Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson and the witness history team here at the BBC.

This week women in history from fighting for freedom in the Arab Spring.

I went there not only to demand freedom and social justice,

but also for my rights as a woman,

it was my first chance to raise my rights as a woman, it was my first chance to raise my voice.

To providing on demand if illegal abortions in 1960s America.

Physical difficulties for a short period of time, a sense of being taken care of, and I thought,

if this is the kind of experience that people are coming through, that's okay.

Also, the Greek champion of culture culture Molina McCurry.

She was, it is not an exaggeration, she was a goddess.

She was a living goddess.

And China's most powerful 19th century ruler.

She was described as an evil ruler domineering.

She supposedly murdered her son, murdered her nephew.

She was bloodthirsty, and she brought down the Manchu rule of China.

But did history do the Dowager Empress Sir Chi a misservice?

Find out later. We'll be hearing from some of the team that put together these features

for the Witness History Strand and joining us throughout the podcast is the highly respected Egyptian

writer Adaf Suaife. Welcome to Adaf Suaave from Cairo and thank you for joining us.

Hi Max, thank you for having me. It's good to be here.

And we'll begin on Adaf's home turf because this is from the Egypt of 10 years ago when thousands of people took

to the streets demanding the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

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