a lot of content |
| 1:06.4 | and moon around, as you probably see, there's probably a few hairs poking out because I'm not |
| 1:10.1 | looking in the mirror. Alia does consider herself a Muslim but she's not covering her hair for reasons |
| 1:15.8 | of modesty. Alia is the stage name she uses for her sex work. She makes adult content, often |
| 1:23.2 | wearing a hijab for subscribers on an online platform. It is traditional, just a black hijab around |
| 1:30.0 | my head, covers you up, but I love the fact that it's see-through. The see-through part really |
| 1:35.1 | like gets it going with me. I'm Julia Paul, and in this episode of Heart and Soul, |
| 1:44.4 | I'm finding out how four women reconcile their religious faith with their lives as sex workers. |
| 1:51.5 | Now, you might think religion and sex work are simply not compatible. I do get a lot of hates. |
| 1:58.3 | They'll say, you're disgrace, you're disgusting. I can't believe you're disrespecting us like this. |
| 2:04.7 | I can't believe you're mocking a religion. But for others, faith is their only protection |
| 2:09.5 | in a world that can be very dangerous. In one person, they will take a long time in the sex. |
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