How I fell in love with blindness

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Itto Outini lost her sight but gained her freedom

Itto had been born poor in Morocco's Atlas mountains, and after her parents died, she was shunted between extended family members. She wasn't always welcome, and says she suffered frequent violence. This heightened when Itto was 17, when she describes a relative throwing a sharp object at her, taking her sight.

Abandoned, Itto had to adapt to life as a blind person on the streets of a Moroccan city. Things were initially tough and disorientating, but she soon taught herself braille and found huge comfort in books and learning. Despite sleeping rough, Itto fought for the education that had been denied her when she was sighted.

Itto has a memoir coming out in Autumn called "Blindness is the light of my life"

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Harry Graham

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:06.9	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.1	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:13.7	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history.
0:20.7	We're still looking for Lucan.
0:22.1	It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:25.9	I'm Alex Fontunzelman.
0:27.3	This is The Lucan Obsession.
0:29.2	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Hi, I'm Namulanta Combo, and I am so excited to tell you that my podcast,
0:36.5	Dear Daughter from the BBC World Service,
0:39.7	has won podcast of the year 2022 at the British Podcast Awards.
0:45.5	Dear Daughter is a collection of letters and stories offering advice and wisdom for life.
0:51.1	It's sometimes funny, it's sometimes sad, but it's always insightful. Just search for
0:57.1	dear daughter wherever you found this podcast. Blindness is the light of my life. A lot of people
1:06.9	would think acquiring a disability is very scary.
1:13.1	And I think the only thing that is scary is an idea itself.
1:19.1	It was a surprise, but also blindness is the best thing that has happened to me.
1:27.2	Okay, so two things.
1:29.4	Itto really does trace everything good about her life to losing her sight as a teenager.
1:35.7	And when she says it was a surprise, that's a little bit of an understatement.
	...

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