Fact Check: No, There Is No Proof That Sunita Williams Told BBC Quran Gave Her Strength In Space
The viral claim about NASA astronaut Sunita Williams turning to the Quran for inspiration while in space is false. BBC did not publish any such news.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleagues landed on Earth from the ISS in the Dragon spacecraft on 18 March 2025. In this context, a post (here, here, and here) with a newspaper clipping in Gujarati is being shared on social media in which it is being claimed that Sunita Willimas, in an interview with BBC News, said that during tough times in Space, she turned to the Quran for strength. It is alleged that after returning from space, she told journalists that when food and water were running out in space, she started eating less food and drinking less water, remembering the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. She apparently read the whole Quran, which gave her hope of returning to the earth. The post even says that she would be researching the science of the Quran. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Sunita Williams told the BBC that reading the Quran while in space gave her courage.
Fact: There is no evidence that Sunita Williams told this to the BBC. BBC did not publish any such news story. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Firstly, to verify the viral claim, we performed a keyword search on the internet but found no evidence that the BBC had published this news. We did not find any news report from the BBC on this.
According to a news report (archive link) published by the BBC at the time of Sunita Williams’ arrival on Earth, NASA officials said that Sunita Williams’ team would not be participating in the press conference after their arrival due to medical examinations.
Also, in interviews given by Sunita Williams and NASA officials to various media outlets (here, here & here) while in space, Sunita Williams never mentioned fasting like in the month of Ramadan.
According to media reports, Sunita Williams’ cousin, Falguni Pandya, said that Williams took a Ganesha idol with her when she went to space in 2024. Also, in a 2013 media conference, she said that she took a Ganesha idol, Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads with her when she went to space (in 2012).
To sum up, the BBC did not publish any news report claiming that Sunita Williams told them that she was inspired by the Quran in space.
[This story was originally published by Factly, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline and excerpt, this story has not been edited by ABP LIVE staff.]
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